1 בְּרֵאשִׁ֖יתa בָּרָ֣א
אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
2 וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י
תְהֹ֑ום וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
3 וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י אֹ֑ור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃
"1. In the beginning of God's creating the heavens
and the earth, 2. the earth being waste and uninhabited and darkness being upon
the face of the deep and a wind from God blowing on the face of the waters. 3.
then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."
This translation, which is a departure from the
traditional rendering, is, nevertheless, one that has gained wide acceptance by
modern Hebrew scholars, both Jewish and Christian. Verse 2 must be understood
to be a parenthetical addition to the main thought (see below), which is given
in the conjoined sentences in verses 1 and 3. The three major sentences,
therefore, are represented by the three verse divisions . . .
/bərēʾšîta (6) bārāʾ (8) ʾĕlōhîm (2) ʾēt (9) haššāmayim
(6) wəʾēt (9) hāʾāreṣ (1) wəhāʾāreṣ (4) hoytâ (9) tōhû (5) wābōhû (3) wəḥōšek
(6) ʿal (10) pənê (7) təhōwm (2) wərûaḥ (8) ʾĕlōhîm (4) məraḥepet (6) ʿal (10)
pənê (9) hammāyim (1) wayyōʾmer (9) ʾĕlōhîm (6) yəhî (8)ʾōwr (2) wayəhî
(10)ʾōwr (1)/
1. /bārāʾ ʾĕlōhîm ʾēt haššāmayim wəʾēt hāʾāreṣ/ 'God
created the heavens and the earth.'
2. /wəhāʾāreṣ hoytâ tōhû wābōhû wəḥōšek ʿal-pənê təhōwm wərûaḥ
ʾĕlōhîm məraḥepet ʿal-pənê hammāyim/ 'The earth was waste and uninhabited and
darkness was on the face of the deep and a wind from God was blowing on the
face of the waters.
3. /wayyōʾmer ʾĕlōhîm yəhî ʾōwr wayəhî-ʾōwr/ 'Then God
said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."
In verse 1, we have eliminated the "in the
beginning," which serves to link verse 1 with verse 3, and hence is not a
part of the sentence itself. Verse 2, as many have pointed out, has the wrong
word-order (the subject coming before this verb) if it is to be considered as
an independent Hebrew sentence; it is therefore parenthetical, being embedded
into the larger sentence which ends at verse 3.
Turning now to sentence 1, we note that, as expected, our
first division is the separation of the subject, "God," from the rest
of the sentence (the predicate), for it has an accent ranked "2" on
our scale. The next division is between "the heavens" and "the
earth," (each of these is preceded by the accusative particle or object
marker) showing that these are predicates belonging to two conjoined sentences,
which originally read:
1a. "God created the heavens."
1b. "God created the earth."
We tend to agree with this analysis, made by the
Masoretes.
Sentence 2 (the embedded sentence showing the state or
condition of the earth at the time that God, when he was creating it, said
"Let there be light"), according to its first accent (2), should be
divided initially into two sentences:
2a. "The earth was waste and uninhabited and
darkness (was) on the face of the deep."
2b. "A wind (from) God (was) blowing on the face of
the waters."
The first of these (2a) may be further subdivided (accent
3), as follows:
2a-1. "The earth was waste and uninhabited."
2a-2. "Darkness (was) on the face of the deep."
In 2a-1, we have the separation of the subject from the
predicate by accent (4). The next subdivision, rather than separating the verb
from the "predicate adjectives," splits the latter into two parts,
again evidencing that there is, here, a conjoining of sentences where all but
these two elements are identical:
"The earth was waste" plus "The earth was
uninhabited."
In 2a-2, the first division again separates the subject
from the predicate (accent 6). The next division gives two elements, "on
the face" and "deep," which is evidence of two underlying
elements, "on the face" and "the face is of the deep," of
which, as we have seen before, one of the identical-noun phrases must be
obligatorily deleted in the final sentence structure.
In sentence 2b, the first division (4) separates the
subject ("a wind (from) God") from the predicate ("blowing on
the face of the waters"). Accent (6) separates the particle (verbal
adjective) from the adverbial, as expected. And, as in the construct state
elsewhere, the next division is not between the preposition ("On")
and the construction, but, rather, between the construct ("face") and
its genitive ("the waters"), showing that the underlying meaning is
"on the face" and "the face is of the waters."
Verse 3 also contains two sentences:
3a. "Then God said, 'Let there be light.'"
3b. "There was light."
The division between these two is shown by the accent
(2). The second sentence (3b), consisting of but two words, is easily divided.
Its predecessor (3a), however, must be subdivided into
"Then God said" and "Let there be light," which the latter
sentence serving as direct object of the sentence into which it is embedded.
The more modern translation of Genesis 1:1-3 is thus
confirmed by an examination of the accents affixed to its various elements by
the Masoretes, whose knowledge of deep structure
can hardly be doubted in the light of this information. (John A. Tvedtnes,
"The Medieval Hebrew Grammarians in the Light of Modern Linguistics"
[MA Thesis; University of Utah, June 1971], 114-19; note, I have used the SBL
Academic method of transliteration of Hebrew in the above)
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