The following comes from:
David Calabro, “Ancient
Israelite Temple Ritual Through the Telescope of Restoration Scripture,” in The
Temple: Plates, Patterns, and Patriarchs (Temple on Mount Zion Series 7;
Orem, Utah: the Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2024), 350-52
Joseph Smith commented on
Genesis 1:1 in two sermons in Nauvoo: the King Follett sermon given on 7 April
1844, and a sermon given in the East Grove on 16 June 1844. [5] A
correct understanding of the Prophet’s interpretation of Genesis 1:1 as set
forth in these sermons depends on a correct analysis of the manuscript sources
of the sermons, a task which has been undertaken by Kevin L. Barney and Ronald
V. Huggins (who come to somewhat different conclusions). [6] Three aspects
of Joseph Smith’s interpretation emerge with a high degree of, certainty: (1) the
Prophet believed that the first word in Genesis 1:1, bərēʾšît,
originally lacked the preposition bə, “in”; (2) he translated the first
part of this verse as “The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods”; and
(3) from something in Genesis 1, though not necessarily the first verse, he understood
that God met in council with other deities to create the earth. From these
aspects alone, it is evident that the Prophet understood the original form of
Genesis 1:1 to be quite different from Moses 2:1b (which retains the preposition
in the phrase “in the beginning”). It is also evident that his understanding of
the beginning of Genesis aligns remarkably well with the ancient Near Eastern
context in which Genesis was written, as the divine Council and creation by a
plurality of deities are common motifs in ancient Near Eastern texts.
The removal of the preposition
bə, “in,” at the beginning of Genesis 1:1, though it is a very small
emendation to the received text of Genesis, entails several other changes. Some
of these other changes are implicit in Joseph Smith’s sermons. To begin with,
this would make the word re’šît, “beginning,” the subject of the
sentence. [7] This form, however, is feminine and thus does not agree
grammatically with the verb bərə’. From the pronunciation of the word in
the quotations above, and from Joseph’s translation, it appears that the “grammatical
termination” -it also dropped from this word, making it ro’š, “head”
(a masculine noun).
Taking this noun as the
subject of the sentence forces the following noun ‘elohim, “Gods”
to be the direct object of the verb. This is the grammatical basis for the
Prophet’s translation of the first part of the verse, “The head one of the Gods
brought forth the Gods”-apparently a reference to a cosmogony. [8] This in
turn forces us to take what follows, ʾēṯ haššāmayim wəʾēṯ hāʾāreṣ, as something other than
the direct object, Joseph does not seem to have explained how he interpreted the
grammar here, although he seems to omit the second instance of ‘et. One possibility
is to take the word ‘et not as a direct object marker but as the
preposition meaning “with.” With this interpretation, the verse would mean something
like, “The Head One brought forth the gods together with the heavens and the
earth.” However, this is somewhat less satisfactory in terms of meaning, since
it would conflate two separate events, the creation of the Gods and the
creation of the cosmos.
Another approach, which has
not been suggested before to my knowledge, would be to interpret the word ‘et
not as the direct object marker nor a preposition but rather as a rare noun
form. There is some limited comparative support for this interpretation. “The Egyptian
word it, likely vocalized as *yāti, means “father.” [9] A
connection between this word and the one in Genesis 1:1 would imply the Hebrew
word is related to Amorite ittum, a rare noun of uncertain meaning,
appearing in the theophoric names ‘itta-Abba (ḫi-it-ta-dab-ba)
and ‘Itta-‘Ili (it-ta-i3-il2), both from Mari.
[10] In light of these possibilities, the Hebrew word in question could
be a rare or poetic noun meaning “father,” perhaps inserted from Proto-Afroasiatic
or borrowed from Egyptian. [11] God is “the Father of heaven and of
earth” (Mosiah 3:8). With this interpretation, the verse in Genesis could be
translated thus: “The Head One brought forth the gods / the Father of heaven
and earth.” The syntax would be similar to Psalm 134:3, where the second colon consists
of an extended form of the subject of the first colon, and the second colon
also happens to describe God as the Creator of heaven and earth: “May Yahweh
bless you from Zion . the Maker of heaven and earth.” Like Psalm 134, the
beginning of Genesis 1 would then take on a poetic character, appropriate for a
choral chant at the introduction of a performance. Indeed, verse 2 is easily
scanned as a poetic tricolon. One may compare Ugaritic epic texts recounting
events related to the Creation, which texts are written in poetic narrative
style. Another possible example of the Hebrew word ‘et as a noun is in
Genesis 49:25, which could be rendered “from God your father, who will help you
/ and the Father Almighty (wəʾēt šadday), who will bless you.” [12]
Joseph Smtih’s
interpretation of the first verse of Genesis has ramifications for the interpretation
of the rest of Genesis 1. It implies that the word ‘elohim,
usually understood as a “plural of majesty” and translated as “God,” would be
understood in this chapter as a regular plural, meaning “Gods.” [13] It
also implies that the speech throughout this chapter is that of the Gods as
they meet in council to discuss the Creation. Overall, Joseph’s interpretation of
the first chapter of Genesis, as revealed in his Nauvoo sermons, fits well in
an ancient Near Eastern context such as one would expect from a preexilic Israelite
text.
Notes
for the Above:
[5] B.
H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1976), 6:307,
475; Smith, Teachings of the Prophet, 348-49, 371.
[6] Kevin
Barney, “Joseph Smith’s Emendation of Hebrew Genesis 1:1,” Dialogue: A
Journal of Mormon Thought 30, no 4 (1998): 103-35; Ronald V. Huggins, “Joseph
Smith and the First Verse of the Bible,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological
Society 46, no. 1 (2003): 29-52.
[7] On
the face of it, the removal of the preposition could be interpreted as converting
the verse into a rubric: “The beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the
earth.” However, Joseph Smith’s comments make it clear that this is not how he
interprets the emended text. Interestingly, Moses 2:1 also implies that this
word refers to God: “I am the Beginning and the End.” Moses 2:1 is thus similar
doctrinally to the interpretation put forth in the Nauvoo sermons, though it is
couched in language appropriate to an early Christian rather than an ancient Near
Eastern context.
[8] Barney,
recognizing that Joseph Smith accurately understood the verb bərə’ to
signify “organize, bring forth” (that is, to create out of something else) and
not “summon to council,” argues that Joseph’s emendation of the word bərēʾšît
consisted of an entire clause, perhaps (as one option) something like hebi’
ro’š hə’elohim ‘et hə’elohim, “The head one of the Gods
brought (forth) the Gods.” What follows would be a separate clause starting
with bərə’. See Barney, “Joseph Smith’s Emendation,” 125-34. However, I
think it is more likely that Joseph understood bərə’ in a cosmogonic
sense. His comments on the divine Council refer not to this initial clause but
to the remainder of the chapter, in which “the Gods” (‘elohim)
speak concerning the Creation, implicitly meeting in council to do so.
[9] R.
O. Faulkner, Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Oxford: Griffith
Institute, 1962), 32; Werner Vycichl, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue
copte (Leuven: Peeters, 1983), 67-68. The Egyptian phoneme usually transliterated
as I corresponds etymologically to the Semitic phonemes /y/ and /’/
(Aleph). A connection between this Egyptian word and the Hebrew word ‘et
in Genesis 1:1 would imply that the Masoretic vocalization of the Hebrew word
is incorrect.
[10] See
Ignace J. Gelb, Computer-Aided Analysis of Amorite (Chicago: Oriental
Institute, 1980), 14, 72.
[11] If
this word is borrowed from Egyptian, the noun may exploit the different
cultural connotations of fatherhood in Egyptian. In Hebrew culture, the
household is patrimonial, and marriage is patrilocal, so that a new father
might not be the leader of his family. In Egyptian society, a new father might
not be the leader of his family. In Egyptian society, a married couple starts
their own household: the father “founds a house” (grg pr). See Faulker, Concise
Dictionary, 291. Note also that pharaohs often spoke of God as “my
father(s) the God(s).”
[12] The
text is susceptible to multiple interpretations based on the reading in some
manuscripts and versions. O. Eißfeldt assumes that ‘et here is
a mistake for ‘el, “God.” See Otto Eißfeldt, prep., Biblia
Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Liber Genesis, ed. Karl Ellinger et al.
(Stuttgart: DEU: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1969), 83. The first part of the
verse is usually translated as “by the God of your father,” but whether the
first two nouns are in a genitive relationship or in an apposition cannot be
determined from the forms alone. The relationship is likewise unclear in the
Septuagint, in which both noun phrases are in the genitive case. The Common
English Bible (2011), unlike modern translations, render the first part of the
verse as “by God, your father,” which agrees with my suggested translation.
[13] This
agrees with the first-person plural verbs and pronouns in verse 26: “Let us
make men in our image, according to our likeness.” Elsewhere, the third-person
singular verbs preceding the noun ‘elohim are allowable
according to Biblical Hebrew syntax (as in classical Arabic), even if the noun
is interpreted as a regular plural. The noun bəṣalmô, “in his image,”
in verse 27, which has a third-person singular pronoun suffix, is not found in
the original Greek text of the Septuagint and may be a later addition to the
text as suggested by O. Eißfeldt, the editor of Genesis in the Biblia
Hebraica Stugggartensia.
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