Starting a series of running notes on the #Pentateuch. Not a full commentary, just thoughts, mostly on issues of composition and translation of the #Bible.

Hope it's useful/interesting, and hoping for engagement: add'l insights from scholars, questions from anyone.

Enjoy!

#Genesis 1:1

My favorite example of the truism that translation is interpretation: the first three words of the Bible. Believe in creation ex nihilo? "In the beginning God created." Don't believe that? "When God began to create."

Which one is correct? Neither is decisively right, though the grammar leans slightly against the famous KJV wording. Elsewhere בראשית is in construct with the following word (Jer 26:1, e.g.); if here too, then it's "In the beginning of God's creating."

(It's okay for nouns to be in construct with verbs. Check out 2 Sam 22:1, ביום הציל יהוה, "On the day of YHWH's saving.)

This is, in any case, the beginning of the Priestly source of the Pentateuch. The idea of God as creator isn't unique to P (there's no other god in the Bible to whom creation is attributed). And this doesn't make P monotheistic. Lots of polytheistic folks had creation stories.

The P creation story isn't first in the Pentateuch because P was more important, or responsible for the editing of the text. It's first because the first word is "In the beginning." What else could possibly go before it?

Random note: the word ברא, "created," is only ever used of God. It would be useful to find a good English word for the specifically divine creative faculty. Maybe it's just "Create" with a capital C, which is how we distinguish between creation and Creation.

A final thought, for the moment: this verse is just the first subordinate clause of a much longer sentence. We don't hit the main clause until Gen 1:3. Everything up to then, including this, is just giving us the temporal frame for when God said "Let there be light."

(For the record, I'm not really planning to go through every verse like this. Sometimes I'll do a whole chapter in a day, when they're somewhat more boring. Plenty to say here, though.)