admits that it is a remarkable conception; and (3) it is
excluded by the object of that verb: the heavens and the earth. For though that phrase is a Hebrew designation of the
universe as a whole, it is only the organised universe, not
the chaotic material out of which it was formed, that can
naturally be so designated. The appropriate name for
chaos is 'the earth' (v.2); the representation being a
chaotic earth from which the heavens were afterwards made
(6f.). The verse therefore (if an independent sentence at all)
must be taken as an introductory heading to the rest of the
chapter.[1]—God created.] The verb (
Hebrew characters) contains the central
idea of the passage. It is partly synonymous with (Hebrew characters) (cf.
vv.{21. 27} with 25), but 23 shows that it had a specific shade of
meaning. The idea cannot be defined with precision, but
the influence of G from a desire to exclude the idea of an eternal chaos
preceding the creation.[2] But the fact that TO agrees with G militates
against that opinion. The one objection to (b) is the 'verzweifelt
geschmacklose Construction' (We.) which it involves. It is replied
(Gu. al) that such openings may have been a traditional feature of
creation stories, being found in several Bab. accounts, as well as in
Gn. 24b-6. In any case a lengthy parenthesis is quite admissible in
good prose style (see 1 Sa. 32aβ-3, with Dri. Notes, ad loc.), and may
be safely assumed here if there be otherwise sufficient grounds for
adopting it. The clause as gen. is perfectly regular, though it would
be easy to substitute inf. (Hebrew characters) (mentioned but not recommended by Ra.).
(c) A third view, which perhaps deserves more consideration than it
has received, is to take v.1 as protasis and v.2 as apodosis, 'When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was, etc.' (IEz. ?
but see Cheyne, in Hebr. ii. 50). So far as sense goes the sequence
is eminently satisfactory; the (Hebrew characters) of v.3 is more natural as a continuation
of v.2 than of v.1. The question is whether the form of
v.2 permits its being construed as apod. The order of words (subj.
before pred.) is undoubtedly that proper to the circumst. cl. (Dri. T.
§ 157; Dav. § 138 (c)); but there is no absolute rule against an apod.
assuming this form after a time-determination (see Dri. T. § 78).,
- ↑ The view that v.1 describes an earlier creation of heaven and earth, which were reduced to chaos and then re-fashioned, needs no refutation.
- ↑ See Geiger, Urschr. 344, 439, 444. The Mechilta (on Ex. 1240:
Winter and Wünsche's Germ. transl. p. 48) gives v.1 as one of thirteen
instances of things 'written for King Ptolemy'; and Gei. infers that
the change was deliberately made for the reason mentioned. The
reading alleged by Mech. is (
Hebrew characters) which gives the sense but
not the order of G. The other variations given are only partly verified
by our texts of G; see on 126 f. 22 117 1812 496.
