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NASB | Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. [Heb 11:3] |
Subject: When was "In the Beginning" |
Bible Note: Greetings CDBJ! As I have already pointed out, my Hebrew is very rusting. So, I am not qualified to address this very difficult issue with any authority. From what I have read though, 'hayah' can mean either 'was' or 'became'. However, there appear to be two reasons why it cannot mean 'became' in Gen. 1:2. My source is the commentary on Genesis written by Victor P. Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton is professor of religion at Asbury College and a contributor to the Theological Wordbook on the Old Testament (a standard reference work for Hebrew word meanings). He gives the following two reasons for rejecting the translation of 'hayah' as 'became' in Gen. 1:2. ********************************************* "Now, at time the verb 'to be' in the perfect tense can have an obvious active force. Certainly 3:22 says, 'Behold, the man has become (haya) like one of us.' But for two reasons it cannot have this force in 1:2. First, if the writer had intended v.2 to be read as a sequence to v. 1, he would never have used the construction he did: waw consecutive plus subject plus verb (in the perfect). Instead, it would be: waw conversive attached to the verb (in the imperfect) plus subject. Thus, one would expect wattehi ha'ares rather than what we do have: weha'ares hayeta. Second, in other circumstanital clauses the verb haya in the perfect tense normally carries its stative sense (3:1, 'the serpent was wiser'; 29:16, 'and Rachel was pretty'; 34:5, 'his sons had been (or were) in the field'; Exod. 1:5, 'and Joseph was in Egypt'; Jon. 3:3, 'now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city'). The burden of proof, then, is upon those who insist that here we have an instance of haya in a circumstantial clause with the meaning 'became.'" *********************************************** Like I said, I am not qualified to judge the merits of his arguments. I simply offer it so that you can compare it with your booklet. Your Brother in Christ, (who needs to start brushing up on his Hebrew) :-), Tim Moran |