Hi Karl, You said, "There is no chaos mentioned in Genesis 1. In that one element alone, it already contradicts other ANE cosmologies that start with chaos. The first verse starts with God, and his first action in creation. The second verse states the state of one just created object The third verse the second act of creation, and so forth. There is no pattern of creation, de-creation and re-creation. That is just not supported by the text analyzed in its linguistic elements."
I just don't think you're giving sufficient attention to the description in v. 2. I know you have your own definition for some of these words. But when the only other time the terms tohu and bohu occur together in the Hebrew Bible at Isa 34:11 and Jer 4:23, both pictures of total devastation, chaos, the world turned topsy-turvy, I just find it very hard to understand the use of these terms in Gen 1:2 to be descriving some neutral, initial stage of creation by God. Rather, it makes much more sense, both linguistically, and biblically-theologically, and within the ANE context, to understand v. 2 as a description of what the conditions were like when God began the process of creation. As for the rest of your email, you confuse things by talking about medieval cosmology. Medieval cosmology plays no part at all in my understanding of Gen 1; but ANE cosmology plays a huge part, and the historical evidence argues that as far as the basic "cosmography" is concerned, Israel's picture of the structure of the universe was of a piece with its ANE neighbors. Let me throw one more thing in here. In previous posts I brought Ecc 1:5 into the discussion, and how the author at that point describes three movements of the sun: it rises, it sets, and it hurries back to where it rises again. This corresponds perfectly with the ancient geocentric understanding of the sun as a sphere which makes it way around the earth, rather than with the heliocentric one that sees earth making its orbrit around the sun. Both times you said this was eisegesis and not in the text, but gave no alternative explanation So what is your translation of Ecc 1:5? How do you understand what the author is saying? Right now, as I see it, it fits well within the context of Ecc 1, which describes the circularity of nature and human existence, and shows the sun as participating in that same circularity. And it also fits in the context of ANE geocentrism. So, how would you explain it alternatively? Blessings, Jerry Shepherd Taylor Seminary Edmonton, Alberta Jerry Shepherd [email protected] _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
