Hot answers tagged genesis
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It's odd to me that this isn't literal. The early portion of Genesis (1-11) is usually very literal. In my studies, Numbers is more literal than Gen 1-11 (so literal that I called it "Greek vocabulary on top of Hebrew syntax").
Uses in the Greek
The Greek word appears in the NT three times, all in Hebrews. (All scripture references are from the ...
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It's clear from what we are told in the early chapters of Genesis, that we are not being given a full account of every action—the focus seems to be much more on the moral and theologically significant issues.
Given that, there is no direct textual evidence that reproduction did not happen before the fall, and given passages like Genesis 4:17, where no ...
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The oldest discovered example of written Hebrew dates from about 3000 years ago -- although this dating is disputed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7700037.stm). Conversely, samples of Sumerian Cuneiform have been discovered from more than 5000 years ago. Granted, the language might have existed for quite a while prior to the development of a written ...
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The NET Bible notes:
tn Heb “rose fifteen cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about eighteen inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “fifteen cubits” has been rendered “more than twenty feet.”
tn Heb ...
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Function of "with me" in this phrase
The phrase הָֽאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה עִמָּדִי follows the relative pronoun (אֲשֶׁר), which is modifying the woman (הָֽאִשָּׁה ); and the verb (נָתַתָּה ) is 2nd person, God is the subject. In comparison with other uses in Genesis of this form (עִמָּדִי ), about half of which follow the relative pronoun, it appears that ...
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The English phrase "I will greatly mutliply" (A.V.) is translated from the Hebrew phrase הַרְבָּה אַרְבֶּה (harbah arbeh). This Hebrew phrase consists of two verbs, both in binyan Hif'il, the former being an infinitive absolute, while the latter is in the imperfect tense. This is a frequent Semiticism in the Hebrew Tanakh, and it should not be translated ...
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I'm not sure this is a answer, certainly if it is, it is speculative. However, it isn't clear why "ash heap" is an option here, because the word clearly derives from the word for fruitfulness. But as we know, words are a lot more than their etymology. They are a network of associations tying together different ideas based on the context in which they are ...
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The phrase in Hebrew is נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat chayyim). The Hebrew word typically translated as "spirit" in English is רוּחַ (ruach).
Here is a link to a Jewish understanding of the distinctions between neshamah, nefesh, and ruach.
However, it is my belief that neshamah and ruach are probably equivalent to one another.
For example, in Genesis 2:7, it ...
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The verb here (and also v28) is יִרְדּוּ (yirdu), which is from reish-dalet-hei (radah), which BDB gives as "have dominion, rule, dominate". Note that there is another word for "rule", malach, from mem-lamed-chaf "king". This is the word used to talk about God's rule over the world. So whatever radah is, it's probably a different kind of rulership than ...
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One line of evidence is that all the names in the genealogies prior to Babel have meanings in Hebrew.
My first Hebrew professor, Dr. Robert L. Cate, did a lot of work in the development of the Hebrew language. For his doctoral dissertation, he constructed a hypothetical lexicon of proto-Hebrew, the Hebrew language as it existed before any written records. ...
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Short Answer: Abram did indeed depart from Haran after his father died, as the Old Testament indicates, and as the New Testament explicitly claims. (Terah was 130 years old when Abram was born.)
Good question. (This happens to be one of the most commonly asked -- and addressed -- "discrepancies" in Scripture.)
The problem is in the modern Western reading ...
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As the text says, Avram was 75 when he left Haran. So, either Terach was 130 when Avram was born, or Avram left while Terach was still alive.
The medieval commentator (and compiler), Rashi, argues for Avram leaving during Terach's lifetime, based on Gen 12:4:
and Terah died in Haran: [This happened] after Abram had left Haran and had come to the land ...
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Ge 16:15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name,
which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
Ge 16:16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare
Ishmael to Abram.
Ge 17:5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
Ge 17:19 And ...
5
Rashi's comment here is:
male and female He created them: Yet further (2:21) Scripture states: “And He took one of his ribs, etc.” The Midrash Aggadah (Gen. Rabbah 8:1, Ber. 61a, Eruvin 18a) explains that He originally created him with two faces, and afterwards, He divided him. The simple meaning of the verse is that here Scripture informs you that they ...
5
Fifteen cubits above: Above the peaks of all the mountains, after the
waters were equal to [at the same level as] the mountain peaks. —
[from Gen. Rabbah 32:11] - Rashi
Gen Rabbah is said to be from the third century, long before anyone would have objected to or attempted to cover up a supposed flat earth cosmology.
5
Observations on the Genesis flood
It was not a historical event in the technical sense that we have no surviving written contemporary accounts. However, it was recent enough prehistory that it could be located in a particular location in the Genesis genealogies. There are also a number of details that suggest a robust oral history from the time of the ...
5
I can't comment on the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient poem from Mesopotamia, but interestingly your observation about the Hebrew is identical to Luther's.
the carelessness of a translator has given rise to a question in connection with this passage. The Hebrew does not say that the raven did not return, as Jerome renders it. There was, therefore, no need ...
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The NET Bible notes are helpful here:
tn The Hebrew term תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “deep”) refers to the watery deep, the salty ocean – especially the primeval ocean that surrounds and underlies the earth (see Gen 7:11).
sn The watery deep. In the Babylonian account of creation Marduk killed the goddess Tiamat (the salty sea) and used her carcass to create ...
5
I am cautious about any technique/pattern that requires modern technology to spot. Does anyone remember Equidistant Letter Spacing (aka The Bible Code)? As there, we've got the problem of which Hebrew text to use.
Here are some of the options
Masoretic text as-is
Mostly Masoretic text but placing the Qere in the text wherever there is a Kethiv/Qere
...
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I've been unable to find other tower-construction myths that explain diverse languages. According to this article Hindu mythology includes a tree that reached to the heavens and itself grew haughty (the tree, not men), and as a result the tree was struck down and diverse languages and beliefs ensued. That's a similar theme in broad strokes, but very ...
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[Note: per Jon Ericson's advice and an edit to the question on which this was an original answer, this answer has been moved, with minor edits, from here, due to edits made to that question to keep it from being a duplicate of this one.]
Thesis
Calling on the name of Yahweh means that the Sethites began to engage in the public, communal worship of God.
...
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And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men (ḥālal) to call upon the name of the LORD.—Genesis 4:26 (KJV)
In the above the phrase "then began men" is translated from one word ḥālal. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon:
ḥālal:
pollute, defile, profane
Theological Wordbook of ...
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[Note: This question has been edited to keep it from being a duplicate. As such, the original form of this answer has been moved (with minor edits). This is something of a placeholder now for that answer.]
Calling on the name of Yahweh indicates the public, communal worship of God.
Many sound exegetes hold to this position. See my linked answer, which ...
4
The word translated "child" in the verses 15 and 16 is yeled which means "boy, child, youth, offspring." It can even be used of adults to indicate they are descendants of someone else, e.g. the common phrase "the children of Israel." English can do the same thing. The word translated "boy" in the following verses is nyr which means "boy, lad, or youth." ...
4
What follows is a reading of the Sodom narrative based on the commentary of Nachmanides which is drastically different from the way this story is commonly understood. No other reading of this story makes sense to me.
Progression of events:
The people of Sodom gather outside Lot's house and they make a request. The original Hebrew is highly ambiguous here:
...
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The first two occurrences of 'made' in the Bible (עשׂה ‘asa) indicate that although similar to 'built' (בנה bana) it is more general with respect to the creation process. 'Built' seems to almost imply the gathering of pieces and joining them together as an architect would. 'Made' may describe things created but is more general to encompass virtually any ...
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Genesis 1 as a whole describes the creation of the physical world, so it would be inconsistent to view the light as figurative rather than physical unless you read the whole chapter that way. On that basis, then, the light is physical, but what is its nature?
As summarized here, the talmud records a debate about the light in Chagigah 12a. One opinion is ...
4
When the Tanak was first written, it was written without vowels. In the early Middle Ages (ca AD 800), scribes known as the Masoretes added the system of vowel points (niqqud or "diacretic markings") that are used in pointed Hebrew texts since then. Other systems were developed at roughly the same time (as Hebrew became less of a spoken language), but only ...
4
The confusion comes in part from imperfect translation. The commandment, in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, reads as follows:
לֹא-תַעֲשֶׂה לְךָ פֶסֶל, וְכָל-תְּמוּנָה, אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל, וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת--וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם, מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any ...
3
The word qara' in Hebrew can mean naming (as in God called the light Day), calling out, or proclaiming.
In Exodus 33, Moses asked to see God’s glory and God said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, Yahweh.
Then, in Exodus 34, it says, "Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed, 'Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful ...
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