The verse of Gen 1, 1: a subordinate or principal clause? A contribution to the discussion on the syntax of the first sentence of the Hebrew Bible

What it is about

A short exegetical article on whether Gen 1:1 is an independent sentence ("In the beginning God created …", LXX, Vulgate, KJV) or a temporal clause subordinate to 1:2–3 ("When God began to create …", NJPS 1985, NRSV). The grammatical crux it reviews is that בְּרֵאשִׁית has no article and can be read as construct before a clause, as with the opening of Enuma Elish; both readings are said to be grammatically possible. The author does not add a linguistic argument: he decides for the subordinate reading on historical-theological grounds (a Priestly author in the Babylonian exile presenting order out of pre-existing chaos). The article offers no data or method.

Ideas

I1. Keep Gen 1:1 as a documented double reading in the trees: the default MACULA/JPS 1917 reading as a main clause, with a MISC note pointing to the construct reading (בְּרֵאשִׁית as construct + finite clause, "when … began to create") and to the translations that take it; a known ambiguity case for the syntax chapter.
I2. Construct state before a finite clause (a noun in construct governing a whole clause, as בְּיוֹם עֲשׂוֹת / בְּיוֹם + verb, Gen 2:4b) is a real pattern: count it in the Torah so that the Gen 1:1 discussion rests on how common the construction is.

For Mova

I1 goes into Syntax: the clause and the sentence (the construct, relative clauses) and 04-noun.md (state), and into 13-mova-tools.md §13 as a known ambiguity. I2 is a count over our trees. The article's own argument (dating and theology) gives nothing for Mova.

Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. DOI 10.15290/rtk.2017.16.3.01

@inproceedings{dzikiewicz2017verse,
  title = {{The verse of Gen 1, 1: a subordinate or principal clause? A contribution to the discussion on the syntax of the first sentence of the Hebrew Bible}},
  author = {Dzikiewicz, Daniel},
  booktitle = {Rocznik Teologii Katolickiej},
  year = {2017},
  doi = {10.15290/rtk.2017.16.3.01},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.15290/rtk.2017.16.3.01}
}

References

28 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

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