THE EARTH OF GENESIS 1 : 2 ABIOTIC OR CHAOTIC ?
As the third and final part of the study of Gen 1:2, this article seeks to analyze the impact of the phrase ruah ‘lohim merahepet al p’ne hammayim on the question of the state of the earth as depicted in this verse. Gunkel, along with other scholars after him, assumed that ruah ‘lohim refers to winds that Marduk sends against Tiamat. Others have postulated that this phrase refers to divine creative activity. To reach my conclusion, I will analyze the phrase and its use in the Hebrew Bible and in languages cognate to Hebrew.
Wind and Water: Cosmogonic Symbolism in the Old Testament
The second verse in chapter one of the Book of Genesis has given rise to an uncommon number of problems both to translators and commentators alike. The Revised Standard Version reads äs follows: »The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.« A note suggests that the word »Spirit« (rüh) may also be translated äs »wind«. The choice between the two renderings and their related theological connotations has generated a controversy of long Standing. The most important ancient versions of the Old Testament read »wind«, and it was only under later Hellenistic influences that the designation »spirit« originated. It is evident that the second, abstract translation lends itself more readily to theological and homiletic interests, but it is slowly being recognized that the earlier rendering is the more accurate. What has not been observed, however, is the conformity between the wind-and-water symbolism of this opening to the Old Testament and later passages throughout the work. A deeper understanding of this parallelism and its meaning will serve not only to confirm further the translation »wind« but clarify the intention of this obscure though crucial verse. In ancient Israel, äs in other religious traditions, the sea was feit äs a threat to the established cosmic and social order. In the verses immediately following that cited above the Priestly author goes on to sketch his account of creation, in which the earth is at first submerged beneath the waters of the primordial ocean. In order to rescue it Yahweh must fashion a firmament above the earth in order to contain the waters above, while the waters below he restrains in one place in order that the dry land might appear (Gen 1 6-8). Throughout the remainder of the Old Testament, however, the waters remain constantly restive, eager to reclaim dominion over the earth that they once contained and to reassert their primeval sovereignty. (It should be remembered that thöm, variously translated äs
Looking for regional words in late seventeenth-century England: Bishop White Kennett and his glossary to Parochial Antiquities (1695) 1
The analysis of regional dialects in the Early Modern period has commonly been disregarded in favour of an ample scholarly interest in the ‘authorised’ version of English which came to be eventually established as a standard. The history of regional ‘Englishes’ at this time still remains to a very great extent in oblivion, owing mainly to an apparent dearth of direct textual evidence which might provide trustworthy data. Research in this field has been for the most part focused on phonological, orthographical and morphological traits by virtue of the rather more abundant information that dialect testimonies yield about them. Regional lexical diversity has, on the contrary, deserved no special attention as uncertainty arises with regard to what was provincially restricted and what was not. This paper endeavours to offer additional data to the gloomy lexical setting of Early Modern regional English. It is our aim to give a descriptive account of the dialect words collated by Bishop White Kennett’s glossary to Parochial Antiquities (1695). This underutilised specimen does actually widen the information furnished by other well known canonical word-lists and provides concrete geographical data that might contribute to bridging the gaps still existing in the history of lexical provincialisms at the time.