In the beginning- A translation problem

"IN THE BEGINNING" A TRANSLATION PROBLEM

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

How to render the very first verse of the Hebrew Bible has been problematic for a long time. Most translations have it as :“ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Some have it as : “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth..” Everett Fox prefers, “At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth.” I like Speiser’s rendition: “When God set about to create heaven and earth…” What is the problem?

The Masoretic text was vocalized between 500-700 CE. So, we do not know how the original scribes read the text. In our Hebrew Bible, the very first word of Gen. 1:1 is BERESHIT. And that is, “in the beginning of,” not, “In the beginning.” The Hebrew word is in construct form attached to a verb, BARA, ”he created.” That is unusual. Because, grammatically speaking,  the construct form should be attached to an infinitive, like BERO, and not to a past tense form, like  BARA, or, it needs to be attached to a noun, such as “ In the beginning (BERESHIT) of the reign of Jehoiakim” (Jer. 26:1).

However, already a medieval Jewish commentator, Ibn Ezra (d. in Spain 1167) pointed out that there are examples in the Hebrew Bible when a construct form is attached to a verb in the past, such as “ When the Lord first spoke to Hosea-TEHILLAT DIBBER B’HOSHEA” (Hos. 1:2) or, “The city where David camped” -KIRYAT HANA DAVID”(Isa. 29:1). So, this is not a mistake in the Hebrew Bible, but a rare yet valid option.

Furthermore, it is interesting to note, as Speiser already indicated, that the biblical creation story, influenced by the Babylonian creation myth, ENUMA ELISH, starts, in fact , as, “When (“enuma”) on high the heaven had not been named…” (ANET, p. 60).

How does a religious naturalist like me deal with the story of creation? I realize that Biblical editors were not astronomers and did not know about the Big Bang. They wanted to say that at the beginning of time, when God was about the create the universe, a supernal light appeared (v.3). The Sun and the moon were created on day 4!  

The ancient Rabbis were aware of the problem and came out with some fanciful explanations. (See, TheTorah.com, Genesis, “If the sun is created on day 4, what is the light on day 1,” by Zev Farber). In reality, in Genesis, we do not have a theory of creation but only a hint that God gave form to what had previously emanated from the divine energy. (See, Ibn Ezra on this). Furthermore, the ancient Rabbis stressed (see Gen. Rab. 1:1O)  that the letter B (in BERESHIT) is closed on three sides but is open in the front, to teach us that we should not look back and speculate on the mysteries of creation that are not available to us. Instead, I would say, we need  to use the light, any light,  to illumine our steps as we forge a path that is based on justice and peace .

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