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Post by alon on Oct 26, 2024 20:11:05 GMT -8
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
As we normally read this, creation started “In the beginning.” ב’רֵאשִׁית b’rê’shı̂yth. Then “God created the heavens and the earth." However in Hebrew words can have more than one meaning. For example bereshith ב’רֵאשִׁית has as its’ root rosh ראש, meaning “head.” A more accurate translation might be “at the heading” or even “the first thing.”
The head, the seat of the intellect; the core of our identity as the crown of God’s creation. The first message is that Gods’ act of creation was an intentional process. It was not a random act of, what? Nothing? No, it is an intelligent, careful design. The act of an all powerful and all knowing Creator.
Another thing to note is this 1st verse lays the foundation for Gods’ salvation message going forward; a message that there are layers to the infinite word of God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” is not a bad translation. But there is a better, more accurate one:
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
B’reshit bara Elohim et ha’shamayim v’ et ha’eretz.
The first thing organized God the heavens and the earth. (Dan’s literal translation).
Bara בָּרָ֣א can also mean “to organize,” which given what comes next is contextually a better translation. So “The first thing God did was to organize the heavens and the earth.” He did this to make what He had earlier created useable for us. How much earlier? I don’t know. But it does say the earth was already there, it was just not useable:
Gen 1:2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters, (YLT)
And so we see a double meaning in the text. Creation “ex nihilo,” (from nothing) had already occurred, as it states in most translations. However now God must organize it for our use. Now, knowing this we can deduce a hidden message here: if scripture is going to really reach our hearts, we must use our heads. Think about what we read. Dig out true understanding by going back to the original Hebrew.
Genesis 1:26a Then God said, “Let Us [indicating united action, not a request] make mankind in Our image בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ, according to Our likeness כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ;
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ
The Hebrew language is poetic, having its’ own poetic devices. One of the most common is parallelism. Hebrew parallelism take many forms, from the more complex chiasm to the simple consecutive repeating of lines. Usually the two lines use synonymous terminology. Similarly, two consecutive words say something synonymous or complementary, thereby expounding on the meaning of what is said. Here צֶלֶם tselem has connotations of a “shadow” צֵל tsel, which is an imperfect image of what casts it. The next term has the root דְּמוּת demut which parallels צֶלֶם tselem, and having connotations of “similarity” and “imagination” it expounds on the meaning of the shadow.
Here we are confronted with a principle of all scripture. One most of us were taught wrong. That is, none of the Bible was written to us. This was written to a group of frightened, just freed Hebrew slaves. True they had seen their God work mighty miracles on their behalf against the powerful Egyptians. However they had just left everything they knew and were being asked to walk away through inhospitable terrain on faith; trusting the prophet of a God they could not see.
So Torah begins trying to persuade these former Egyptian slaves that not only Egypts Pharaoh but they, too, have divine origins. All humans are created in the image and likeness of God.
As for that principal: scripture may not have been written directly to us, but it all still applies to us. Mankind has not changed in the last 4000+ years.
We know ha’satan always copies God, not the other way ‘round. In organizing the world, God was creating a temple for Himself. The Garden of Eden was the Holy of Holies and Adam communed with Him there. The last thing to go into a pagan temple is the idol representing the god it is dedicated to. This is because the last thing God placed in His Temple was man. We are His living “statues,” in place to represent our God to the world. Unlike pagan statues, Gods’ statues can talk and interact directly with others. This is why the proscription against our making idols for ourselves. Idols are used to focus the worshipers attention on the deity it represents. The Deity we represent allows us to talk with Him any time, but believing by faith in that which we cannot see. There is no intermediary between us and God, and direct communication between unbelievers and we, the living statues of God. But the Hebrews were slaves, beaten down by cruel taskmasters and taught to fear more powerful men.
One of the biggest fears must have been knowing a much more powerful neighbor to the north would be watching events to the south. Babylon would love to come in and take over, with probably dire consequences for a people without a country; land by which to make money for tribute. So Gods’ creation story had in mind another story, the Enuma Elish: creation according to Babylonian mythology. The Biblical account of creation was a direct challenge to the Babylonian account.
Babylonian myth has a goddess of the watery depths, Tiamat. Another god Marduk kills Tiamat, splitting her in half and using one of the halves to create the expanse of the heavens. The other is still the watery depths. Go back to our biblical account: “darkness was over the face of the deep” and God hovered over the deep waters….
“Deep” in Hebrew is תהום tehom, which linguistically is related to “Tiamat” in the Babylonian tongue. So the Hebrew God is said to control the tehom, Tiamot; the deep. The Hebrew God was stronger than Tiamat, who was no more than a plane force of nature in the hands of the true Creator.
But what about Marduk? He too was stronger than Tiamot. However the True God does not need half of another god (godess,Tiamat) to create the heavenly expanse. Rather, the God of the Hebrews creates just by the power of his word: “Let there be an expanse רקיע; raqia in the midst of the waters מים; mayim… and God called the expanse the heavens” (Gen 1:6a, 1:8a).
El Elohe Yisroel rules supreme over all other deities, particularly the gods of Babylon.
Mekarot: Dr. Eli of the IBC; R Dan Livni, my father and others
As we normally read this, creation started “In the beginning.” ב’רֵאשִׁית b’rê’shı̂yth. Then “God created the heavens and the earth." However in Hebrew words can have more than one meaning. For example bereshith ב’רֵאשִׁית has as its’ root rosh ראש, meaning “head.” A more accurate translation might be “at the heading” or even “the first thing.”
The head, the seat of the intellect; the core of our identity as the crown of God’s creation. The first message is that Gods’ act of creation was an intentional process. It was not a random act of, what? Nothing? No, it is an intelligent, careful design. The act of an all powerful and all knowing Creator.
Another thing to note is this 1st verse lays the foundation for Gods’ salvation message going forward; a message that there are layers to the infinite word of God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” is not a bad translation. But there is a better, more accurate one:
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
B’reshit bara Elohim et ha’shamayim v’ et ha’eretz.
The first thing organized God the heavens and the earth. (Dan’s literal translation).
Bara בָּרָ֣א can also mean “to organize,” which given what comes next is contextually a better translation. So “The first thing God did was to organize the heavens and the earth.” He did this to make what He had earlier created useable for us. How much earlier? I don’t know. But it does say the earth was already there, it was just not useable:
Gen 1:2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters, (YLT)
And so we see a double meaning in the text. Creation “ex nihilo,” (from nothing) had already occurred, as it states in most translations. However now God must organize it for our use. Now, knowing this we can deduce a hidden message here: if scripture is going to really reach our hearts, we must use our heads. Think about what we read. Dig out true understanding by going back to the original Hebrew.
Genesis 1:26a Then God said, “Let Us [indicating united action, not a request] make mankind in Our image בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ, according to Our likeness כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ;
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ
The Hebrew language is poetic, having its’ own poetic devices. One of the most common is parallelism. Hebrew parallelism take many forms, from the more complex chiasm to the simple consecutive repeating of lines. Usually the two lines use synonymous terminology. Similarly, two consecutive words say something synonymous or complementary, thereby expounding on the meaning of what is said. Here צֶלֶם tselem has connotations of a “shadow” צֵל tsel, which is an imperfect image of what casts it. The next term has the root דְּמוּת demut which parallels צֶלֶם tselem, and having connotations of “similarity” and “imagination” it expounds on the meaning of the shadow.
Here we are confronted with a principle of all scripture. One most of us were taught wrong. That is, none of the Bible was written to us. This was written to a group of frightened, just freed Hebrew slaves. True they had seen their God work mighty miracles on their behalf against the powerful Egyptians. However they had just left everything they knew and were being asked to walk away through inhospitable terrain on faith; trusting the prophet of a God they could not see.
So Torah begins trying to persuade these former Egyptian slaves that not only Egypts Pharaoh but they, too, have divine origins. All humans are created in the image and likeness of God.
As for that principal: scripture may not have been written directly to us, but it all still applies to us. Mankind has not changed in the last 4000+ years.
We know ha’satan always copies God, not the other way ‘round. In organizing the world, God was creating a temple for Himself. The Garden of Eden was the Holy of Holies and Adam communed with Him there. The last thing to go into a pagan temple is the idol representing the god it is dedicated to. This is because the last thing God placed in His Temple was man. We are His living “statues,” in place to represent our God to the world. Unlike pagan statues, Gods’ statues can talk and interact directly with others. This is why the proscription against our making idols for ourselves. Idols are used to focus the worshipers attention on the deity it represents. The Deity we represent allows us to talk with Him any time, but believing by faith in that which we cannot see. There is no intermediary between us and God, and direct communication between unbelievers and we, the living statues of God. But the Hebrews were slaves, beaten down by cruel taskmasters and taught to fear more powerful men.
One of the biggest fears must have been knowing a much more powerful neighbor to the north would be watching events to the south. Babylon would love to come in and take over, with probably dire consequences for a people without a country; land by which to make money for tribute. So Gods’ creation story had in mind another story, the Enuma Elish: creation according to Babylonian mythology. The Biblical account of creation was a direct challenge to the Babylonian account.
Babylonian myth has a goddess of the watery depths, Tiamat. Another god Marduk kills Tiamat, splitting her in half and using one of the halves to create the expanse of the heavens. The other is still the watery depths. Go back to our biblical account: “darkness was over the face of the deep” and God hovered over the deep waters….
“Deep” in Hebrew is תהום tehom, which linguistically is related to “Tiamat” in the Babylonian tongue. So the Hebrew God is said to control the tehom, Tiamot; the deep. The Hebrew God was stronger than Tiamat, who was no more than a plane force of nature in the hands of the true Creator.
But what about Marduk? He too was stronger than Tiamot. However the True God does not need half of another god (godess,Tiamat) to create the heavenly expanse. Rather, the God of the Hebrews creates just by the power of his word: “Let there be an expanse רקיע; raqia in the midst of the waters מים; mayim… and God called the expanse the heavens” (Gen 1:6a, 1:8a).
El Elohe Yisroel rules supreme over all other deities, particularly the gods of Babylon.
Mekarot: Dr. Eli of the IBC; R Dan Livni, my father and others
