medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Isn't George FERZOCO's question if anyone can
point to medieval exegeses of Gen 1.1 which are
along the lines of van Wolde's idea that Bara'
means "to separate ..." &c ? that is: the question
is not RE medieval exegeses RE the question "from
what was the univese made" ? i.e. *not* what tohu
& bohu is/are (whether hylic or whatever) ? but
whether there is a mediaeval precursor to van
Wolde's idea RE what bara' means, viz. "to
separate" and not "to create" ? And isn't V.
Kerry Inman pointing out that Genesis Raba in
taking tohu wa bohu of Gen 1.2 (= unified substrate
of Heaven and Earth) as the archetype of earthy
matter, as it were, may somehow be related to the
idea that bara' in Gen 1.1 means "to separate" and
not "to create" ?
Mata Kimasitayo
----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. Jeffrey R. Woolf
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] medieval interpretations of Genesis 1, 1
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Nahmanides (1195-1270; Catalonia and Israel) explicitly states that the
opening verse in Genesis establishes the creation of hylic matter, from
which all subsequent parts of creation were formed.
Jeffrey
----- Original Message -----
From: V. Kerry Inman
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 18:43
Subject: Re: [M-R] medieval interpretations of Genesis 1, 1
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Genesis Raba, a late antique/early medieval, Jewish commentary on Genesis,
mentions that some believed that God made the earth out of preexisting
material. The basis of this is not the same as you mention. The basis is
that the words "tohu" and "bovu," translated in English as "void," and
"amorphous," are in fact the names of what God created the heavens and the
earth from. This is off the cuff, I will check it out further as soon as I
can.
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