Search found 307 matches

by lpetrich
Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:11 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

Re: In the beginning, God separated?

The JPS translations used in the Reform and Conservative synagogues in the US, the translation found in the online Chabad Tanakh, and the translations offered by Robert Alter, Everett Fox, and Richard Elliott Friedman, all treat בְּרֵשִׁית בָּרָא as being in the construct state. Genesis 1:1 as a st...
by lpetrich
Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:01 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

Re: In the beginning, God separated?

I should add to that back-projection: From his hair the trees From his eyebrows the realm of humanity I tried to translate it into reconstructed Proto-Indo-European, but I ran into a lot of difficulties with some of the vocabulary. Grammatically, it would be Yemos-gen-sg flesh-abl-sg Mannus-nom-sg e...
by lpetrich
Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:29 pm
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

Re: In the beginning, God separated?

Ymir - Wikipedia presents how it went, and the discusses other Indo-European cosmogonic dismemberings. Projecting Ymir's fate back in time, I get something like From Yemos's flesh Mannus made the earth From his bones the hills From his blood the sea From his skull the heaven From his brain the clouds
by lpetrich
Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:26 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

Re: In the beginning, God separated?

Myths and Legends The specialized term "charter myth" or "mythical charter" refers to myths that use a real or hypothetical past event to provide a logic justifying a custom or social structural arrangement, such as why a particular dynasty is appropriately in power. The first G...
by lpetrich
Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:44 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

Re: In the beginning, God separated?

The Genesis 1 story has some additional structure added on. Celestial environments: day, night Far-terrestrial environments: air, sea Near-terrestrial environments: land, plants Celestial inhabitants: the Sun, the Moon, and the stars Far-terrestrial inhabitants: flying animals, aquatic animals Near-...
by lpetrich
Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:39 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

Re: In the beginning, God separated?

This seems to me an offshoot of Proto-Indo-European mythology A reconstructed PIE creation story goes like this: there were once two brothers, *Mannus and *Yemos, Man and Twin. Mannus sacrificed Yemos, dismembered him, and built the familiar Universe out of his body parts. The story of Norse Ymir is...
by lpetrich
Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:56 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: In the beginning, God separated?
Replies: 15
Views: 34506

In the beginning, God separated?

God Created the Universe From Nothing—Or Did He? | Bob Seidensticker Combat Myth: The Curious Story of Yahweh and the Gods Who Preceded Him | Bob Seidensticker Genesis 1.1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." could also be "In the beginning of when God was creat...
by lpetrich
Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:13 am
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: Mustard Seed
Replies: 25
Views: 40452

Re: Mustard Seed

Three 𐤔𐤋‬𐤔 (Hebrew) 𐤕𐤋𐤕 (Aramaic) ث ل ث (Arabic) ΤΡΙΣ (Greek) Phonetic transcriptions omitted. They are: Hebrew shalosh, Aramaic talaata, Arabic thalaatha, Greek tris. That makes it very obvious that Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic are much more like each other than any of them is to Greek. The Greek o...
by lpetrich
Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:16 pm
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: Mustard Seed
Replies: 25
Views: 40452

Re: Mustard Seed

Pure goropism. Such absurdly contrived etymologies are necessary because Indo-European words for numbers do not resemble the corresponding Semitic words very much.
by lpetrich
Fri Jan 11, 2019 7:14 pm
Forum: Jewish Texts and History
Topic: Mustard Seed
Replies: 25
Views: 40452

Re: Mustard Seed

The conjunction is prefixed in Phoenician and suffixed in Latin -- big difference. Let's count from one to ten.S ource: The Numbers List at zompist.com Latin: ūnus duo trēs quattuor quinque sex septem octō novem decem Greek: heīs dúō treīs téttares pénte héx heptá oktṓ ennéa déka English: one two th...