H1254

• {"n":"Genesis 1:1b","s":"Created. A verb with only one possible subject in the whole Hebrew Bible.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-1-1b","r":"Genesis 1:1","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every version reads created. No dispute about the rendering, and a long dispute about what the verb implies."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"Imagine an English verb that only ever takes one subject. Nobody else in the language is allowed to do it. You would learn a lot about what the writers thought of that subject just from the grammar, before anyone made an argument."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Bara occurs around fifty times and God is the subject every single time. Humans never bara anything. The word says nothing on its own about whether material already existed; that argument runs through other verses and through later theology, not through this verb."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English create is used of anyone. A novelist creates a character, a chef creates a dish. The exclusivity is invisible in translation because English has no reserved verb."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"Before deciding what a word means, check who is allowed to do it. Subject restriction is one of the strongest signals a language gives about a word's weight."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Nothing is disputed in translation. What is disputed is whether bara implies creation from nothing, and the honest answer is that the verb alone does not settle it."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0 bara \u00b7 H1254"}],"src":["bara with God as subject throughout: Genesis 1:21, 27; 2:3; Isaiah 40:26; 45:7","Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One, argues bara concerns function rather than material (the dissent)","No occurrence of bara with a human subject exists in the Hebrew Bible"]}
• {"n":"Psalm 51:10a","s":"Create in me a clean heart. The verb is the one only God is ever allowed to do.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=psalm-51-10a","r":"Psalm 51:10","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"All versions read create. The reservation of the verb cannot be shown and is not footnoted anywhere."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"If a language had one verb reserved for a single person, and a petitioner used it about himself, you would notice. In English the same request reads as a polite way of saying please change me."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Bara, the verb of Genesis 1:1, used around fifty times and never with a human subject. David is not asking for improvement. He is asking for the creation verb to be used on him, which is a request for something that does not yet exist rather than repair of something damaged. Lev here is the seat of thought and will, the same word as the Shema."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English create is used of anyone and anything. There is no way to signal that a verb is restricted, so the echo of the first sentence of the Bible simply does not survive."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a psalm uses an unusual verb, check where else that verb appears. Hebrew poets quote Genesis constantly and almost never announce it."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Nothing to choose. Create is correct and carries none of the weight."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0 bara \u00b7 H1254"}],"src":["bara with God as subject throughout: Genesis 1:1, 21, 27; Isaiah 45:7","lev as the seat of thought and will: Deuteronomy 6:5; Proverbs 4:23","Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, on leb"]}