H776

• {"n":"Genesis 1:1c","s":"The heaven and the earth. Not two items. One idea named by its opposite ends.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-1-1c","r":"Genesis 1:1","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"All versions read the heavens and the earth. None flags the construction, and none needs to, because English has the same figure."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"**They searched high and low.** Nobody thinks two altitudes were searched. **She read it cover to cover.** Naming the two ends is how English says everything in between, and you have never once stopped to notice."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"This is a merism: two opposite terms standing for the whole. Hebrew uses it constantly. The phrase does not mean sky plus ground. It means the entire ordered cosmos, and Hebrew had no single word for that."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English does have this figure, which is why nothing is lost. The problem is that English readers treat biblical phrases as technical and stop hearing the figure they use themselves every day."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"A pair of opposites joined by and is usually one idea, not two. Test it by asking whether the writer meant to exclude the middle. If not, you have a merism."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Nothing to choose. This entry is here because readers argue about what heaven means as though it were a separate item being inventoried, rather than half of a single figure of speech."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05e9\u05b8\u05c1\u05de\u05b7\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd \u05d5\u05b8\u05d0\u05b8\u05e8\u05b6\u05e5 shamayim wa-arets \u00b7 H8064 + H776"}],"src":["Merism elsewhere: Psalm 139:2, sitting down and rising up; Deuteronomy 6:7, when thou liest down and when thou risest up","Genesis 2:4 repeats the phrase as a summary of the whole account"]}
• {"n":"erets","s":"Land, earth, country. Which one it means is usually the whole question.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=erets","r":"Genesis 1:1","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Versions read earth, land, country, or ground according to context."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"**He returned to his country.** **The whole world watched.** English keeps land and earth apart. Hebrew does not."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Erets is the ground, a territory, a nation's land, and the whole earth. Genesis 1:1 is usually read as the whole earth; the promises to Abraham are the land; and in the Prophets the choice between them changes the scope of a promise."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English has separate words for a plot, a country and the planet, so translators must decide a scope Hebrew leaves open."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a translation footnote offers land as an alternative to earth, the scope of the verse is in play, not just the wording."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Earth and land are both majority renderings in their own contexts."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d0\u05b6\u05e8\u05b6\u05e5 erets \u00b7 H776"}],"src":["erets as the whole earth: Genesis 1:1","erets as the promised land: Genesis 12:1; 15:18","erets as ground: Genesis 1:11"]}