Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 52:2 (NA 2001)
Article: Terminological Patterns And The First Word Of The Bible: ב)ראשית) ‘(In The) Beginning’
Author: Wilfried Warning

TynBul 52:2 (2001) p. 267

Terminological Patterns
And The First Word Of The Bible:
ב)ראשית) ‘(In The) Beginning’

Wilfried Warning

Summary

Close reading of the final text of the Pentateuch has brought to light three linguistic linkages based on the nouns ראשהת ‘beginning’, עמר ‘Omer’, and אחרית ‘end’. According to the text’s extant Endgestalt the two nouns ‘beginning’ and ‘Omer’ overlap in their respective seventh positions, and the two antonyms ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ in the seventh and seventh-from-last/twelfth positions. The conjecture has thus been corroborated that the text has been carefully composed by its ancient author.

In some recent studies scrutinising selected passages of the Hebrew Bible the existence of linguistic links has been uncovered. Evidently these so-called ‘terminological patterns’1 are one of the structural devices by means of which the extant Endgestalt, i.e. final shape, of the Pentateuch has been crafted. As established in a previous essay these terminological patterns have been discovered by tabulating all the words used in a given self-contained literary unit, an entity which may consist of a brief passage, a chapter, or even a whole biblical book.2 By tabulating the vocabulary of a given passage, the distinct

TynBul 52:2 (2001) p. 268

distribution, relative frequency, and structural positioning of significant terms and/or phrases comes to light.3 In recent analyses of the book of Leviticus and several selected pericopes of the Pentateuch, it has been disclosed that in a variable length list the seventh and, in the case of a longer list, at times the twelfth position are emphasised by means of some special term or phrase.4 In the course of these studies the conjecture has been corroborated that each of the pericopes examined thus far has been carefully composed by its ancient author, ‘the term “author” being understood and used as referring to the person(s) responsible for the text before us, the person(s) who composed the literary units we call, for instance, “Genesis 17”, “the Joseph Story” or “Genesis”, literary entities which did not exist prior to their composition, whatever the prehistory of their individual parts may have been.’5

As of the beginning of 2001, m...