21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 2:4, aspectless verbs

Genesis 2:4

ד אֵ֣לֶּה תֽוֹלְד֧וֹת הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ בְּהִבָּֽרְאָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם עֲשׂ֛וֹת יְהוָֹ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶ֥רֶץ וְשָׁמָֽיִם:

Translation:     These are toldot of heaven and earth at the time of their being created; on the day of the Lord Gd creating earth and heaven.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

אֵלֶּה	These
תוֹלְדוֹת	Generations, births
הִבָּרְאָם	Their being created
עֲשׂוֹת	creation

Eleh toldot is another version of Axel Olrik’s Law of Opening. Instead of being grammatical, like perfect aspect (which is something he didn’t know about and didn’t discuss), it’s the narrative content. It’s kind of like “once upon a time.”

But here we have two special verbs, b’hibaram and asot. These verbs have no aspect. I’ll discuss aspectless verbs as I go along, but one of the things they do is substitute for the other aspects, usually perfect aspect to which they are related. This relationship might be a characteristic of Semitic verbs. In his grammar of Assyrian, written for Hermann Strack’s series on Semitic languages, Friedrich Delitzsch realized that perfect and aspectless verbs looked alike.

As replacements for perfect aspect, b’hibaram and asot imply that the actions they represent are over, but are not the focus of the current narrative. This is not a second creation story. It has a different goal.

Why do I show one of these verbs as a gerundive and the other as a noun? Because gerundives are verbal nouns. But the first one is being used as an adverb of time, so I emphasized its verbal nature.

Finally, b’hibaram is a nifal phrase. Remember, nifal is about decrees from heaven. That makes b’hibaram a parallel to b’yom asot. When Gd issues a decree, both the decree and its being carried out are instantaneous. But bara and asot have to go together, as they did in the previous narrative, because Gd brought into existence from nothing, that which was made into the world.

So you’re saying then why did it take seven days? I already partly answered that question in the last post, but here’s the other part. This verse only refers to heaven and earth, like Genesis 1:1. The seven days happened after Genesis 1:1. Trying to trip me up with a contradiction? Only because you’re not looking at the actual words, you’re thinking of what you were told that I already did to death on the Fact-Checking blog.

You saw the etnach, right? Let’s move on to the “commas” of which there are several. In this verse, there’s a diamond above b’yom. That’s a revia. To me, it seems kind of emphatic to me. This would emphasize that the bara and asot started on the same day. Gd doesn’t lollygag around!