• Biblical Families is not a dating website. It is a forum to discuss issues relating to marriage and the Bible, and to offer guidance and support, not to find a wife. Click here for more information.

Genesis 1:1 the fourth Hebrew word is never translated to English

Nikud

Nikud

Seasoned Member
Real Person
Male
Genesis 1:1

In the beginning of God's creation of the heavens and the earth.

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ

I decided to do a word for word translation from Genesis through Revealation for my family. When I started doing the word for translation I was reminded of something I had learned awhile back ago and I'm not sure if it's been shared on the forum. There is something found in the first verse of Genesis that alot of folks have never seen because they only rely on English translations. If you haven't done an Original Hebrew language study of Genesis from 1:1, you probably haven't ever seen whats going to be point out. That is unless you've talked to someone who has done the study or some of the other men on this forum. The fourth Hebrew word of the Hebrew text is not translated into English or any other language. I beleive its because the translators didn’t know how to translate the word so they ignored it.

This is from an article on the word study of Genesis I found.

"However it says something that is very profound when you understand what it is and what it means. Genesis 1 is comprised of exactly 7 Hebrew words and seven is the number associated with God. The number 6 is a number often associated with man. Therefore the omission of just one word changed the meaning of the verse dramatically. This omitted word falls between “In the beginning” and “God” in the English translation. So it appears to be an adjective that qualifies the noun “God” which is the Hebrew Word “Elohiym”.

This word is made up of just two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The first letter is called the “alef” and second letter is called the “tav”. This still doesn’t appear to have any significance until you begin to understand that these are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet and that changes everything doesn’t it?"

Revalations 22:13

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Just a little reminder that Yeshua was always the plan. He was with us from the begining and he'll be there for us at the end.
 
Last edited:
To me the Aleph Tav is the epitome of the Adonai/Adown on the Cross or covenant marker.
Just a reminder that He was the Lamb/Ox/Firstborn who was Slain/Covenanted from the “foundation of the world” or “In the beginning “

Wow. Great stuff Kevin
 
Excellent. Thank you for pointing this out.

I see that this word exists in other verses as well. I wonder what the full teaching is?
 
Aleph Tav (in my opinion) is the source for the idea of the Alpha and Omega. The First and the Last.
Obviously, alpha and omega are not Hebrew words, and while the Greek alpha does come from the Hebrew aleph, the Greek Omega represents the Z as opposed to the T for the Hebrew Tav.
The connection between the two languages is that the T and the Z are the last letters of each alphabet, and the A is the first letter of each of the alphabet.
IMO the phrase the first and the last probably originated when the Hebrew was in common use as a means of obliquely referring to YHWH and was carried over in the vernacular when the common language became Greek. As many phrases do, this one couldn’t quite be translated with the full import into the Greek language and so we end up with a Greek phrase that means roughly the same, but is incapable of presenting the same pictographic symbolism as the Hebrew.

I’m certain that this is not the full teaching, but it’s crazy interesting when you understand what’s behind each Hebrew letter
 
Slumberfreeze said:
I see that this word exists in other verses as well. I wonder what the full teaching
Click to expand...
I think that's what I'm going to be dedicating my daily study time to from now on. I'll post here as I work it out. I'd appreciate any help given.

Without doing a full study, I do have a bias that kinda falls in line with @Verifyveritas76. I agree completely agree with the Alpha-Omega, Aleph-Tav, A-Z connection and that there is something more to it. It maybe a way to inderectly reference G-d, but why use an indirect reference before making a direct refrence.

Quartus said:
so eth would belong to what is created not the elohim that created them?
Click to expand...
Asumming it is a mark of the accusative, yes. I'm not sure it is.
 
Guys... The "eth" isn't modifying Elohim. It's modifying ha-shamayim (the heavens). You can tell, because there's a second one modifying ha-eretz (the earth). It's just preceded by a waw/vav conjunction. I take the more mundane view that Quartus mentions, that it's just a grammatical marker.

Gesenius calls H853 a demonstrative pronoun, so if you had to pick a word to translate it, I'd imagine you could say something like "God created these: the heavens, and this: the earth."

He also mentions the Greek autos, and "self, this same", so perhaps another possibility would be "...the very heavens, and the very earth."
 
Last edited:
A quick search online turned up the info that eth- is also used in reference to skin plagues in Leviticus, and cow dung in Ezekiel 4:15. Good luck fitting those into the idea of it meaning beginning and end.
 
Shibboleth said:
Gesenius calls H853 a demonstrative pronoun, so if you had to pick a word to translate it, I'd imagine you could say something like "God created these: the heavens, and this: the earth."
Click to expand...
I am interest how you got these as a translation. Looking at the other places it is used "these" doesn't fit or is repeating the word these using a completely different word than the one translate as these.
Shibboleth said:
A quick search online turned up the info that eth- is also used in reference to skin plagues in Leviticus, and cow dung in Ezekiel 4:15. Good luck fitting those into the idea of it meaning beginning and end.
Click to expand...

In Eziekel it appears in scripture referencing G-d ,in Leviticus a priest, in numbers when an angel speaks, in Joshua when G-d speaks maybe there is a connection.

Maybe @Verifyveritas76 is correct or maybe it is an indirect way to show someone else is there.
 
Btw G-d isn't only found in pleasant situations. I know you know HE is there in the unpleasant ones too. The scripture about cow dung, I for one am glad he gave us cow dung to cook on. Have you ever smelled burning human dung? I have not pleasant. So what is it about this subject that gets to you?
 
I have smelled burning human dung. I haven't smelled burning cow dung for comparison. Is it... uh... more pleasant?
 
Yeah actually kind of sweet smelling.
 
Kevin said:
I am interest how you got these as a translation. Looking at the other places it is used "these" doesn't fit or is repeating the word these using a completely different word than the one translate as these.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. Most just call it an untranslatable grammatical marker. "These"/"this" was merely my attempt to accomodate Gesensius' claim that it is a demonstrative pronoun.
 
I approach language unusally I guess. I have a different veiw of words not having a meaning. In Romano lavo lil theres a suffix mengri/mengro it basically means thing.

Pose means straw. Posemengro literally means straw thing but is used to mean pitchfork or dinning fork or something made from straw.

Pov means earth. Povemengro literally means earth thing but can be used to mean any root vegetable.....except turnips they have there own word.

There's a saying. In Ramano Lavo lil there's a word for everything and the word is thing.

I have always had to look at languages diffrently. I'm not always right......I wish I was.......but it's given me a different way approach them.
 
Edit: this was written before Kevin's latest post was posted.

Kevin said:
Btw G-d isn't only found in pleasant situations. I know you know HE is there in the unpleasant ones too. The scripture about cow dung, I for one am glad he gave us cow dung to cook on. Have you ever smelled burning human dung? I have not pleasant.
Click to expand...
Okay, but that still doesn't prove the word has anything to do with God. I might as well claim the English indefinite article 'a' refers to God creating the universe in the beginning. After all, any noun it comes before is derived from something God created. But my arbitrarily claiming it to be so doesn't make it so.

Kevin said:
So what is it about this subject that gets to you?
Click to expand...
Nothing really. I don't know Hebrew, I can only parrot third-hand what others have said, and most seem to think it's just a grammatical marker. Don't get me wrong, there is value in doubting and questioning the consensus (I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that), I just don't see any reason to do so here. You wanna come up with an alternate interpretation, it's no skin off my back, but if you want to convince others, remember what they say about extraordinary claims.
 
Shibboleth said:
You wanna come up with an alternate interpretation, it's no skin off my back, but if you want to convince others, remember what they say about extraordinary claims.
Click to expand...
Just opening up a possibility to get everyone thinking. We each work out our own understanding and share. I kinda like confrontational @Shibboleth.

Kevin said:
So what is it about this subject that gets to you?
Click to expand...
BTW That was a cross post I didn't mean for it to be posted here. My tablets acting funny. Keeps auto correcting and adding sentences from various post I make.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top