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May 27, 2008
A Wrong Minded or Unsupportable Idea
Please don't read this unless you have a fairly high tolerance for frustration. This post is about a dead-end search for something that may not exist. It does not have a happy ending. It likely won't make you cry either. But it does reflect one important aspect of research.
Ever since I was in graduate school, lo those many years ago, I've thought there was something missing in our understanding of the second Hebrew word in the Hebrew Bible, ברא ("created" or "create"). Recent posts by Chris Heard and John Hobbins renewed my abnormal interest in this word. Those posts were mostly reacting to John Walton’s suggestion that we might best understand the word as "to establish a function, to assign a role." You can read their discussion and Walton's response. For what it may be worth, I think Walton's proposal, while attractive in some ways, is not sustainable. But my interest lies in a somewhat different direction. Is there something in the semantic range of ברא that implies "calling" something into existence? "And God said, 'Let there be light' . . . And God said 'Let us make (עשה) humankind in our image'. . . "
I started in the usual way by looking at all the instantiations of the root ברא in the Hebrew Bible. I could not convince myself that there were any examples of a relationship between ברא and calling into existence where there was not some dependent relationship between Geneses 1:1 and the passage under consideration. By the way, the root only occurs as a personal name in the Hebrew epigraphic material.
So I decided to take the always dangerous step and look at cognates. The only more or less obvious Ugaritic cognate example is also a personal name, bn bri (KTU 4.103::38, but see KTU 4.382:33 and 4.393:11 bbru[?]). It doesn't seem to occur in the extant Phoenician texts at all. So on to Akkadian: Now the real trouble begins. barû is the most likely Akkadian cognate. But because of the defective system used to write Akkadian, one cannot be completely confident. And then there's the problem of the meaning. The center of the semantic range of Akkadian barû is "to look upon." One might be tempted to see a connection or two with some of the less common fringe usages like those in the Š-stem meaning "to divulge" or "to reveal." But these usages are all in the context of dream interpretation. In so far as barû ever means "make" or the like, it seems to mean always to make someone see something or other. I did find this interesting tidbit in from the Ashurbanipal LibraryCAD B, 118,
nibīt šumi-ia ina šutti ú-šab-ri-šú-ma daššur ilu bānūa,
Aššur, the god who created me, revealed (ušubri) my actual name to him in a dream.
But I'm not sure its worth running across town to get the whole text and context. Without that, it's hard to know what to make of these few words. And there really just doesn't seem to be anything else in this neighborhood worth pursuing. Another idea, well actually two other ideas, just struck me but I've already had enough frustration for one day.
So why did I post this? Well, I spend so much time trying to find a pony in this pile and also trying, but failing, to rise to Bob MacDonald's challenge that I don't have anything else to post. But that is way it is with research. The most ideas go nowhere and that is exactly where they should go. It's likely that is where this one should go too.
Update: May 28, 2008:
Corrected Akkadian text and translation. I had omitted Aššur
Posted by Duane Smith at May 27, 2008 7:40 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
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Comments
Duane,
The TDOT (p. 2:245) says that ברא appears 49 times in the OT and all the occurrences are in post-exilic texts. The article concludes: "Therefore, it can be regarded as certain that ברא was introduced into OT literature as a theological idea for the first time in the exilic period."
The article also says that the word has not been found in older Semitic languages. The Akkadian word for "create" is banu, a word that slso means "to build."
Claude Mariottini
Posted by: Claude Mariottini at May 27, 2008 8:12 PM
Claude,
Thanks for your comment. I looked at all 49 occasions. It seemed like more! In the light of the root in a personal name on a likely pre-exilic seal, I wonder if TDOT is correct. But assuming that it is correct, ברא didn't come into Hebrew ex nihilo, if you'll excuse the use of the expression.
The thing that attracted me to the Akkadian text I quoted was the use of bānu and barû in the same sentence.
Posted by: Duane at May 27, 2008 9:04 PM
Duane - thanks for the trial. It occurred to me just reading your note that an 'alef is for ...' type of approach might work as a teaching tool also. Iyov has posted some links to U-tube songs that are quite delightful - specially the rap one which will likely get the kids attention if I use it.
Posted by: Bob MacDonald at May 27, 2008 10:43 PM
Since my challenge, I have come up with two solutions here and here
Now - about BR) - I am curious that you might search more on this... I was wondering even about Psalm 4:1-2 being a commentary. 1 is a plea for help and 2 a rebuke - a kind of - after creating you, what will I do about your misdirections. Just a disconnected thought...
Posted by: Bob MacDonald at July 7, 2008 12:52 PM
As to br), I did kick this around a little with John H. the other day, but haven't had time to do much real work on it. I'm up to my ears in a couple of other things right now.
Perhaps I need to look at Psalm 4:1-2 a little more closely. I assume you're using common translation numbering and not MT verse numbering. On causal reading there seems to me to be some tension between the two verses. Is the speaker in verse 1 the same speaker as in verse 2? I almost feel the Psalm reads better without verse 2. In other contexts, one would likely think the speaker in verse 2 is YHWH. On my reading, verse 2 has more of the flavor of a rebuke than a plea.
Posted by: Duane at July 7, 2008 1:42 PM
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