Jeremiah 28:1
1 In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
1 In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
See Rashi's use of the same construction in Jeremiah 27:1 to justify his reading of בראשית (b'reshith) in the construct form in Genesis 1:1. (Interlinear Hebrew of the verse if you want it is here on biblehub.com.)
In the beginning was the Word . . .
As Rashi said, Jeremiah 28:1 begins, like Genesis, with בראשית — and it would be nonsense if translated "In the beginning, Zedekiah reigned."
It has been used,[1], however, to suggest that bereshith "always refers . . . to a period of time, . . . an extended indeterminate duration of time, not a specific moment . . . " and thus somehow cannot refer to the Creator's word Let there be light!
With respect to Genesis 1:1, however, the question of duration is irrelevant to the question of whether בראשית is in construct form: this is what determines whether the first finite verb is "said" or "created". Christians with John 1:1 in mind will agree with the great Hebrew scholar Rashi: in the beginning was the Word!
If in doubt, see notes from Harry Orlinsky's explanation at Bereshith in construct form — and in any case, moments have duration, don't they?
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKO9WDbI1_M/
(from Youtube automated transcript)
6:51 well we think of the word beginning and it has the idea of a point in time right
6:57 back at the very beginning and that's actually not how the Hebrew word actually is used it's not what the
7:04 Hebrew word actually means the term always usually always refers actually to
7:11 a period of time it's an extended indeterminant duration of time not a
7:17 specific moment and of course we come to the reading perhaps with the big bang in
7:23 mind the creation of the university mind or something like that but that's really not the intention of the writing at all
. . .
. . . now again a
8:57 good example's Jeremiah 28 verse 1 it came to pass in the same year in the
9:02 beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah we think well that's right at the beginning when he started to rain
9:08 well it goes on says in the fourth year and the fifth month that Hananiah the
9:14 son of Isaiah the prophet which is of Gideon came and spoke to him Jeremiah 28 verse 1 so this beginning of
9:22 the reign of Zedekiah was actually in his fourth year and fifth month so it's
9:27 not talking about the very start of the reign it's talking about the period of time that occurred before what we're
9:34 talking about now and that's how the word bareshit is used and so when we
9:40 talk about the beginning in the beginning god created it's not talking
9:45 about the very start it's talking about a period of time that existed before what we're now going to talk about it's
9:54 it's it's an undetermined period of time it could have been some time ago or actually could have been a period of
10:00 time up until quite recently there's no predetermined timeframe . . .
