Divide and Put Difference
The verb bāḏal (בָּדַל, pronunciation, baw-dal') occurs in both Genesis 1:4 and Leviticus 10:10.
Genesis 1:4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided (בָּדַל) the light from the darkness.
Leviticus 10:10. And that ye may put difference (וּֽלֲהַבְדִּיל) (בְדִּיל)
between holy (קֹדֶשׁ) and common (חֹל), and
between impure (טָמֵא) and pure (טָהוֹר);
Regular readers here at Gypsy Scholar will be familiar with my position that Leviticus 10:10 is an example both of Semitic parallelism and literary chiasm.
Note the context given in Genesis 1:1-3, namely, that God's initial act was to create the heavens and the earth. The earth at this point was formless and empty, a very odd statement, hard to grasp. Also, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
This is the state of things at the initial moment of creation. The text merely describes a moment of anticipation. Nothing of substance has yet happened. At most, there is the slight trembling motion of hovering. God then acts to divide the light from the darkness. Why did he do this first? Was the darkness considered 'bad'? Apparently. The light was good. The darkness was not. These two must first be divided. We can post here:
heavens/earth
light/darkness
I'm making a scholarly inference here that these two opposing pairs reveal the correct way for arranging creation.
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 9:48 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
This is like Derrida's pairs of opposites with one side being the privileged half of the pair. I don't remember clearly, but he may have been riffing off an idea from Saussure with that insight. (Some possible clarification here. This article suggests Derrida was reacting to Saussure primarily by rejecting some of Saussure's premises, or at least taking them in a different direction.)
See revision above.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Here's our wisdom from the Bible, "Divided" as a a "holy" and "common", and between "impure" and"pure", and then identified as bad and good? Same thing as a heaven and earth? The "Earth" original purposes only good people will possess the Earthly paradise and Christ will rule in a thousand years as Millennial Reign, and "Heaven" for God's Kingdom will rule on the "Earth"--Revelation5:10; Matthew 6:10; Psalms 37:29. Unlike today our White House, United Nations on the ground in the Earth, but God's Kingdom is on the Heavenly Theocratic. Therefore the points here's not applicable for identifying the people's colour and Heaven is good and Earth is hell as a Hades and Graves cemetery but there will be resurrection for bad people and good people too according John 5:29.
Post a Comment
<< Home