by Beth Snodderly
he account in Genesis 1 of God’s making the land helped the people of Israel see themselves as a community of the people of God, about to inherit a land made for them by God. The author of the creation passage certainly knew how to get his readers’ and listeners’ attention. The grammar of Genesis 1:2 places a strong emphasis on “the land” by placing the noun before the verb, which is not usual in Hebrew: we’ha’eretz hayeta, “now the earth was ...”. Allen Ross asks, “Why did the new nation of Israel need to have this material and to have it written as it is?”
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