Letting-be...

 

One rather distinguished writer, who happens to be a proponent of so-called existentialist theology, has argued that the essence of being is a dynamic “letting-be.”At a later point in his argument, he remarks: “It is significant that the Bible does not begin by merely affirming God’s existence but with his act of creation, which is the conferring of existence. His first utterance is: ‘Let there be light!’and so begins the history of his letting-be.”

What the author of these words fails to tell the reader is that there is nothing in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:3 that corresponds precisely to the English verb let. While Hebrew (as well as many other languages) has a specific verbal form for the third person imperative, English lacks such a form. English does have a second person imperative, such as “Come!” To express the imperative idea in the third person, however, we have to use other means, such as “John must come!” or “Let John come!” In the second example, the verb let does not have its usual meaning of “allow,”nor does it have any supposed dynamic sense; rather, it functions merely as a helping verb to express the imperatival idea. In short, this theologian’s appeal to the English rendering of Genesis 1:3 in support of his proposal has very little to commend it.

~Walter Kaiser and Moisés Silva, Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning