Re: USAGE: Initial "and" (was Re: The Babel Text)

On Sat, Feb 14, 2004 at 08:26:48PM -0500, Trebor Jung wrote:
>    Maybe the anded version means something like, '[And so,] all the land was
>    one language and few words'. Maybe there's something before this part of
>    the Bible about language or about the people of the land, and this part is
>    just continuing with the story.
It's the start of a chapter, and doesn't really follow logically on the
end of the previous one, which is an enumeration of the descendants of
Noah after the Flood.

Also, the phenomenon pops up elsewhere.  Consider the song "Closer to
the Heart", which begins with "And the men who hold high places ...",
or the song "That's What Friends Are For", which begins "And I never
thought I'd feel this way".  There are numerous other examples, usually
in verse rather than prose.

-Mark

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