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

On Sat, Feb 14, 2004 at 08:07:30PM -0500, Mark J. Reed wrote:
> Speaking of the Babel text - the English begins with the word "and",
> which seems particularly common in Biblical translations and, in
> general, verse:
>
>         And all the land was one language and few words.
>
> What exactly does the "and" signify here?  I'm a native English speaker,
> but I still don't really know.  It's obviously not joining anything
> together, really.  Logically, it seems to be doing nothing at all, and
> yet there's a subtle at least connoative difference between the anded
> and andless versions.
[snip]

I was told that this use of "and" (which is very common in the Bible) may
signify the start of a new topic (from the preceding passage), possibly a
different point in time from what was discussed before.

Of course, I know no Hebrew and this is 2nd-hand info, so take it with
appropriate grains of salt.


T

--
Life would be easier if I had the source code. -- YHL