Anonymous, thank you very much for this. I'm relieved that Rashi does not contradict my attempt at understanding. He goes on to make a point which I was thinking about, but did not know enough to express an opinion.
I had a rudimentary Jewish education which from time to time I try to improve. Now that you've shown me that Chabad has put some Rashi up on the Web, I will look for it when a Biblical question comes up.
My remark about Greek influence had Maimonides in mind, but I haven't studied him, so only expressing a possibility.
One of the general differences between Judaism and Christianity (IMO) is that while Jewish scholars are ready to wring the juice from a text by discussion, speculation, storytelling, allegory, mysticism, gematria and so on, the Doctors of the Church go straight to issuing an authoritative pronouncement about things that no human being can know for sure. The reason for this, I think, is that since the destruction of the Second Temple, the organizational structure of Judaism is based primarily on collaboration, whereas the structure of churches imposed by Roman emperors was strictly hierarchical. You get hierarchies whenever a religion gets tied closely into support of the political state.
Re: water, affirmations, "in the beginning," and time
I had a rudimentary Jewish education which from time to time I try to improve. Now that you've shown me that Chabad has put some Rashi up on the Web, I will look for it when a Biblical question comes up.
My remark about Greek influence had Maimonides in mind, but I haven't studied him, so only expressing a possibility.
One of the general differences between Judaism and Christianity (IMO) is that while Jewish scholars are ready to wring the juice from a text by discussion, speculation, storytelling, allegory, mysticism, gematria and so on, the Doctors of the Church go straight to issuing an authoritative pronouncement about things that no human being can know for sure. The reason for this, I think, is that since the destruction of the Second Temple, the organizational structure of Judaism is based primarily on collaboration, whereas the structure of churches imposed by Roman emperors was strictly hierarchical. You get hierarchies whenever a religion gets tied closely into support of the political state.