John 1:1 - what is its music?

I could spend the rest of my life trying to hear the mind of the word in the commentary on Tanakh that is the New Testament. Perhaps this one chapter alone could occupy considerable time.

What occurs to me in this first verse is that we have here a counteraction to raw evolution.

The word made flesh in the human, in the earthling, is counter to the rawness of nature red in tooth and claw. We have here thoughtfulness, mindfulness, logic, care, exercising its prerogative to be tenderhearted, compassionate, merciful, over what it finds on its awakening.

In the short term, it is not a difference between animal and earthling by any means. Earthling is as brutal as any if not more so. It is a call from within (what is this earthling, this mortal human child...) and from not within to consider the co-operative nature of the created order (consider the heavens ...).

The first 5 words of Salkinson-Ginsburg are identical to Margoliuth. Then M introduces another word אצל, next to (preposition 66 uses). It may also be rendered in some contexts as hold in reserve (5), elect (2), joint (2), taper (1).

The two translations diverge after the atnach.
SG
בְּרֵאשִׁית֙ הָיָה֣ הַדָּבָ֔ר וְהַדָּבָר֥ הָיָה֭ אֵ֣צֶל אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים
וְהוּא הַדָּבָר הָיָה אֱלֹהִֽים׃
M
וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים הָיָ֥ה הַדָּבָֽר׃

The shape of M looks like this.

John 1:1 Margoliuth translation into Hebrew

The Greek and the King James English are familiar to us to the point of trouble. We can no longer understand what once we thought we did.

εν αρχη ην ο λογοϲ και ο λογοϲ ην προϲ τον θν και θϲ ην ο λογοϲ

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

How curious that both Hebrew translators use the definite article with 'Elohim'. Notice of course that there is no capitalization in either the Greek or the Hebrew.

Why the construct in the first word of the Hebrew? There is lots of debate about how to translate the first word of the Bible. 

Clearly it is imitating the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1 by the use of the words 'εν αρχη', but the accents of M do not imitate Genesis 1:1. 

Here is what they would look like if they did. The word would be on the rest note, and would be followed by a recitation on the rest note.

John 1:1, with the accents imitating Genesis 1:1

This music celebrates the untold eons of the work of the hidden word in creation, the music of the spheres, the creation of hydrogen, helium, and the heavier elements, the celebration of the stars, all those other children and chanting nurselings.

In the beginning the word was, and the word was next to the God,

and the God was the word.

Remember Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning of God's creating,

the heavens and the earth,

So not only will compassion undermine our limited self-interest or our imagination of blind watchmaking, but the watchmaking that produced the elements is itself a celebration, all the children shouting for joy at the informational substructures in the created order.

But what other melodies could we make? I think M is right to delay the atnah. My version has only the weaker zaqef qatan to separate the third phrase from the second. I might consider just reversing the merkha and tifcha in the third phrase of the verse, and introducing the tifcha on the third syllable of the first phrase instead of the geresh.

Notes:

1. I have elected to omit a metheg in that it conflicts with the silluq. My program will generally ignore this short stroke below the consonants:  ֽ if it appears to be in the wrong place, but it is a soft decision in the code, and it may produce a spurious unstressed return to the tonic.
2. I have generally rendered Salkinson-Ginsberg first, but the text will reflect Margoliuth because I want to observe his compositional trajectory.