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INTRODUCTION
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was/became formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.1
The-earth and the-heavens *** God he-created in-beginning surface-of over and-darkness and-empty formless she-was now-the-earth and-he-said the-waters surface-of over hovering God and-spirit-of deep.2 (inversion of the literal right to left from the translation of Hebrew)
Deep of-spirit-and God hovering over of-surface waters-the said-he-and earth-the-now was-she formless empty-and darkness-and over of-surface beginning-in created-he God *** heavens-the and earth-the.3 (literal right to left but presented left to right from original Hebrew in translation)
Derrida's "Ousia and Gramme: Note on a Note from Being and Time" from his powerful Margins of Philosophy seems to indicate a critique of Heidegger's critique of the linear notion of time born from the metaphysics of Aristotle. Whether Derrida succeeds in differentiating his critique of the tradition's notion of time and origin from that of Heidegger's critique is not the issue. A general comparison of Derrida and Heidegger is not our aim. Does Derrida mark an advance in the history of the critique of metaphysics (pre-Socratics to Hegel), arbitrarily beginning with Nietzsche and culminating in the thought of Heidegger? We are not here to answer that question.
Rather, to what extent does the mystery of "Ousia and Gramme" draws its inspiration from the theology of Genesis 1:1-2 regarding the origin of time, and the mysterious arche that lies prior to the distinction of time and eternity? "Ousia and Gramme" may generate a startling difference regarding the problem of time and origin as encrusted in the history of the metaphysics of presence-something Heidegger intended to destroy in trying to open another sense of Being. 'Being' and 'Time' are indeed entwined but not as the tradition postulates: the undying quest of Heidegger is to implode the tradition while bearing witness to the mystery of the entwinement. Derrida however tries to differentiate the Heideggerean task from itself.
My hypothesis is that the puzzles, paradoxes and linguistic contortions, which constitute the fundamental mystery of Genesis 1:1-2, can help illuminate the deepest motivations, intentions and pointers that make "Ousia and Gramme: Note on a Note from Being and Time" such a remarkable...