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Genesis 1:1-2:3 - What does it actually teach??
In the seemingly-endless battle between proponents of various views of creation or evolution one thing often gets glossed over--the actual text of the Biblical creation account. Those who work with the Hebrew text of Genesis have realized for decades that there is a large amount of flexibility and ambiguity in how the text can be translated due to the very nature of the Hebrew language. For instance, while English has 12 verb tenses by which to express the temporal aspect of an action, Hebrew only has 2--and they can be used interchangeably quite often!
Another factor which Creationists and Darwinists seem oblivious to is that Genesis' creation account is written in a known Ancient Near East (ANE) literary style and is not intended to be read as stright literal chronology.
This has been demonstrated by both Jewish and Christian Biblical Hebrew scholars...yet it seems to go completely unnoticed whenever Genesis is used to argue for or against a particular scientific view of creation. But the pattern is clear to any reader of the text familiar with ANE historiography:
[image by James-Michael Smith]
In the first series of 3 "days" (the Hebrew word for "day", yom, has at least 3 different meanings just within the first two chapters of Genesis and 5 basic meanings overall in the Hebrew Bible), God forms various realms. In the corresponding 3 "days", God then forms the "rulers" of each realm. Afterwards, the entire pattern is undergirded by a period of rest, which according to the text, does not end. That is, God's "sabbath" continues to this day (a point both OT and NT writers understood and reflected upon).
The final error many on both sides often make is that of ignoring the phenomenological language employed in Scripture, particularly in the Hebrew Bible. The Bible frequently describes events as they would have appeared rather than in a woodenly literal sense. Even our modern languages do this, for example, every time they speak of "sunrise" or "sunset."
Given the above considerations, below is a translation of the Hebrew Bible's Creation account meant to preserve the ambiguity and artistry of the original Hebrew as much as possible. Perhaps it will help those caught in the middle of the "Creation/Evolution" debates recapture a sense of what the Bible actually teaches...and just as important, what it doesn't teach:
Translation of Genesis 1:1-2:3 by James-Michael Smith
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…
...but the earth was empty and desolate and darkness covered the face of the seas—
yet the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.God said, “There will be light.” …and there was light!
God saw the light—that it was good!
God made a distinction between the light and the darkness.
God named the light “Day” and the dark He named “Night.”There was evening and there was morning. Day one
God said, “There will be an expansive dome in the midst of the water, dividing water from water.”
So God made the expansive dome and separated the water that is beneath the expansive dome from the water that is above the expansive dome.
Thus it happened!
God named the expansive dome “Sky.”There was evening and there was morning. Day two
God said, “The waters beneath the Sky will be gathered to one place so that dry land will appear.”
Thus it happened!
God named the dry land “Land” and the gathered waters He named “Sea.”
God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “The Land will sprout grass and plants producing seed and fruit trees producing fruit according to their type with seeds in it—throughout the Land.”
Thus it happened!
The Land brought forth grass and plants producing seed and trees bearing fruit with seeds in it according to their type.
God saw that it was good.There was evening and there was morning. Day three
God said, “There will be lights in the expansive dome of the Sky,
to distinguish between the Day and the Night
and they will be for signs, seasons, days and years;
and they will provide light in the expansive dome of the Sky—
to shine over the Land.”
Thus it happened!
God appointed the two Great Lights—
the greater light, the ruler of the Day
and the lesser light, the ruler of the Night—
as well as the stars.
God had put them in the expansive dome of the Sky to shine over the Land,
ruling over the Day and over the Night,
separating the Light and the Dark.
God saw that it was good.There was evening and there was morning. Day four
God said, “The seas will teem with swarming creatures
and flying creatures will fly over the Land,
over the face of the expansive dome, the Sky.”
God created the Great Sea Monsters
and all the swarming creatures that swarm the waters according to their types
and all winged flying creatures according to their types.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the Seas;
and flying creatures, multiply in the Land!”There was evening and there was morning. Day five
God said, “The Land will bring forth living creatures according to their types—
livestock, small animals, and wildlife of the Land according to their types.”
Thus it happened.
God made the wildlife of the land according to their types,
the livestock according to their types,
and all the small animals of the ground according to their type.
God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make Human in our image, according to our likeness;
and he will rule over the fish of the Sea
and over the flying creatures of the Sky
and over the livestock
and over all the Land
and over all the small animals in the Land.”So God created Human in His image;
In the image of God He created him;
Male and Female—He created them.God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply,
fill the Land and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the Sea
and the flying creatures of the sky
and over all creatures swarming over the Land.”
Then God said, “Look! I am giving to you everything that makes seed throughout all the Land.
And every tree that has fruit on it bearing seed,
to you it will be for food.
And to every creature of the Land,
every flying creature of the Sky,
and everything swarming over the Land that has living breath in it,
all green plants will be food.
Thus it happened!
God saw all that He had made and, behold!—It was exceedingly good!There was evening and there was morning. Day six
So the Heavens and the Earth and all their hosts were completed.
God finished on the seventh day from all His work that He did.
He ceased on the seventh day from all His work that He did.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
For on it He ceased from all His work that He did in creating.
How to read Genesis by Tremper Longman
New International Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis (2 vols.) by Victor Hamilton
NIV Application Commentary: Genesis by John Walton
Encountering the Book of Genesis by Bill Arnold
Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study by Bill Arnold
Rethinking Genesis by Duane Garrett
Kingdom Prologue by Meredith Kline
How to read the Bible book by book by Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart
Comments
My compliments on your translation of Gen 1: - 2:3. In your interpretation of the meaning of yom in this context, please be sure to address Ex 20:8-11; Ex 31:12-17; as well as the use of "evening and morning". Looking at this broader picture, then, the meaning of yom, in the Gen 1:1 - 2:3 context, clearly means a 24-hour day.
God is still resting from His creating (something from nothing), so in that sense, the Sabbath continues. But God continues to uphold the universe, its organization and life, each instant and so is still working. So the seventh day in the first week of time for earth has passed. We are now into the 7th millennium since that week.
From the secular perspective, the long-age dates that secularists rely on to bash the Bible are all based on assumptions that are (a) unprovable, and (b) likely proved untrustworthy as a result of ICR's RATE.
Where would you rather place your confidence - the Word of the infallible creator God or the fallible word of man?
Michael,
Exodus patterns literal human weeks after the non-literal "days" of Gen.1 just as Exodus patterns the literal earthly tabernacle after the non-literal heavenly throne vision Moses received atop Sinai.
The "days" in Gen. 1 are not normal solar days, because the sun doesn't appear until "day" 4.
"Evening and Morning, Day ____" is a hymnic refrain that patterns the text around the idea of a 6-fold period followed by rest. To press it for literalistic readings is as illegitimate as pressing Psalm 23 for literalistic detail. It's thoroughly wrongheaded. This is something that ICR, AiG, and other YEC proponents can never seem to realize. As a Bible teacher committed to the Inspiration and authority of Scripture, I find such obtuse reading simply mind-boggling in light of the importance they place elsewhere on genre, grammar and syntax. Those things are important for every other part of the Bible...except Gen.1 it seems.
James, I did not delete your link to this post in the comments at my site - Christian Worldview.
Perhaps you would like to guest write at CWE and offer another opinion. I am not opposed to the idea.
Bill,
I didn't think you did, but I could've sworn I posted a link and then didn't see it when I looked again. But Examiner's been acting up all day today, so who knows.
As for presenting another view, I would be all for that. Let me know how to proceed.
And congrats on being top Examiner almost every day! :)
thank GOD he left creating humans till last, you can just imagine them being created first then wanting to interfere in everything else HE made.
I've had a similar understanding of the text, even without the understanding of the language, but what is really cool is that the imagery never popped (for lack of a less dumb sounding word) for me until reading it again here. Thanks JM!
I also like the dramatic pause between earth... and ...but. I'm sure we'll hear no end to the debate, though.
Your translation is pretty good except you were wrong in translating "shamayim" as "heavens," plural, in Genesis 1:1. It should be "heaven" singular. The firmament on day two is not the same firmament on day four. On day two it refers to inner space, day four goes back to day one when God spoke a physical universe into existence, "heaven," singular. This is outer space. The sun, moon, and stars are not in the same firmament as where the birds fly.
If Gen 1:1 is simply a descriptive heading as to what's about to occur, then translating "heavens" (plural) would be correct. And isn't this typical of Hebrew literature..to describe something generally, and then go back and describe it more detailed?
Dr. Arv,
The phrase "et hashamayim ve et ha arets" (literally "the sky and the land") is a phrase that idiomatically refers to everything in creation. That's why I translated it in the traditional manner. It is referring to everything. The text then goes back in 1:2 to describe this process as it pertains to "ha harets" (the earth/land); much like Gen.2:4 describes the entire process of 1:1-2:3 and then goes back in 2:5ff to describe the process pertaining to the creation of humans in more detail.
However, as I noted above, there are multiple ways various passages can be translated, so we must be careful when pressing the text for things like chronology, literalness, and technical meanings.
Good points on the complicated nature of verb aspect in Hebrew literary work & poetry. Context, the way the verb sits in the sentence, and in reference to the larger context of actions, is all important determinant to figuring out the aspect of the verb (a thing grammarian/scholars tend to miss because they like to fit things into neat systematic straight-jackets). Slightly disagree with the premise that there are only "two" tenses. Hebrew verbs work awkwardly & harder, but they communicate varifold moods and aspects as well. It's just that the word order & context is also needed...Hebrew is not atomized like Indo-European langauges in this regard. Instead of single notes, chords are needed.
For more insight to Hebrew tenses (and such), my Hebrew teach Randy Buth, apparently runs a blog touching on these things at alefandomega blogspot.
Please continue your studies...And go learn with Randy in Jerusalem! ') One of the best experiences learning in my life.
BTW, how I would read the beginning of Genesis:
Setting (imperfect time):
In the beginning of God's creating of the heaven and the earth, while the earth was chaotic and void, with darkness over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was restlessly moving over the waters...
Action:
God declared, "Let there be light!"...
"Another factor which Creationists and Darwinists seem oblivious to is that Genesis' creation account is written in ..."
Darwinists? What is a darwinist, actually? Did you mean evolutionary biologists?
Biology doesn't concern itself with the bible. It is all about, y'know, biology. Living (and fossilized) organisms, not ancient myths.
The bible is irrelevant to science. But I'm sure you already knew that.
Lars,
Darwinist = proponent of classical Darwinian evolution, i.e. unguided natural selection acting on random mutation
shorthand for those of this background who comment on the book of Genesis. Individuals such as Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, Dennett, etc.
Genesis does pertain to science in a roundabout way, just as any work that makes claims about the world around us pertains to science in a roundabout way. For instance, Genesis claims that the universe is not eternal. This does have ramifications for people like the late Fred Hoyle or even Einstein, who argued for an eternal steady-state universe. Modern cosmology showed this to be false and thus agreed with one aspect of the Genesis text. However, that doesn't mean the text should be pressed for scientific detail in general. But when done correctly, good Bible interp and good scientific data interp will not conflict, as God is the author of both (cf. Psalm 19's "2 book" metaphor)
"Darwinist", you'll find, is a term that only theists use.
"Genesis claims that the universe is not eternal. This does have ramifications for people like the late Fred Hoyle or even Einstein, who argued for an eternal steady-state universe. Modern cosmology showed this to be false and thus agreed with one aspect of the Genesis tex"
The steady state model was an attempt to deal with the apparently catestrophic drop in energy density - it has nothing at all to do with the bible in the slightest. Einstein's contribution was in the context of what is now referred to as "dark energy" - "dark" because it's unquantified. Modern cosmology STILL cannot clarify if the universe is finite, but there is very, very little evidence for it being so i.e. modern cosmology predicts that the universe is indeed eternal (barring catestrophic incidents)- ergo your 1 year old statement is out of date (and actually, it was 1 year ago too).
"But when done correctly, good Bible interp and good scientific data interp will not conflict"
what you mean here is, after looking at the data, the necessarily vague and ambiguous text of the bible can be contrived so that it appears consistent.
Data first, bible last. because the bible is bronze-age twaddle, data are real.
Eric,
I like your translation as well. Huggenberger does a good job in arguing for b'reshith being a construct rather than an absolute beginning. I could easily be swayed to that view, as it doesn't make a huge difference in the overall reading; though it does give a different literary feel.
Thanks for the website recommendation too.
You pay my plane ticket, living expenses and tuition and I'll go study there in a heartbeat! ;)
American Religious Retards.
You just gotta love em.
Nice comment Tommy Lee. Way to model intelligent discourse. *sigh*
Ha! JM... You better pray I get a chunky raise!
Every translation is a new reading, JM. Alas, it is difficult to convey the exact nuances of literary Hebrew poetry into English translation. The KJV is beautiful, but highly misleading. The only way to get the poetic "feel" (and the meaning perfectly) is to read it in Hebrew. My English take, while semantically controlled, sounds convoluted...but not in Hebrew! It's not apparent to English readers that the narrative action begins with "God declared 'Let there be light'", and all before is just painting the setting...But to the ancient Hebrew reader, it would have been sensed. Huge things happen in Hebrew when the verb jumps to the front of the sentence (before the subject)...Word order is not important to Indo-European languages. But it is to Hebrew.
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