I recently put together a worship that focussed on human interaction with God through technology; all kinds of technology, not just the modern stuff. As part of this worship, I decided to take on a task I had been wanting to do for a while; to produce my own translation of Genesis 1:1-2:3, the first of the two creation stories at the beginning of Genesis.
I am no expert in Hebrew so I relied a lot on technology to help me do this and some of my translation choices may well be questioned by those in the know, but I have a specific agenda for my translation (as all translations do) and for the most part, the controversial choices were deliberate, rather than a result of my naivety in the field.
The specific intention of this translation is to give the reader a feel for some of the peculiarities of the Hebrew language, to hear some of the grammar and sentence construction as it is delivered in the original, to retain some of the peculiar poetry of the text and perhaps most importantly to get a sense of the creation story as a fluid torrent of action rather than the stilted and coldly segmented list of actions that it often becomes in English translations.
I have attempted to leave in ambiguities or even push towards seemingly incongruent interpretations of phrases or words, which on their own work poorly in English, but in the context of the whole story begin to paint an exciting and dynamic picture - "And God saw, that's good"
In addition I have skewed the emphasis of gender, but not without rules. In Hebrew everything has a gender, whether it is a person, species or inanimate object. Our historical tendency has been to translate objects and animals as neutral (it), God as masculine (he) and ignore any references to the feminine except in humans. This is not wrong, but it misses the way that the Hebrew language often pairs masculine and feminine in a way that helps create movement, drama and tension within the very grammar of the text. For example Adam the person from chapter 2-3 is also the name for the human race in chapter 1. Adam is masculine and singular, and yet God is heard to make 'them' male and female, this is in part because adam, the species is male in reflection of the female earth, adamah. Yet in verse Gen:1:26 we hear God making adam - in God's likeness, here God is the masculine and the image is feminine. My translation seeks to draw the feminine to our attention wherever possible and allow the masculine to go unnoticed except when it has a specific purpose to play. In particular, I have tried to avoid calling God 'he' as God is not human and therefore to translate as he is inconsistent with the traditional treatment of other non human nouns. This is intended partly as a counterbalance to other translations but also as a way of drawing out those hidden gender relationships within the grammar.
Genesis 1:1-2:3
1:1 In
beginning, God created the skywaters and the earth
1:2 And
the earth she was shapeless, empty and dark over the face of the deep
And
the breath of God, she fluttered over the face of the waters
1:3 And
God said - be light, and light be
1:4 And
God saw because the light was good
And
God separated between the light and the dark
1:5 And
God called day towards the light and night towards the darkness
And
it was evening, and it was morning: Day one
1:6 And
God said - be an open space between the waters
And
be separated choosing waters from waters
1:7 And
God made the open space
And
chose the waters which were from beneath to the open space
And
chose the waters which were from above to the open space
And
it’s so.
1:8 And
God called skywaters to the open space
And
it was evening, and it was morning: Second day
1:9 And
God said - gather the waters from beneath the skywaters to one place
And
the dry land she will be seen
And
it's so.
1:10 And
God called the earth to the dry land
And
to the gathered waters, called sea
1:11 And
God said - sprout she the earth,
Grass,
seed sowing plants, produce trees bearing produce of their kind
Which
carry their seed on the earth
And
it’s so
1:12 And
the earth she send out grass,
Plants
sowing seed of their kind and trees making produce
Which
carry the seed of their kind
And
God saw, that’s good
1:13 And
it was evening, and it was morning: Third Day
1:14 And
God said - be lights in the open space of the skywaters
To
separate between the day and the night
And
they were a sign for occasions, days and years
1:15 And
the lights be in the open space of the skywaters
To
be light upon the earth
And
it’s so
1:16 And
God made two great lights;
The
greater light for representing the day
The
lesser light for representing the night
And
the stars
1:17 And
God gave them to the open space of the skywaters
To cause light upon the earth
1:18 And
to represent day and night
And
to separate between light and darkness
And
God saw, that’s good
1:19 And
it was evening and it was morning: Fourth Day
1:20 And
God said - the waters swarm with swarming things
Living
life forces
And
a flock fly over the earth
Over
the face of the open space of the skywaters
1:21 And
God created the great sea monsters
And
each of she living, moving, life forces of their kind which swarm the waters
And
each winged flock of its kind
And
God saw, that’s good
1:22 And
God welcomed them
And
said - produce and be many
And
fill the waters in the seas
And
the flocks were many above the earth
1:23 And
it was evening, and it was morning: Fifth day
1:24 And
God said - the earth send out living life forces of her kind,
Beasts
and crawlies and life on earth of each kind
And
it’s so
1:25 And
God made life on earth of each kind
And
animals of each kind
And
crawlies of the womanearth of each kind
And
God saw, that’s good.
1:26 And
God said - let us make man in our image, as our feminine reflection
And
they control, with fish, the sea
And
with flock, the skywaters
And
with the animals and with all the earth
And
with all the crawling crawlies on the earth
1:27 And
God made the man in the image;
In
the image of God, created him;
Male
and female, created them
1:28 And
God welcomed them
And
God said to them - produce and be many and fill the earth
And
bind and control with fish, the sea
And
with flock, the skywaters
And
with all the living crawlies on the earth
1:29 And
God said - hey! I give to yous all plantlife to sow seed
Which
is on the face of all the earth
And
all the treelife which contains tree produce to sow seed,
For
yous it is for eating
1:30 And
for all life of the earth
And
for all the flock of the skywaters
And
for all the crawlies on the earth
Which
contain the living life force;
all
green plantlife for eating
And
it’s so
1:31 And
God saw all that was made.
And
hey, it’s very good
And
it was evening and it was morning: Sixth day
2:1 And
the skywaters and the earth
And
all their gathered multitudes were complete.
2:2 And
in the seventh day God completed the work that was done
And
in the seventh day, rested from all the work that was done
2:3 And
God welcomed the seventh day and set it apart
Because
in it was rest from all the work of creating
Which
God had done
