Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

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