I’m in the process of putting together a seminar on the first two chapters of Genesis for an event that will look at how the Bible and science relate. Crucial to the task is understanding the text of Genesis 1–2 well. I’ve been largely dissatisfied with many translations of these chapters, as they often shape the text in unhelpful ways that seem motivated by a particular agenda. While complete objectivity in translation is impossible, I believe we can do better than we have. Much better!
So I thought I’d post up my own translation of Genesis 1 and 2. My aim in this translation is not to align the text with a previously held view of origins or how the chapters do or don’t relate. Rather I want to convey in fluent modern English a sense of what an ancient person would have heard as the text was read in Hebrew. That’s also why I’ve deliberately left out verse markers: I’m aiming for ease in reading and less subconscious disjunction. I have, however, put larger gaps between paragraphs where I have determined the Hebrew text has a clear structural markers. I’ve also aimed to bring out a clearer sense of how the Hebrew verbs work in the text.
So without further ado, here’s my translation of Genesis 1–2.
GENESIS 1–2
At first, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was disorder and disarray, with darkness over the surface of the ocean, and God’s wind swirling over the surface of the water.
Then God said, “Let there be light.”
And there was light.
God saw that the light was good, so God differentiated between the light and the darkness. God called the light ‘day’, while the darkness he called ‘night’.
Evening came and morning came: Day One.
Then God said, “Let there be a ceiling in the midst of the water, and let there be a differentiation between bodies of water.”
So God made the ceiling and he differentiated between the water underneath the ceiling and the water above the ceiling.
And that’s how it was.
God called the ceiling ‘heavens’.
Evening came and morning came: a second day.
Then God said, “Let the water under the heavens pool together in one place, so dry land may appear.”
And that’s how it was.
God called the dry land ‘earth’, while the pooling of water he called ‘seas’. God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation across the earth: seed-bearing plants, and fruit-producing trees, each with its own variety of fruit with its own seed inside it.”
And that’s how it was.
The earth brought forth vegetation: a variety of seed-bearing plants, and a variety of fruit-producing trees with its own seed inside it. God saw that it was good.
Evening came and morning came: a third day.
Then God said, “Let there be luminaries in the ceiling of the heavens to differentiate between the day and the night, serving as signs, holidays, days, and years, and serving as luminaries in the ceiling of the heavens to shine on the earth.”
And that’s how it was.
God made the two large luminaries—the bigger luminary in charge of the day, and the smaller luminary in charge of the night—as well as the stars. God put them in the ceiling of the heavens to shine on the earth, to have authority over the day and the night, and to differentiate between the light and the darkness. God saw that it was good.
Evening came and morning came: a fourth day.
Then God said, “Let the water teem with teeming wildlife, and let birds fly over the earth across the ceiling of the heavens.”
So God created the great monsters and all the wriggling wildlife with which the water teems, in all their varieties, and every variety of winged bird. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile, proliferate, and fill the water in the seas. And let the birds proliferate on the earth.”
Evening came and morning came: a fifth day.
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth a variety of wildlife: animals that walk and animals that wriggle—a variety of land-based life.
And that’s how it was.
God made a variety of wildlife: the varieties of walking animals, and all the variety of animals that wriggle across the earth. God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let’s make humanity in our image, just like us, so they may rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the animals that walk, and the whole earth, and every animal that wriggles across the earth.”
So God created humanity in his image.
In the image of God he created it.
Male and female he created them.
God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fertile, proliferate, fill the earth, master it, and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, and all life that wriggles across the earth.”
Then God said, “There! I’ve given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it. It’s yours for food. For the land animals, the birds of the heavens, and anything that wriggles across the earth that has the breath of life I’ve given all the green plants for food.”
And that’s how it was.
God saw all that he had made. And there it was: very good!
Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.
So the heavens, the earth, and their entire array were completed. God completed the work he had done on the seventh day. So he stopped all the work he had done on the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and made it special, because on it God stopped all the work he had created by making.
These are the narratives of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
On the day Yahweh God made the heavens and the earth, before there was any bush of the field on the earth, before any plant of the field had sprouted (for Yahweh God had not yet made it rain on the earth), and there was no man to work the ground, a spray would come up from the earth and water the entire surface of the ground.
Yahweh God now formed the man with mud from the ground, and blew the breath of life into his nostrils. So the man now became a living being.
Yahweh God now planted a garden in Eden over in the east, and there he put the man he had formed. Yahweh God now made the ground sprout with every tree that was beautiful in form and good for food. The Tree of Life was in the centre of the garden, and the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad. A river came out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it split, becoming four branches. The name of the first was Pishon—that’s the one that goes around the entire land of Hawilah, where there is gold (and the gold of that land is good—there is fragrant resin and onyx stone there!). The name of the second river was Gihon—that’s the one that goes around the entire land of Nubia. The name of the third river was Tigris—that’s the one that runs along the east of Assyria. And the fourth river was the Euphrates.
Yahweh God now took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to look after it. Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may eat from any tree of the garden, but from the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad you must not eat, for the day you eat from it you will die.”
Yahweh God now said, “It’s not good for the man to be on his own. I’ll make him a helper to match him.”
So Yahweh God now formed out of the ground all the wildlife and all the birds of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man would call the living being, that was its name. So the man now named all the animals, the birds of the heavens, and all the wildlife. But no helper was found to match the man.
So Yahweh God now made a deep slumber fall over the man so that he fell asleep. Then he took one of his ribs and closed it up with flesh. Yahweh God then built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. The man now said,
“This time, this is bone from my bones,
and flesh from my flesh.
This will be called ‘woman’,
for from a man this was taken.”
This is why a man leaves his father and mother, bonds with his wife and they become one flesh.
Both of them were now naked—the man and woman—but they were not embarrassed.
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With Meagre Powers 