Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
1:24 VA YOMER ELOHIM TOTS'E HA ARETS NEPHESH CHAYAH LE MIYNAH BEHEMAH VA REMES VE CHAYETO ERETS LE MIYNAH VA YEHI CHEN
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים תּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה לְמִינָהּ בְּהֵמָה וָרֶמֶשׂ וְחַיְתוֹ אֶרֶץ לְמִינָהּ וַיְהִי כֵן
KJ (King James translation): And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
BN (BibleNet translation): And Elohim said, "Let the Earth bring forth living creatures, each its own species: cattle, reptiles, the fauna of the Earth, each its own species." And so it was.
TOTS'E: Again secondary creation; something created that has been endowed with the intrinsic ability to procreate itself, or in this case to host new creatures; the reason why the Earth was regarded as a womb, as well as being a burial-place, and the ancient Underworld was a centre of both generation and regeneration, long before it became fiery Hell.
Why translate this as "creeping things" when the meaning is quite clearly "reptiles"?
Note that it is not Elohim who now creates these things, but the Earth - because she was originally a separate deity; and not just any deity but, as we shall see, Chavah, Eve, Em Kol Chay, the Mother of All Living Things, herself.
BEHEMAH (בהמה): BAHAM (בהם) = "to shout", hence "to be mute" or "dumb"; BEHEMAH is used for large land quadrupeds, domestic animals, cattle, beasts of burden (asses, camels). Job 40:15 refers to it in the plural, to signify a hippopotamus (some say elephant). Phoenician/Semitic Piehe-mout from ehe = ox + mout = "water", giving "water-ox", which is a variation of the Greek hippo-potamus = "water-horse".
But this at last is Bohu's monster-form, hinted at in the opening verses, paralleling Tohu-Tahamat as Bohu-Behemot, like the White and the Red dragons in the Arthurian legends.
The seeds and the possibility of life are intrinsic, and therefore all life forms are autonomous. Everything stems from the original creation, but Elohim does not cease resting after the seventh day.
1:25 VA YA'AS ELOHIM ET CHAYAT HA ARETS LE MIYNAH VE ET HA BEHEMAH LE MIYNAH VE ET KOL REMES HA ADAMAH LE MIYNEHU VA YAR ELOHIM KI TOV
Why translate this as "creeping things" when the meaning is quite clearly "reptiles"?
Note that it is not Elohim who now creates these things, but the Earth - because she was originally a separate deity; and not just any deity but, as we shall see, Chavah, Eve, Em Kol Chay, the Mother of All Living Things, herself.
BEHEMAH (בהמה): BAHAM (בהם) = "to shout", hence "to be mute" or "dumb"; BEHEMAH is used for large land quadrupeds, domestic animals, cattle, beasts of burden (asses, camels). Job 40:15 refers to it in the plural, to signify a hippopotamus (some say elephant). Phoenician/Semitic Piehe-mout from ehe = ox + mout = "water", giving "water-ox", which is a variation of the Greek hippo-potamus = "water-horse".
But this at last is Bohu's monster-form, hinted at in the opening verses, paralleling Tohu-Tahamat as Bohu-Behemot, like the White and the Red dragons in the Arthurian legends.
The seeds and the possibility of life are intrinsic, and therefore all life forms are autonomous. Everything stems from the original creation, but Elohim does not cease resting after the seventh day.
1:25 VA YA'AS ELOHIM ET CHAYAT HA ARETS LE MIYNAH VE ET HA BEHEMAH LE MIYNAH VE ET KOL REMES HA ADAMAH LE MIYNEHU VA YAR ELOHIM KI TOV
וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לְמִינָהּ וְאֶת הַבְּהֵמָה לְמִינָהּ וְאֵת כָּל רֶמֶשׂ הָאֲדָמָה לְמִינֵהוּ וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים כִּי טוֹב
KJ: And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
BN: And Elohim made the living creatures of the Earth, each its own species, and the fauna, each its own species, and every reptile that crawls on the ground, each its own species; and Elohim saw that it was good.
Then maybe Elohim did make them, and not the Earth; is there a contradiction here? No – quite simply the later proto-Judaic monotheism has absorbed the earlier multitude of gods into the single one, but has failed – as so often – to eliminate the sources from the final text - the word CHAYAT, for example, which is CHAVAH word, from LECHIYOT, not a YHVH word, from LEHIYOT. This is a flaw in the editing, not the theology.
HA ADAMAH (האדמה): The first time that this word has appeared in place of ARETS (ארץ), presumably in preparation for the next verse.
1:26 VA YOMER ELOHIM NA'ASEH ADAM BE TSALMENU KIDMUTENU VE YIRDU VID'GAT HA YAM U VE OPH HA SHAMAYIM U VA BEHEMAH U VE CHOL HA ARETS U VE CHOL HA REMES HA ROMES AL HA ARETS
KJ: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
BN: Then Elohim said, "Let us make Man, in our image, after our likeness; and let him have responsibility for the fish in the sea, and for the fowl of the air, and for the animals, and for the Earth in its entirety, and for every reptile that crawls on the earth."
NA'ASEH (נעשה): Note the use of the "royal we". Or are we to read Elohim on this occasion as "the gods"; revealing the original polytheon (probably 12 principal gods, one for each MAZAL or constellation), ruled by a sky or sun god? These contradictions of original story and later redaction continue through the Torah, and we will see repeatedly the significant variation between Elohim and Ha Elohim.
PERU U REVU - the first commandment, restated.
BERECH = "a knee"; whence blessing; see previous note (Genesis 1:22)
Note the "us" of the plural throughout.
KIVSHU'AH (וכבשה): KAVAS (כבש) = "to subdue" and "to force", and is also used to mean "to beget offspring", which sequitur I leave to the psychologists and the police rather than the theologians to explain. KEVES (כבש) = "a lamb", from the latter meaning of the root (KEVES, not KESEV - כשב - which scribal error will recur throughout the Torah). Not to be confused with KAVASH (כבש) = "to tread grapes, trample underfoot, subject, subdue, rape", though the two are clearly connected. Not to be confused with KEVESH (Sheen not Seen as the last letter - כבש, though without pointing this is not obvious) = "a footstool" (though given some men's attitude to women, those two may also not be unconnected). A KIVSHAN (כבשן) = "a furnace for smelting metal".
HA SHISHI (ששי): N.B. Yom Ha Shishi, adding the definite article where previously it has been omitted for the other days of the week. Day 6 is connected to Venus, Ishtar, Beltis, Frigga (the latter giving us "Frigga's Day" or "Friday"). SHESH (שש = 6), and note that Isis in Yehudit is also connected to the number ישש = 6; Isis being the Greek version Egyptian name for Yah, the sister of Ephron the Chitite, the goddess of the full moon whose sacred number is contained within her name, YAH = יה = 15. Also "something white" from the root SHUSH (שוש); hence white marble, byssus. Also connected to the name Shoshanna, which comes from the Persian winter-capital of Susa (Sheshan), a variation of the Chinese Sichuan or Szechwan = "white lily" (and later the Tunisian town of Sousse). Also some trumpets and pipes are called SHUSHAN EDOT because of their lily-shape.
Pey break; the sixth strophe ends here; the first chapter of Genesis ends here. The Elohim version of Creation does not however, but continues for three more verses, to the end of the fourth fragment. Indeed the original text was not divided into chapters at all, nor verses. That happened only in the Middle Ages, and was a Christian imposition on the text. Clearly this first attempt to make a meaningful division was flawed and the chapter should have ended at 2:3.
HA ADAMAH (האדמה): The first time that this word has appeared in place of ARETS (ארץ), presumably in preparation for the next verse.
1:26 VA YOMER ELOHIM NA'ASEH ADAM BE TSALMENU KIDMUTENU VE YIRDU VID'GAT HA YAM U VE OPH HA SHAMAYIM U VA BEHEMAH U VE CHOL HA ARETS U VE CHOL HA REMES HA ROMES AL HA ARETS
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל הָאָרֶץ וּבְכָל הָרֶמֶשׂ הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל הָאָרֶץ
KJ: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
BN: Then Elohim said, "Let us make Man, in our image, after our likeness; and let him have responsibility for the fish in the sea, and for the fowl of the air, and for the animals, and for the Earth in its entirety, and for every reptile that crawls on the earth."
NA'ASEH (נעשה): Note the use of the "royal we". Or are we to read Elohim on this occasion as "the gods"; revealing the original polytheon (probably 12 principal gods, one for each MAZAL or constellation), ruled by a sky or sun god? These contradictions of original story and later redaction continue through the Torah, and we will see repeatedly the significant variation between Elohim and Ha Elohim.
ADAM (אדם): NOT Adam the man, but Humankind the species, and pronounced as if it were spelled UDUM (as in "udder" for both syllables)! A very complicated word game goes on throughout the first few chapters of Genesis, with repetitions throughout the Tanach, to such a degree that one can only suspect Edomite origins to all this. For a detailed explanation, see my notes to ADAM.
BE TSALMENU (בצלמנו): TSALAM (צלם) = "to be shady, dark, obscure", From TSEL (צל) = "a shadow"; hence "image, likeness". In the YHVH version (Genesis 3), Chavah/Eve is created out of Adam's rib, TSELAH (צלה) = "a rib" having the same root. TSEL (צל) is also used for "an idol". Again note the use of the "royal we".
NA'ASEH ADAM BE TSALMENU KIDMUTENU: This is one of the most difficult concepts for us to grasp, since it implies either that Elohim may be treated anthropomorphically, or that humankind is in some manner Divine - indeed it really implies both. "Elohim created Humankind to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity" (Wisdom of Solomon 2:23); hardly surprising that the theologians did not include that particular book in the official canon! Psalm 8 however did get into the canon. There we can read: "You have made (Humankind) but little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands." The latter phrase is the key one, again expressing the central Jewish idea that responsibility for Creation ceases to be Elohim's at the evening of the sixth day, and that Humankind, a higher being than the rest of Nature but still less high than the inhabitants of the heavens, now assumes total responsibility. A green god in fact!
But what does "the image and likeness of Elohim" really mean? The best explanation yet written is in the opening chapter of Maimonides' "Guide for the Perplexed", published in Cairo in 1186 CE; in brief, where we tend to portray Elohim as a human-like creature, identical to ourselves in body and facial structure, the text until now has in fact portrayed Elohim simply as the creative forces in the universe, the dynamic powers and the kinetic impulses, which are manifest in every creature, from the microbe to the solar system by way of the flora and fauna, and yes Humankind as well; and so we should read "image" and "likeness" as molecular structure and not physical appearance. "EYN LO DEMUT HA GUPH, VE EYNO GUPH - there is no physical likeness, because there is no body" is how Maimonides' words are reiterated in the YIGDAL, the hymn drawn from his "Thirteen Principles of Faith".
KIDMUTENU (כדמותנו): DAMAH (דמה) = "likeness"; again the root word is DAM (דם) = "blood", so it joins the list of connected words, alongside Adam (Humankind), Adam (the man), Adamah (the earth), Admah (the town), Edom (the country), Adom (the colour red), and Odem, the gem that adorned the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol. DAMAH (דמה) = "to be silent, quiet, at rest", from the root DAMAM (דמם), is a variant development from the same base root, which also yields DUMAH as a synonym for She'ol, the Underworld - again reflecting that domain as a place of both generation and regeneration, but needing the worms to do the biograding that makes it possible; the worm will follow very soon! In this verse KIDMUTENU (which is prolix, because we already have Tselem) is probably intended as a pun, leading both to Dumah and to "Shabat" in the next verse; this technique of foreshadowing or prefiguration is used throughout the text.
VA YIRDU (וירדו): Note that Humankind is in the plural, even though Adam is understood to be a single male individual - he will be, in the next chapter, which is an entirely different account of the Creation. Strange use though of YARAD (ירד) = "to go down, descend, emigrate". Humankind "will go down on the animals" etc, is an odd way of saying Humankind will "have dominion over".
1:27 VA YIVRA ELOHIM AT HA ADAM BE TSALMO BE TSELEM ELOHIM BARA OTO ZACHAR U NEKEVAH BARA OTAM
KJ: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
BN: So Elohim created Humankind in his own image; in the image of Elohim he created him; as male and as female he created them.
ADAM: I left the translation as "Man" in the previous verse, as this is the traditional translation, and I needed to follow it through in my notes. Having done so, the reader can see that the text from this point on becomes complicated between Adam the man in the Adam-and-Chavah (Eve) story, and Adam = Humankind, a translation which this verse makes viable because of its closing clause. I will not be saying he/she on every occasion that Humankind requires a pronoun, simply because I find that stylistically ponderous and unnecessary. The gender-inclusivity of the word Humankind is taken for granted (sexual orientation, race, creed, colour, dexterity, religious faith, hair quantity, weight, age, nationality et al are likewise regarded as included in the term Humankind, which makes no distinctions between peoples at all; however this verse specifically states "male and female", and so it cannot be ignored.)
BE TSALMENU (בצלמנו): TSALAM (צלם) = "to be shady, dark, obscure", From TSEL (צל) = "a shadow"; hence "image, likeness". In the YHVH version (Genesis 3), Chavah/Eve is created out of Adam's rib, TSELAH (צלה) = "a rib" having the same root. TSEL (צל) is also used for "an idol". Again note the use of the "royal we".
NA'ASEH ADAM BE TSALMENU KIDMUTENU: This is one of the most difficult concepts for us to grasp, since it implies either that Elohim may be treated anthropomorphically, or that humankind is in some manner Divine - indeed it really implies both. "Elohim created Humankind to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity" (Wisdom of Solomon 2:23); hardly surprising that the theologians did not include that particular book in the official canon! Psalm 8 however did get into the canon. There we can read: "You have made (Humankind) but little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands." The latter phrase is the key one, again expressing the central Jewish idea that responsibility for Creation ceases to be Elohim's at the evening of the sixth day, and that Humankind, a higher being than the rest of Nature but still less high than the inhabitants of the heavens, now assumes total responsibility. A green god in fact!
But what does "the image and likeness of Elohim" really mean? The best explanation yet written is in the opening chapter of Maimonides' "Guide for the Perplexed", published in Cairo in 1186 CE; in brief, where we tend to portray Elohim as a human-like creature, identical to ourselves in body and facial structure, the text until now has in fact portrayed Elohim simply as the creative forces in the universe, the dynamic powers and the kinetic impulses, which are manifest in every creature, from the microbe to the solar system by way of the flora and fauna, and yes Humankind as well; and so we should read "image" and "likeness" as molecular structure and not physical appearance. "EYN LO DEMUT HA GUPH, VE EYNO GUPH - there is no physical likeness, because there is no body" is how Maimonides' words are reiterated in the YIGDAL, the hymn drawn from his "Thirteen Principles of Faith".
KIDMUTENU (כדמותנו): DAMAH (דמה) = "likeness"; again the root word is DAM (דם) = "blood", so it joins the list of connected words, alongside Adam (Humankind), Adam (the man), Adamah (the earth), Admah (the town), Edom (the country), Adom (the colour red), and Odem, the gem that adorned the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol. DAMAH (דמה) = "to be silent, quiet, at rest", from the root DAMAM (דמם), is a variant development from the same base root, which also yields DUMAH as a synonym for She'ol, the Underworld - again reflecting that domain as a place of both generation and regeneration, but needing the worms to do the biograding that makes it possible; the worm will follow very soon! In this verse KIDMUTENU (which is prolix, because we already have Tselem) is probably intended as a pun, leading both to Dumah and to "Shabat" in the next verse; this technique of foreshadowing or prefiguration is used throughout the text.
VA YIRDU (וירדו): Note that Humankind is in the plural, even though Adam is understood to be a single male individual - he will be, in the next chapter, which is an entirely different account of the Creation. Strange use though of YARAD (ירד) = "to go down, descend, emigrate". Humankind "will go down on the animals" etc, is an odd way of saying Humankind will "have dominion over".
1:27 VA YIVRA ELOHIM AT HA ADAM BE TSALMO BE TSELEM ELOHIM BARA OTO ZACHAR U NEKEVAH BARA OTAM
וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם
KJ: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
BN: So Elohim created Humankind in his own image; in the image of Elohim he created him; as male and as female he created them.
ADAM: I left the translation as "Man" in the previous verse, as this is the traditional translation, and I needed to follow it through in my notes. Having done so, the reader can see that the text from this point on becomes complicated between Adam the man in the Adam-and-Chavah (Eve) story, and Adam = Humankind, a translation which this verse makes viable because of its closing clause. I will not be saying he/she on every occasion that Humankind requires a pronoun, simply because I find that stylistically ponderous and unnecessary. The gender-inclusivity of the word Humankind is taken for granted (sexual orientation, race, creed, colour, dexterity, religious faith, hair quantity, weight, age, nationality et al are likewise regarded as included in the term Humankind, which makes no distinctions between peoples at all; however this verse specifically states "male and female", and so it cannot be ignored.)
VA YIVRA (ויברא): BARA (ברא), because "formed" (from the dust), and not "created" (out of nothing). This distinction, made consistently in the Yehudit, is never made in English translations; yet there is no reference in this text to having made him "out of the dust", as there is in the YHVH version.
HA ADAM (האדם): N.B. the definite article is now appended. Presumably the Redactor too had noticed that there are now two usages of the word; alas he did not continue to make this useful distinction consistently.
ZACHAR... OTAM (זכר ונקבה ברא אתם): i.e. the species, not simply one man, let alone the man called Adam, who is not yet.
Given that the creation itself is described as a union of male and female divinities, and that Adam and Chavah (Eve) - in the YHVH version - will serve as the priest and priestess respectively, we can surely rephrase this to read "the male god and the female god each created a human to represent them on Earth." As we will see throughout these stories, the role of the tribal sheikh or chief, and his first wife, exactly as with the Japanese Emperors and the "divine right" monarchs of Europe, was this priest-king and priest-queen role.
But either way we have the source text for the major controversy still raging in both the Jewish and the Christian worlds, namely the role of women, the equality of women. This text is absolute and unequivocal. Equality is divinely given. Original Creation, and continuing creation, depend on the equal partnership of the male and female elements in every form of life.
1:28 VA YEVARECH OTAM ELOHIM VA YOMER LAHEM ELOHIM PERU U REVU U MIL'U ET HA ARETS VE CHIVSHU'AH U REDU BID'GAT HA YAM U VE OPH HA SHAMAYIM U VE CHOL CHAYAH HA ROMESET AL HA ARETS
HA ADAM (האדם): N.B. the definite article is now appended. Presumably the Redactor too had noticed that there are now two usages of the word; alas he did not continue to make this useful distinction consistently.
ZACHAR... OTAM (זכר ונקבה ברא אתם): i.e. the species, not simply one man, let alone the man called Adam, who is not yet.
Given that the creation itself is described as a union of male and female divinities, and that Adam and Chavah (Eve) - in the YHVH version - will serve as the priest and priestess respectively, we can surely rephrase this to read "the male god and the female god each created a human to represent them on Earth." As we will see throughout these stories, the role of the tribal sheikh or chief, and his first wife, exactly as with the Japanese Emperors and the "divine right" monarchs of Europe, was this priest-king and priest-queen role.
But either way we have the source text for the major controversy still raging in both the Jewish and the Christian worlds, namely the role of women, the equality of women. This text is absolute and unequivocal. Equality is divinely given. Original Creation, and continuing creation, depend on the equal partnership of the male and female elements in every form of life.
1:28 VA YEVARECH OTAM ELOHIM VA YOMER LAHEM ELOHIM PERU U REVU U MIL'U ET HA ARETS VE CHIVSHU'AH U REDU BID'GAT HA YAM U VE OPH HA SHAMAYIM U VE CHOL CHAYAH HA ROMESET AL HA ARETS
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת הָאָרֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁהָ וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבְכָל חַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל הָאָרֶץ
KJ: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
BN: And Elohim blessed them; and Elohim said to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply; fill the Earth, and subdue it; take responsibility for the fish of the sea, and for the fowl of the air, and for living creatures that crawls on the earth."
So we enter for the second time the endlessly revisited realm of the fertility goddess, whom later Jewish theologians would first absorb into the universal male Omnideism of YHWH, and then remove altogether (the same took place, at the same time, across Mesopotamia and the Levant), leaving behind only those pieces of scripture which they failed to expurgate (we will see that these are many), and the Jewish equivalent of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, known as the Shechinah (sometimes rendered in English as Shekinah).
PERU U REVU - the first commandment, restated.
BERECH = "a knee"; whence blessing; see previous note (Genesis 1:22)
Note the "us" of the plural throughout.
KIVSHU'AH (וכבשה): KAVAS (כבש) = "to subdue" and "to force", and is also used to mean "to beget offspring", which sequitur I leave to the psychologists and the police rather than the theologians to explain. KEVES (כבש) = "a lamb", from the latter meaning of the root (KEVES, not KESEV - כשב - which scribal error will recur throughout the Torah). Not to be confused with KAVASH (כבש) = "to tread grapes, trample underfoot, subject, subdue, rape", though the two are clearly connected. Not to be confused with KEVESH (Sheen not Seen as the last letter - כבש, though without pointing this is not obvious) = "a footstool" (though given some men's attitude to women, those two may also not be unconnected). A KIVSHAN (כבשן) = "a furnace for smelting metal".
The word, and the meanings attached to the word, are important, as the Judeo-Christian understanding in our epoch is that Humankind holds responsibility for the Earth, in the sense of positive stewardship; whereas KIVSHU'AH is very clearly conquest and population, with the rights of mastery implicit. "Subdue" really does mean "subdue". How this impacts on current Israeli politics is not within the remit of The BibleNet to consider.
1:29 VA YOMER ELOHIM HINEH NATATI LACHEM ET KOL ESEV ZOR'E'A ZERA ASHER AL PENEY CHOL HA ARETS VE ET KOL HA ETS ASHER BO PERI ETS ZOR'E'A ZARA LACHEM YIHEYEH LE ACHLAH
1:29 VA YOMER ELOHIM HINEH NATATI LACHEM ET KOL ESEV ZOR'E'A ZERA ASHER AL PENEY CHOL HA ARETS VE ET KOL HA ETS ASHER BO PERI ETS ZOR'E'A ZARA LACHEM YIHEYEH LE ACHLAH
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים הִנֵּה נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת כָּל עֵשֶׂב זֹרֵעַ זֶרַע אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ וְאֶת כָּל הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ פְרִי עֵץ זֹרֵעַ זָרַע לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה
KJ: And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
BN: And Elohim said, "See, I have given you every type of self-reproducing grass that can be found on Earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seeds from which to reproduce itself - these shall serve you for food."
NATATI: This time the singular is used, almost certainly an editing error that can be dated to the earliest point at which monotheism was formally established - probably not earlier than the return from the exile, and likely later even than that.
The phrasing is unusually complicated! But note in particular that the food given at this juncture does not include mention of meat! Can we deduce that vegetarianism was intended? Yes, in Eden; no, outside Eden, because the sacrificing of animals is not only permitted but encouraged, with a rich lexicon of laws governing its customs and practices, extending even to which types of sacrifice may be eaten by whom, and where, and when, how much flour should be used, whether herbs and spices, and especially the incense to provide good aromas to placate the nostrils of the deity.
Note the aural puns in this and the next verse on LECHOL (לכל) and LE'ECHOL (לאכל); these will not be obvious from the English translation.
1:30 U LE CHOL CHAYAT HA ARETS U LE CHOL OPH HA SHAMAYIM U LE CHOL ROMES AL HA ARETS ASHER BO NEPHESH CHAYAH ET KOL YEREK ESEV LE ACHLAH VA YEHI CHEN
KJ: And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
BN: "And to every living creature on the Earth, and to all the fowl of the air, and to every thing that crawls on the earth, if it has a living soul, to it too I have given every green herb for food." And so it was.
1:31 VA YAR ELOHIM ET KOL ASHER ASAH VE HINEH TOV ME'OD VA YEHI EREV VA YEHI VOKER YOM HA SHISHI
KJ: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
BN: And Elohim saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. So it was evening, and then morning, the sixth day.
VE HINEH TOV ME'OD (והני טוב מאד): Variation on a theme; the first five days were merely good, because Creation was still incomplete; but now it is complete, and Elohim is satisfied with his work, so it is "very good".
The phrasing is unusually complicated! But note in particular that the food given at this juncture does not include mention of meat! Can we deduce that vegetarianism was intended? Yes, in Eden; no, outside Eden, because the sacrificing of animals is not only permitted but encouraged, with a rich lexicon of laws governing its customs and practices, extending even to which types of sacrifice may be eaten by whom, and where, and when, how much flour should be used, whether herbs and spices, and especially the incense to provide good aromas to placate the nostrils of the deity.
Note the aural puns in this and the next verse on LECHOL (לכל) and LE'ECHOL (לאכל); these will not be obvious from the English translation.
1:30 U LE CHOL CHAYAT HA ARETS U LE CHOL OPH HA SHAMAYIM U LE CHOL ROMES AL HA ARETS ASHER BO NEPHESH CHAYAH ET KOL YEREK ESEV LE ACHLAH VA YEHI CHEN
וּלְכָל חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ וּלְכָל עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּלְכֹל רוֹמֵשׂ עַל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה אֶת כָּל יֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב לְאָכְלָה וַיְהִי כֵן
KJ: And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
BN: "And to every living creature on the Earth, and to all the fowl of the air, and to every thing that crawls on the earth, if it has a living soul, to it too I have given every green herb for food." And so it was.
1:31 VA YAR ELOHIM ET KOL ASHER ASAH VE HINEH TOV ME'OD VA YEHI EREV VA YEHI VOKER YOM HA SHISHI
וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה טוֹב מְאֹד וַיְהִי עֶרֶב וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי
KJ: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
BN: And Elohim saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. So it was evening, and then morning, the sixth day.
VE HINEH TOV ME'OD (והני טוב מאד): Variation on a theme; the first five days were merely good, because Creation was still incomplete; but now it is complete, and Elohim is satisfied with his work, so it is "very good".
HA SHISHI (ששי): N.B. Yom Ha Shishi, adding the definite article where previously it has been omitted for the other days of the week. Day 6 is connected to Venus, Ishtar, Beltis, Frigga (the latter giving us "Frigga's Day" or "Friday"). SHESH (שש = 6), and note that Isis in Yehudit is also connected to the number ישש = 6; Isis being the Greek version Egyptian name for Yah, the sister of Ephron the Chitite, the goddess of the full moon whose sacred number is contained within her name, YAH = יה = 15. Also "something white" from the root SHUSH (שוש); hence white marble, byssus. Also connected to the name Shoshanna, which comes from the Persian winter-capital of Susa (Sheshan), a variation of the Chinese Sichuan or Szechwan = "white lily" (and later the Tunisian town of Sousse). Also some trumpets and pipes are called SHUSHAN EDOT because of their lily-shape.
Pey break; the sixth strophe ends here; the first chapter of Genesis ends here. The Elohim version of Creation does not however, but continues for three more verses, to the end of the fourth fragment. Indeed the original text was not divided into chapters at all, nor verses. That happened only in the Middle Ages, and was a Christian imposition on the text. Clearly this first attempt to make a meaningful division was flawed and the chapter should have ended at 2:3.
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1.26 VA YIRDU (וירדו): Note that Humankind is in the plural, even though Adam is understood to be a single male individual - he will be, in the next chapter, which is an entirely different account of the Creation. Strange use though of YARAD (ירד) = "to go down, descend, emigrate". Humankind "will go down on the animals" etc, is an odd way of saying Humankind will "have dominion over".
ReplyDeleteThere is another possibility : instead of לרדת ירד we have לרדות רדה.