Genesis 1 - 3, a fresh translation

I engaged in a fresh translation of Genesis, chapters 1 - 3, for my thesis to graduate from Washington State University Honors College. My thesis analyzed the differences and similarities between the account of creation in Genesis and creation stories in the Greek poet Hesiod's poems Works and Days and Theogony.

In my translation, I strove to maintain the consistency of Hebrew vocabulary by using the same English word for a given Hebrew word. As an example, the Hebrew word ʾarets can be translated "earth" or "land," depending on the context. I decided to translate ʾarets as"land" in every context so that the reader may see where the given Hebrew word occurs. Another example is I translate Hebrew ish and ishshah as "man" and "woman," respectively, in every context, instead of "husband" and "wife" in some contexts and "man" and "woman" in others. For those who wish to have the English translation immediately make sense to them, this translation is more of a picture into the Hebrew, allowing the reader, to some extent, to see the ancient Hebraic worldview. 

I also tried to maintain the rhythm of the Hebrew text. For example, following Robert Alter's translation, I rendered tohu wa-bohu as "welter and waste" to capture the assonance of the original. Thus, this translation strives to be transparent to the original text, so that the reader may see, as much as is possible, the Hebrew underlying the English rendering.

Words in italics are words directly from the Hebrew that I have not translated into English but have merely transliterated them using the Latin alphabet. In every case, these untranslated, transliterated words are names. I chose to retain the Hebrew untranslated, so that the reader might know the Hebrew names.

Regarding the name of the Deity, I chose to leave his name untranslated for several reasons. One, the meaning of his name (which is YHWH) is unknown. Some scholars think it derives from the Hebrew word hayah "to be" and hence would mean "He is." But there are other options, and so I chose to leave it untranslated. For those who wish, they can read "He is" or another meaning whenever yhwh occurs in the translation. Second, even though we do not know for certain the correct pronunciation of his name, I believe that there is power in this name. For those who wish to not speak the Name, they should read "Lord" or another euphemism (e.g., "Name," or ha-Shem in Hebrew) whenever they encounter yhwh in the translation. Furthermore, I did not wish to translate the Name as "Lord," as most translations do, because that is not what the Hebrew says. There is another word, adonai, that means "Lord," and so I retain "Lord" for the times when the Hebrew says adonai (which does not occur at all in the first three chapters of Genesis).

On the title of the Deity, the Hebrew word ʾelohim, I left untranslated simply because the literal meaning may have been confusing. ʾelohim is the Hebrew word used for divinity, whether it refers to the one god who created the world or any of the plurality of pagan gods. The word is always ʾelohim, in the plural, even when it refers to the one god. When ʾelohim refers to the one god, however, while remaining plural in form, it takes a singular verb. Thus, "ʾelohim (he) created," really means, "gods (he) created..." In most translations, ʾelohim is translated "God" (or "gods" when it refers to the pagan gods). To be literal, however, we would have to translate ʾelohim as "gods" in every case. But then I would have to include in parenthesis the number of the verb (singular or plural) so that the reader could know whether ʾelohim in that instance refers to God or gods. To compound the matter, technically ʾelohim in Hebrew has a meaning more like "powers" or "strengths," which rendering I thought would produce a very confusing mess indeed. As stated above, readers can read whichever words or phrases they like best over my translation if they so wish.

On more note. The reader will instantly recognize that the first verse looks slightly unfamiliar. Instead of "in the beginning," I have "in a beginning." This is not to be heterodox, this is simply because that is what the Hebrew says. The first word of the Hebrew Bible does not have an article, and so it ought to be translated indefinitely, as I have done. (While some scholars have mentioned this fact, no English translation of which I am aware translates the first word indefinitely.) The implications of that reading are up to the reader to determine. I have merely translated the Hebrew as faithfully as I could.

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a, 2:4b – 3:24
freshly translated by Joshua Johnson from the original tongue

In a beginning, ʾelohim shaped the skies and the land.^[1]

And the land had been welter and waste.
And darkness [had been] upon the face of the waters.
And the wind of ʾelohim was moving upon the face of the waters.

And ʾelohim said, “Let there be light!” And there was light!

And ʾelohim saw the light, that [it was] good.

And ʾelohim divided between the light and between the darkness.

And ʾelohim called the light, “day,” and the darkness he called, “night.”

And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

And ʾelohim said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the skies, and let it divide between waters and waters.

And ʾelohim made the expanse, and he divided between the waters which [were] beneath the expanse, and between the waters which [were] above the expanse.

And it was so.
And ʾelohim called the expanse, “skies.”

And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

And ʾelohim said, “Let the waters beneath the skies be gathered to one place and let the dry land appear.”

And it was so.

And ʾelohim called the dry land, “land,” and the gathering of the waters he called, “seas.”

And ʾelohim saw that [it was] good.

And ʾelohim said, “Let the land sprout grass, herbage yielding seed, and the tree of fruit making fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed, on the land.”

And it was so.

And the land brought forth grass, herbage yielding seed, according to its kind, and the tree bearing fruit in which is its seed, according to its kind.

And ʾelohim saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And ʾelohim said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the skies to separate between the day and between the night. And let them be for signs and for times, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the expanse of the skies to give light upon the land."

And it was so.

And ʾelohim made the two great lights—the great light for rule of the day and the small light for rule of the night—and the stars.

And ʾelohim gave them in the expanse of the skies to give light upon the land, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate between the light and between the darkness.

And ʾelohim saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And ʾelohim said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of nefesh of life, and fowl flying above the land upon the face of the expanse of the skies.”

And ʾelohim shaped the great sea monsters and every nefesh of the life that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind.

And ʾelohim saw that it was good.
And ʾelohim blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply on the land.”

And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And ʾelohim said, “Let the land bring forth nefesh of life according to her kind—beast and creeping thing and its life of the land, according to her kind.”

And it was so.

And ʾelohim made the life of the land according to her kind and the beast according to her kind, and every creeping thing on the humus^[2] according to their kind.

And ʾelohim saw that it was good.

And ʾelohim said, “Let us make human in our image, according to our likeness. And let them tread over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the skies and over the beast and over all the land and over every creeping thing creeping upon the land.”

And ʾelohim created the human in his image,

         in the image of elohim he created him;

         male and female he created them.

And ʾelohim blessed them.

And ʾelohim said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land and subjugate it, and tread over the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the skies and over every living thing that creeps on the land.”

And ʾelohim said, “Behold, I have given you all herbage yielding seed that is on the face of all the land, and every tree in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for food. And to every life of the land and to every fowl of the skies and to everything that creeps on the land, in which is the nefesh of life, I have given all the green herbage for food.”

And it was so.

And ʾelohim saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was exceedingly good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

And the skies and the land were completed, and all the host of them.

And ʾelohim completed on the seventh day his work which he did.

And he ceased/vayyishabbat on the seventh day from all his work which he did.

And ‘elohim blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it.

Because on it he ceased/shabat from all his work which ‘elohim shaped to do.

These are the begettings of the skies and of the land in their being shaped/when they were created.

In the day of yhwh ʾelohim’s making land and skies—and every shrub of the field was not yet in the land and every herbage of the field had not yet sprung up—because yhwh, ʾelohim, had not caused rain upon the land, and there was no human to work the humus, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering all the face of the humus—then yhwh, ʾelohim, formed/fashioned the human, dust from the humus, and he breathed in his nose the breath/neshama of life. And the human became a nefesh of life. And yhwh, ʾelohim, planted a garden in ʿEden, in the east. And there he put the human whom he had formed. And from the humus yhwh, ʾelohim, caused to spring up every tree desirable for sight and good for food. And the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And a river came forth from ʿEden to water the garden. And from there, it divided and became four rivers. The name of the one is Pishon—it is the one surrounding all the land of the Khawilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land, it is good. Bdellium and stone of carnelian are there. And the name of the second river is Gikhon—it is the one surrounding all the land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Khiddeqel, it is the one walking east of Ashshur. And the fourth river, it is the Pherath.

And yhwh, ʾelohim, took the human and put him in the garden of ʿEden to work her and to keep her.

And yhwh, ʾelohim, commanded the human, saying, “From every tree of the garden, eating you may eat. And from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. Because in the day of your eating from it, dying you shall die.”

And yhwh, ʾelohim, said, “It is not good for the human to be by himself/alone. I will make/do for him an ezer kenegdo/a strength like opposite to him.”

And yhwh, ʾelohim formed from the humus every life of the field and every fowl of the heavens and he brought to the human to see what he would call it. And all which the human called the nefesh of life, that was its name. And the human called names to every beast and to every fowl of the skies and to every life of the field. And for Human there was not found an ezer kenegdo/a strength like opposite to him.

And yhwh, ʾelohim, caused a lethargy to fall upon the human and he slept. And he took one from his ribs and he closed the flesh beneath it. And yhwh, ‘elohim, built the rib which he took from the human into a woman. And he brought her to the human.

And the human said,

“She, at last, is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh.
                  She shall be called Woman/Ishah, because from Man/Ish was she taken.”

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother. And he shall cleave to his woman, and they shall become one flesh. And the two of them were arumim/naked, the human and his woman. And they were not ashamed.

And the serpent was arum/crafty more than all the life of the field that yhwh, ʾelohim, had made.

And he said to the woman, “Did ʾelohim actually say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the tree of the garden we may eat. And from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, ʾelohim said, ‘You shall not eat from it, neither shall you touch it. Lest you die.’”

And the serpent said to the woman, “Dying you shall not die. Because ʾelohim knows that in the day of your eating from it, your eyes will be opened. And you will be like ʾelohim, knowing good and evil.”

And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for making one wise, she took from its fruit, and she ate. And she gave also to her man [who was] with her, and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked/erumim. And they stitched together leafage of the fig-tree and they made for themselves girdles/loincloths.

And they heard the sound of yhwh, ʾelohim, walking in the garden during the cool of the day. And they hid themselves, the human and his woman, from the face of yhwh, ʾelohim, in the midst of the tree of the garden. And yhwh, ʾelohim, called to the human.

And he said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard the sound of you/your voice in the garden. And I feared, because I myself was naked, and I hid myself.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

And the human said. “The woman whom you gave [to be] with me, she gave to me from the tree, and I ate.”

And yhwh, ʾelohim, said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent cheated me, and I ate.”

And yhwh, ʾelohim, said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than every beast and more than all living things of the field. Upon your belly/gakhon you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will set enmity between you and between the woman, and between your seed and between her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

To the woman he said, “Multiplying, I will multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bear children. And to your man shall be your longing and desire, and he shall rule on you.”

And to Human he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your woman and you ate from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’—cursed is the humus because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. And thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the herbage of the field, in the sweat of your nose you shall eat bread, until you return to the humus, because from it you were taken. Because you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

And the human called the name of his woman Khawwah (Living), because she was the mother of all living. And yhwh, ʾelohim, made for Human and for his woman tunics of skins and he clothed them.

And yhwh, ʾelohim, said, “Behold, the human has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore yhwh, ʾelohim, sent him out from the garden of ʿEden to work the humus from which he was taken. He drove out the human, and at the east of the garden of ʿEden he placed the kerubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

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[1] Alternate rendering: “when at first ʾelohim began shaping the heavens and the earth, the earth was welter and waste, and darkness upon the face of the waters, and the wind of ʾelohim was moving upon the face of the waters—and God said: “Let there be light!” Notice the parallelism, then, with the opening of the Mesopotamian creation myth enuma elish: “when on high…”

[2] “Humus” here means simply “soil,” its original Latin meaning, in order to capture the assonance of the Hebrew words for “human” and “humus:” ʾadam and ʾadamah.