Translation commentary on Genesis 1:2

The Hebrew of this verse begins with the frequently used connecting marker, the consonant waw, usually translated “and.” This marker serves to connect noun phrases as well as noun and verb clauses and whole sentences. Its translation here will depend on the way verse 1 has been dealt with. If “God created…” has been translated as a subordinate time clause, then verse 2 forms the main clause of the sentence, and the connecting marker is not required as a separate element. See Good News Translation. On the other hand, if verse 1 is translated as an independent sentence that serves as a general heading for the entire story, then verse 2 is the beginning of the story, and a rendering of the connecting marker is required that is appropriate for such a beginning. In English Revised Standard Version and Revised English Bible are examples of translations that do not represent the marker, while New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version render it by “Now…,” which is quite natural in this context. In such cases “Now” does not mean “at the present time” but is an English idiomatic way of introducing a new statement. See also comments under and darkness in this verse.

The earth was without form …: verse 2 picks up the word earth from Gen 1.1. “Heaven” is not mentioned again until verse 8, in which the “firmament” is named. The picture is of the entire world, not just dry earth. The Hebrew verb translated was refers to the time when God began his work of creation. Was does not mean that the earth remained in this shapeless state for a long time; nor does it mean that it became such after being something else earlier. If the translator chooses to make verse 1 a dependent clause, was or its equivalent will serve as the verb in the main clause. For example, “At the time when God began to create, the earth was….” If verse 1 is handled as an independent sentence, this verb still refers to the event of creation, and the verb selected should express something like “At that time the earth was…” or “At the beginning of creation the earth had no form….”

Without form and void translates the Hebrew tohu wa bohu, which has been the subject of numerous discussions. The first element, tohu, occurs some twenty times in the Old Testament, while bohu is found only three times, and in each of these it is linked with tohu. Bohu therefore is not an independent word but rather a sound imitation that is sometimes added to the first word. Tohu, which carries the basic meaning, is used to describe the desert in Deut 32.10; Job 6.18; 12.24; Psa 107.40. The term is likewise used to refer to God’s judgments, in which order is turned to chaos or waste in Isa 24.10, and with the same sense the double expression is used in Isa 34.11 and Jer 4.23.

The idea of the expression is that at the beginning the earth was a chaotic waste. In the first three days of creation, God is to give the earth a recognizable shape. Modern translations handle this expression in two main ways:
(a) as two separate descriptive terms connected by “and”; for example, “void and vacant” (Moffatt), “unformed and void” (New International Version), “waste and gloomy” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch);
(b) as a main word with an added descriptive term; for example, “a great emptiness” (Bible en français courant), “formless void” (New Jerusalem Bible), “formless wasteland” (New American Bible), “formless waste” (Anchor Bible), and “had no form” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy).

Some languages, particularly in Africa, use repeated syllables to describe certain conditions much the way adjectives and adverbs do. Translators in those languages may find that these so-called ideophones are used sometimes to describe an empty and barren place. In other languages it may be necessary to express this thought with a double expression such as in Good News Translation “formless and desolate,” or else “shapeless and empty.” In some languages it may be more natural to use a clause and say, for example, “had yet no real shape and was still empty,” or as a simile “The earth had not yet been set in order and was like a shapeless swamp.” Three examples of descriptive expressions used in recent translations are “the world was different altogether; it was empty without anything in it,” “The earth was not like we see it now. No. It was empty and different altogether,” and “the earth had no backbone.”

And darkness was upon …: Hebrew includes the connective waw “and” here; however, translators should pay particular attention to the way in which these clauses and sentences are joined, so as not to make their language sound unnecessarily like Hebrew. Revised Standard Version, which most often translates these connectives literally, produces an abnormally disjointed flow of discourse in English.

Darkness in this context is associated in sense with the “formless waste” in the preceding clause. The same word is used in Isa 45.19, in which it is associated with chaos, tohu. In Psa 88.6 darkness describes Sheol, the world of the dead, and in Psa 44.19 it is associated with the place of jackals, the desert. Darkness therefore refers to the presence of chaos and the lack of order that existed at the time when God began to create. Was is supplied by Revised Standard Version to make acceptable English.

In languages in which there are words for degrees of darkness, the darkest of darkness should be used. Note Good News Translation “total darkness.” Extreme darkness is sometimes referred to as “a moonless night,” and so you may find it possible to say “It was dark as a moonless night.”

Darkness is understood as the complete absence of light, and in translation it may not be possible to say that darkness was upon something. It may be necessary, therefore, to say, for example, “The seas were in total darkness” or “Where the deep seas were, everything was completely dark.” One common rendering is “Darkness covered over the great water.”

The face of the deep refers to the surface of the deep waters upon which the earth is said to rest later on in Gen 7.11; 8.2; 49.25. Some translations take the deep to refer to a deep place; for example, Moffatt, New English Bible, and Traduction oecuménique de la Bible have “abyss.” However, the sense is more likely to be the deep waters of the unformed or surging oceans. Therefore Good News Translation translates “raging ocean,” Bible en français courant “primitive ocean,” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “floods,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “deep sea.” Good News Translation has restructured the last part of verse 2 so as to make a passive clause with the emphasis on the “raging ocean.”

Face of the deep may sometimes be translated “the big seas,” “the deep oceans,” or “the deep waters.” In languages in which very large bodies of water are unknown, it may be necessary to speak of the “the big rivers” or “the big lakes.”

The Spirit of God translates the Hebrew ruach ʾelohim; as the Good News Translation footnote shows, this phrase can be translated as “the power of God,” “a wind from God,” or “an awesome wind.” Some see it necessary to translate as Spirit of God, as they interpret this to mean the Holy Spirit. However, this is to impose New Testament thought on the Old Testament usage. The rendering “spirit of God” (Revised English Bible, Moffatt) may be taken in the sense of the person of God, based on parallel expressions such as “spirit of Zerubbabel” (Hag 1.14); this is just another way of speaking of Zerubbabel, and so “spirit of God” can be taken to mean the same as “God.” The translation “wind” takes ruach in another of its common meanings. In “mighty wind” (New English Bible) ʾelohim is used not as a noun but as a descriptive term with the sense of “powerful, awesome.” In a similar usage in Gen 23.6, the Hittites speak of Abraham as nasiʾ ʾelohim “mighty prince.” See also Gen 30.8; Exo 9.28 (“[mighty] thunders”); Jonah 3.3 (“exceedingly great city”). In the expression “wind from God” (New Jerusalem Bible), ʾelohim is understood as the one who causes the wind.

All of these renderings are possible. However, you should consider certain factors in deciding which to use. If you are translating into a language in which many speakers have access to a major language Bible, it may be desirable to follow the usage of that translation. In any event it is advisable to offer one or more alternatives in a footnote. Translators are free to follow any of the suggestions supported above. In some languages it is difficult to express “spirit of God,” since God is thought of normally as a spiritual being already, without adding this word. In such cases it may be clearer to speak of “a mighty wind,” “power of God,” “wind coming from God,” or simply “God.”

Was moving over the face of the waters: the word translated was moving is sometimes rendered “brooded,” suggesting a parallel with other ancient stories of creation, in which a bird hatches an egg which is the world. However, the same root is used in Deut 32.11 of eagles “hovering, fluttering” over their young, and according to Anchor Bible the same root occurs in Ugaritic meaning “to be in movement.” Accordingly the picture is that of the spirit of God, or a wind from God, “sweeping, flying, moving” over the waters. Moving is a general word in English that does not suggest the particular kind of movement likely to be involved here. If the translator has used something like “wind from God” in the previous clause, an appropriate verb must be used here, which in English may be “swept, blew, raged.” One translation expresses the sense like this: “The spirit of God was continually going and coming above the water.”

Face of the waters is equivalent in meaning to face of the deep, both referring to the surface of the stormy and wild oceans that covered the world.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

For the concept of “darkness” see also John Roberts’ Biblical Cosmology: The Implications for Bible Translation in Journal of Translation 2013/2, p. 1ff .

Translation commentary on Genesis 1:5

God called the light Day brings us to the naming step. Called means “gave it the name, named it, called it by the name of.” Some languages distinguish between day as referring to a twenty-four hour period, and “daytime” referring to the period of daylight. Here “daytime” is more appropriate. God now takes control of darkness by making it serve for the nighttime. In languages in which capital letters and quotation marks are not used to show that “day” and “night” are to be taken as names, it is sometimes possible to say, for example, “God gave the light the name day, and the darkness the name night.” If it is necessary to shift to a direct quotation, you may say, for example, “God said to the light, ‘Your name is day,’ and to the darkness, ‘Your name is night.’ ” In any case capitals and quotation marks do not convey anything to the many people who hear the text rather than reading it for themselves, and so the meaning should be expressed clearly without depending on those devices.

Some languages face a special problem at this point, because they use the same term for “light” and “day,” and the same term for “darkness” and “night.” So a literal rendering of what they would get here is “God gave the light the name light, and the darkness the name darkness.” For some people this is quite self-evident and natural; but for others it is senseless to talk like this, and restructuring will be required to make it acceptable. For example, it may be possible to say “When that light came then for the first time, God gave it its name” or “That light didn’t have any name then, so God called it ‘light.’ ”

And there was evening and there was morning, one day: this renders the Hebrew literally, but it is less than clear because it is a rhetorical refrain. It sounds in part like the Jewish twenty-four-hour day, which was from sunset to sunset (Lev 23.32). However, the Jewish day did not end in the morning. We may therefore understand morning to mean “the following period of daylight.” Light has just been created and separated from the darkness, and the order reflected in the refrain is darkness first and then the coming of the created light. The author’s purpose of praising God for his creative acts is thus expressed by means of this poetic device, not only here but at the end of verses 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31.

Translators have used various ways to render this rhetorical expression. Translations of the formal type, such as Revised Standard Version, follow the Hebrew literally. Good News Translation, on the other hand, adjusts the expression by using two verbs: “Evening passed and morning came—that was the first day.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates the thought but does not retain in its text the succession of evening and morning: “In this way the first day was completed.” This version gives the literal form in a footnote and says “A Hebrew form expressing the idea of one complete day.”

If the translator wishes to retain the succession of evening followed by morning as marking a day, it may be possible to say, for example, “The first day was completed when the night passed and morning came” or “The night was followed by the daylight, and that was the first day.” On the other hand translators in some languages may prefer to adapt the model of Biblia Dios Habla Hoy and, immediately after “and darkness he called Night,” say “That was the first day of creation” or “And so the first day ended.” One translation that follows this approach says “And that day finished. It was the first day of the world.” If a footnote is considered desirable, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy gives a satisfactory model: “This is the Hebrew way of expressing the idea of a complete day.”

One day translates the Hebrew literally. Some interpret day to refer to an indefinite period of time, but there is nothing in the context that requires the Hebrew term for day to be taken as other than an ordinary day. All the other days of creation are described by numbers that indicate their place in order or sequence: second, third, fourth, and so on. The author’s purpose is clearly to explain that the seventh day Sabbath has its origin in creation.

In some languages “the first day” will be placed before “and there was evening….” The first of a series of time periods is often expressed in the same way as the first of a series of objects; for example, “the day in front,” “the head day,” “the day that goes first.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

For the concepts of “Day” and “Night, see also John Roberts’ Biblical Cosmology: The Implications for Bible Translation in Journal of Translation 2013/2, p. 1ff .

Translation commentary on Genesis 1:6 - 1:7

The second day of creation begins with verse 6.

And God said: see verse 3. Since this is the beginning of a new paragraph or section of the narrated report, many languages will require the appropriate marker for a new major section at this point, such as “Next…,” “After that…,” or “Having created the light….” To express the fact that God was giving a series of commands, some translations say “Then God spoke again, and he said….”

Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters is the first command of the second day. For Let there be see comments on verse 3. Firmament translates a Hebrew word used also in Psa 19.1, where it is in parallel with “heavens.” In Ezek 1.22 the same Hebrew word is translated “dome” by Good News Translation. As used in Ezek 6.11; 25.6, the related verb in Hebrew means “to stamp with the feet,” and in Exo 39.3 it means “to hammer out, beat flat” with reference to hammering or flattening metal into sheets. The thought is that the firmament is like a hammered sheet of metal that covers the overhead space from horizon to horizon, something like a dome or inverted bowl. Something of this idea is expressed in Job 37.18. This covering dome is commanded to appear in the midst of the waters, just as the light was commanded to appear in the presence of pre-existing darkness. The dome of the sky is to come into existence between the upper waters and the lower waters, as is made clear in Gen 1.7. In verse 8 the firmament is named “Heaven.”

In many languages it is difficult to express the idea of a dome or vault of the sky. However, in some languages the arched dome of the sky is called the “hide,” or “skin of the sky,” and in some languages spoken in jungle areas, it is referred to as the “sky jungle clearing.” You may find it necessary to use an image that will illustrate the thought. For example, you may be able to say “Now the heavens should be like an inverted pan,” “Let the sky be like an inverted bowl over the water,” or “Sky, you must be like a tent stretched across the water.” Two suggestions from translations in Pacific languages are “There must be something like a roof, to…,” and “A fence [or, wall] must come [or, appear], to fence off the water….”

And let it separate the waters from the waters is the second command. Here the command is that the dome or vault of the sky is to hold back the water above it from the water beneath it. Separate is the same word used in 1.4. Here the separation is a dividing of the waters above from the waters below, so that space exists between them. That space is the area under the dome. In Genesis 7 the flood is described as water bursting forth from the deep and rain coming down from the “windows of heaven,” which refers to openings in the arched dome of the sky. See also 2 Kgs 7.2, 19; Psa 148.4, for further examples of this view of the heavens. The command that the firmament … separate the waters from the waters may sometimes be expressed “and the skin of the sky should now keep the waters apart” or “and let the plate of the sky divide the water above from the water below.” One translation has “… divide the water, so that half of the water will stay above it, and half will stay below it.”

A literal rendering of the Hebrew, such as that found in Revised Standard Version, will not help the reader to grasp much of the picture. Even in a translation like Good News Translation, it may be advisable to provide the reader with cross references, an illustration, or a more detailed description in a footnote or introduction to the book. One possible illustration is that on page 27.

Note that Good News Translation has brought forward the words “… and it was done” from verse 7 as the completion of the command, and has combined the two verse numbers. It will be noticed that this statement also occurs in verses 9, 11, 15, and 24, and in each case it follows immediately after the command. Good News Translation has also translated in the midst of the waters, not as a location for the dome, but in terms of purpose, “to divide the water.” The second command let it separate … is rendered in Good News Translation as a second purpose: “and to keep it [the water] in two separate places.” This provides translators with a clearer model to follow.

And God made the firmament, verse 7, is the first part of the action or execution of the command.

And separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament expresses the action related to the second phase of the command.

And it was so: as is pointed out above, this is shifted forward in Good News Translation so that the statement of completion accompanies the command, as it does in each of its other occurrences. This expression of completion may be rendered, for example, “and that is the way it happened” or “and it happened as God commanded it.” See also comments on Gen 1.3. If the translator shifts this expression forward to the end of the commands in verse 6, then the numbers should be combined, as in Good News Translation.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

For the concepts of “waters above” and “waters below,” see also John Roberts’ Biblical Cosmology: The Implications for Bible Translation in Journal of Translation 2013/2, p. 1ff .

Translation commentary on Genesis 1:14

Verses 14-19 describe events of the fourth day with the creation of the sun, moon, and stars; however, the words “sun” and “moon” are avoided.

And God said: see Gen 1.3 and Gen 1.6.

Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens: lights translates a word meaning “lamps,” and so refers to objects that produce or give off light. Firmament is as in verses 6-7, and so the expression firmament of the heavens refers to the dome or vault in those verses, which holds back the waters above it.

In some languages the word for lights as objects that produce light will be different from the term “light” as it is used in Gen 1.3. If a word for lights meaning sources of light is lacking, it may be necessary to say, for example, “things that make light,” “objects that give off light,” or “things that shine.” In some languages the word for “lamps” may be used, as it is in Hebrew.

The first command to the lights is to separate the day from the night. Separate is as in 1.4, where light was created and, as a result of the separation of light from darkness, gave rise to day and night.

In some languages it will be necessary to adjust the expression separate the day from the night, since lights may not be used in this way. However, you may find it possible to say, for example, “to make daytime brighter than nighttime,” “some to shine during the day, and some to shine during the night,” or “to mark off day and night.”

The second command is let them be for signs and for seasons …. Signs is the noun form of a verb meaning “to mark, sign, describe.” It is used in Gen 9.12-13 referring to the rainbow as a sign of the covenant. Seasons translates a word derived from a term meaning “to fix, appoint times.” The reference is not mainly to the seasons of the year but rather to fixed times for carrying out a human activity such as the stages of the agricultural cycle or festive celebrations. According to Anchor Bible signs and seasons should not be understood as two separate nouns but rather as a clause in which signs explains what follows; for example, “they will serve as signs for fixed times.” Anchor Bible translates “Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years.” This will be a good model for many languages; in fact for some languages the same expression may also be used in the first part of the verse to translate “separate the day from the night.” One translation, for example, says “Lights must appear in the sky, to mark off day and night, and to mark days and years and all the special times of the year.”

Good News Translation takes seasons to refer to “religious festivals” so that the purpose of the lights in the sky is to “show the time when days, years, and religious festivals begin.” Good News Translation has placed the more general days and years before “religious festivals.” Moffatt says “sacred seasons,” and Bible en français courant translates “that they serve to determine festival [days], as well as the days and the years of the calendar.” In place of “religious festivals” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy is more general with “special dates.”

Let them may require repeating lights, that is, “The lights must serve as a means…” or “The lights are to be the way to tell when….” For seasons it is advisable to translate in terms of “festival occasions,” “fixed celebrations,” or “fixed dates and times.” In some languages these may be referred to as “eating and remembering times,” “days for joining people together,” or “days everyone celebrates together.” “Sacred festivals” may sometimes be translated “special worship days” or “special times for worshiping God.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

For an article about the problems on the translation of moed (מוֹעֵד) in this verse, see John Roberts’ The Anachronism of môʿăḏîm ‘appointed times’ in Gen 1.14 .