The Hebrew assonance tohu wa-bohu is often translated in English as “formless void” or some equivalent, but in some translations and languages attempts have been made to recreate some of its literary flavor:
English: wild and waste (Fox 1995); welter and waste (Alter 2004); void and vacant (James Moffatt 1935); complete chaos (New Revised Standard Version, updated edition 2021)
German: Irrsal und Wirrsal (Buber / Rosenzweig 1976); wüst und wirr (Einheitsübersetzung, 1980/2016)
French: vide et vague (La Bible de Jérusalem, 1975)
Ancient Greek: aóratos kaí akataskévastos (ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος) (Septuagint)
A number of modern languages have also adopted form of tohu wa-bohu as an idiom for a state of chaos. These include:
The Hebrew in Genesis 1:2 that is translated into English as “moving (or: hovering) over the (sur)face of the waters” is translated into Ebira as “(the spirit of God) stayed above the water doing NANANA [ideophone].” (Source: Rob Koops) Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
In Bari it is translated with bibirto, “which is used of a bird hovering over its nest or fluttering round a bunch of ripe bananas.” (Source: Source: P. Guillebaud in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 189ff. .)
In Kutu it is translated as “spreading over the water” and in Nyamwezi as ku’elela: “to circle around slowly over water, without touching it.” In Kwere it is translated with katanda, which carries the meaning of being ‘spread out’ over the water as one would spread a blanket out over a bed. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The following is a stained glass window from the Three choir windows in the Marienkirche, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, of the 14th century, depicting God Above the Primordial Water:
Source: Der gläserne Schatz: Die Bilderbibel der St. Marienkirche in Frankfurt (Oder), Neuer Berlin Verlag, 2005, copyright for this image: Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
The Hebrew that is translated as “spirit (or: Spirit) of God” (also: “wind of God”) in English was translated in the early 18th century Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation by Hans Egede as Guutip anersaava or “God’s breath.” He explained: “I cannot find no other word in the language suitable for articulating the idea of a spiritual being.” (Quoted in Flemming Nielsen in Elliott / Boer 2012, p. 113ff.)
Incidentally, the word anersaaq for “breath” that Egede had used has now morphed into meaning “spirit,” so the current Greenlandic translation (publ. 2000) has “Guutillu anersaavata” or “spirit of God,” using the same words.
1:1 A very, very long time ago, God created the heavens and the earth.
1:2 The earth was not yet formed and contained nothing, it was completely void. Water flowed endlessly and the entire earth was completely dark. God looked over all this. The Spirit of God, [like a bird], hovered over the water.
1:3 God spoke, saying, “Let there be light.” And the darkness became light.
1:4 God looked at the darkness and the light and saw that it was good.
1:5 God called the light ‘Day’ and the darkness ‘Night.’ Evening passed and morning came and that was day one.
1:6 Then God said, “Let there be a great dome to separate the waters above from the waters below.”
1:7 So God made a great dome to keep the waters above separate from the waters below.
1:8 God called the dome above ‘Heaven.’ Evening passed and morning came and that was day two.
1:9 God said, “Let there be dry land.” And the water gathered and dry land appeared.
1:10 God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the waters He called ‘seas.’ God looked at the earth and seas and saw that it was good.
1:11 God said “Let the earth produce plants of every kind. Let the earth grow grass, plants that make grain, and fruit trees. The fruit trees will make fruit with seeds in it. Let these plants grow on the earth.”
1:12 And it happened; the earth produced plants of all different kinds. Grass sprang up abundantly across the land, stalks with grains of all types [corn, rice, wheat, oat], trees of all varieties sprang up yielding fruits of all different kinds [orange, mango, banana, plums, guavas, guinep] everywhere [tomatoes, pineapple, strawberries, watermelon] [of all different sizes and shapes]. These plants sprang over all across the land, reproducing themselves through seeds. God looked over this and saw that it was good.
1:13 Evening passed and morning came and that was day three.
1:14 God spoke to the heavens, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. These lights will indicate the seasons, days and years.
1:15 The lights from heaven will give light to the earth.”
1:16 God made two great lights: the greater [brighter] light to rule the day, and the lesser [dimmed] light to rule the night, along with the stars.
1:17 God placed these lights in the sky to give light to the earth.
1:18 The greater [brighter] light ruled over the day and the lesser [dimmed] light ruled over the night and separated light and darkness. God looked at this and saw that it was good.
1:19 Evening passed and morning came and that was day four.
1:20 God spoke to the waters below and the heavens above, “Let the seas be filled with living creatures and let birds fly above in the heavens.”
1:21 God created huge sea creatures and many different animals swarmed the waters [shrimp, lobster, octopus, turtles, crocodile, whales] the sky was filled with different winged animals of its own kind [great and small- dove, crow, eagle, parrot, hummingbird]. God looked at this and saw that it was good.
1:22 God looked at the heavens and the earth and blessed them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the seas, let the birds multiply across the earth.”
1:23 Evening passed and morning came and that was day five.
1:24 God spoke to the earth “Let there be living creatures of different kinds: farm animals [cows, sheep, goat], crawling insects [bugs, worms, snakes], and wild animals of different kind [lion, leopard, elephant, ostrich, kangaroo, alligator]
1:25 So God created all these different types of animals. God looked at this and saw that it was good.
1:26 Then God thought of creating man [human]. Why? To be stewards [responsible] for the earth. To take care of birds in the sky, the animals in the sea and the creatures all over the earth.
1:27 God created man and woman in His own image and likeness.
1:28 God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Let man and woman rule over the earth, over the fishes in the sea and the birds in the sky, and the animals on the land. Be stewards of the earth.”
1:29 God said to the man and the woman, “Look at all the plants and trees, I give you all the plants that bear fruits and grains to eat freely.
1:30 All green grass, grains and fruit trees I give to all the animals, every bird and crawling insect, to eat from freely. Every plant is theirs because they have the breath of life which I have given them.” And they all went ahead and ate freely.
1:31 God looked at all He created and saw that it was good. Evening passed and morning came and that was day six.
Back-translation by Amakedia Wallen, coordinated by Tashi Widmer
The Hebrew in Genesis 1:2 that is translated as “(the) deep” in English is translated in Luba-Lulua as “a very deep hole in which there is water.” (Source: Jan Sterk)
In the Swabian 2007 translation by Rudolf Paul it is translated as Urmeer or “primordial ocean.”
The Hebrew in Genesis 1:2 that is translated as “formless (and) void” in some English translations is translated in Mwera as “not moulded properly.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
In Takwane it is translated as “(That earth was) not good/beautiful (in state/form), nor did it have anything” (source: Jeff Shrum) and in Amele as “chaotic, empty and useless” (source: John Roberts).
Targum Neofiti translates it in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic as “(And the earth was) void and formless, desolate from humans and animals alike. It was empty of all planted vegetation and trees.” Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Neofiti is the largest of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible). (Source )
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.