dust of the ground

The Hebrew in Genesis 2:7 that is translated by many English versions as “dust of the ground” or similar is translated in the English translation by Robert Alter (pub. 2004) as “humus” to recreate the pun in the Hebrew where ‘adam is “human” and ‘adamah is “soil.”

LORD God / Lord God

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “Lord God” or “Lord God” encountered an issue in Tok Pisin. Norm Mundhenk explains why (in The Bible Translator 1985, p. 442ff. ):

“I am not aware of any serious objections to either the word God [for “God”] or Bikpela [for YHWH] alone. However, when trying to translate the expression ‘the Lord God,’ the translators first tried to use Bikpela God. But Bikpela is also an adjective meaning ‘big’ and in the expression Bikpela God, it would usually be understood as “Big God,’ as though there were other smaller gods around also.

“In the Old Testament, as the recent articles have clearly pointed out, the English word ‘Lord‘ often stands for the Hebrew name of God, YHWH, which is usually spelled these days as Yahweh. With this in mind, the name Yawe was tried in Tok Pisin, but it was felt that most readers did not connect this strange name with God. Eventually, we decided to keep Bikpela, but to translate ‘Lord God’ as God, Bikpela, literally ‘God, the Lord.’

“The reason for this decision was really only that the words could be used naturally in this order, without the problem of giving a wrong meaning which we had when putting Bikpela first. It was not until some people asked if it was right to ‘turn around’ the name and the title in this way that we realized that there was really a deeper reason for doing what we did. In fact, for most speakers of Tok Pisin, God is the only God they know, and it seems likely that God is understood as the personal name of God, rather than as a class name. Bikpela, on the other hand, is a class name — there can be more than one Bikpela, though it is recognized that God is the greatest of them and there is no confusion when he is referred to simply as Bikpela. Thus, in Hebrew an expression like ‘YHWH, the God of Israel,’ has the personal name first, followed by the class name explaining who he is. And we have exactly the same situation in Tok Pisin when we say God, Bikpela bilong Isrel. I suspect that in many other languages which have borrowed the word ‘God,’ we might find that it has been borrowed basically as a personal name, rather than as a class name.”

dust

The two Hebrew terms that are translated in English as “dust” are referring to “dry earth” (aphar) and “fine dust” (abaq). In Lamba, like in Hebrew, two different terms are used: ikuŋgu: “dust in the air” and ifukutu: “settled dust.”

In Genesis 2:7, for instance, ifukutu in Lamba and aphar in Hebrew is used and in Ezekiel 26:10 ikuŋgu and abaq are being used.

In the only occurrence where both Hebrew terms are used side by side (in Deuteronomy 28:24), English versions use “powder and dust” or simply drop one of the terms. Lamba, however, is able to closely and naturally follow the Hebrew by using both of the available terms (likuŋgu lifukutu). (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )

God Creates Adam

The following is a stained glass window from the Three choir windows in the Marienkirche, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, of the 14th century, depicting God creating Adam:

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 )

See also other stained glass windows from the Marienkirche in Frankfurt.

Genesis 2 in Jamaican Sign Language

Following is the translation of Genesis 2 into Jamaican Sign Language:


Source: Jamaican Sign Language Bible Translation


2:1 God had finished creating the heavens and the earth and everything in them. This took seven days, so God worked for seven days creating the heavens and the earth and all the things He placed in them.

2:2 On the seventh day God rested.

2:3 God blessed the seventh day as His own special day. Why? Because he had completed His work creating the heavens and the earth and on this day He rested.

2:4 So that is it.

The heavens and the earth were created by Yahweh a very long time ago. This story is about what happened afterwards.

2:5 The earth had not yet grown green grass or trees. Why? Because Yahweh had not yet made it rain on the earth. There was also no one to sow the land and take care of the plants.

2:6 From deep within the earth, water sprang up and spread over the ground [mud]. This was used to create human.

2:7 Yahweh took this mud from the ground and formed a human. And Yahweh breathed life into the human and he inhaled and became living.

2:8 In the east, Yahweh planted a garden, He named this garden Eden. Then Yahweh took the human he created and placed him in the garden.

2:9 In the garden there were beautiful trees of every different kind that all produced fruits that were good to eat. Among all these trees stood one tree in the middle of the garden that was the tree of life. Next to it was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If someone eats from the tree of life, they will live forever. If they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will come to know good and evil.

2:10 A river flowed out of the garden of Eden that nourished the trees. It parted and became four rivers.

2:11 The first river was called Pishon which flowed out into the land called Havilah. Havilah had these three things: a lot of gold,

2:12 Bdellium [gum from a tree that is used to make fragrance] and onyx [a shiny black stone].

2:13 The second river Gihon, which flowed out into the land called Cush.

2:14 The third river called Tigris, flowed out into the land called Assyria in the east. And the fourth river was called Euphrates

2:15 Yahweh placed the human in the garden of Eden to work and take care of it.

2:16 Yahweh commanded the human, “You may eat from any tree in this garden.

2:17 But the tree in the middle- the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat from this tree. If you disobey me and eat from this tree your life will be ruined and you will die.”

2:18 Yahweh looked at the human and said, “He is lonely, this is not good. I will create another person to help him.”

2:19 Yahweh had already created all the animals. He called all the animals to the man, all the four-legged beasts, the crawling creatures and winged animals, He called them to the man.

2:20 And the man gave names to all the animals. The man gave names to all the animals, to the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the forest, he named them all. The man saw that there were many, many animals but none was human like him.

2:21 So Yahweh caused the man to fall into a very deep sleep. As he slept, Yahweh took one of his ribs from his body and then healed his skin.

2:22 Then Yahweh used the man’s rib to create a woman. He sent her to the man. The man awoke and saw the woman.

2:23 He said, “Finally! A person like me. We are both bone and flesh. We are the same. She was created from my rib. She is ‘woman,’ my companion.”

2:24 This is why a man leaves his mother, his father and family to find a woman who will become his wife and they two will become one.

2:25 The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not ashamed.

Back-translation by Amakedia Wallen, coordinated by Tashi Widmer

complete verse (Genesis 2:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 2:7:

  • Kankanaey: “This is the way that God made mankind (= person). He took dust and that is what he shaped into his body. Then he blew into his nose the breath that gives life, and then the person lived.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then the LORD God, taking clay that was on the earth, made man, and He breathed the breath of life into his nose. In this way the man became one who had life.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Then the LORD God made man from the soil. He blew/breathed into- the -nose of-the man the breath that gives life. So the man became a living creature.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Yahweh God took some soil and formed a man. He breathed into the man’s nostrils his own breath that gives life, and as a result the man became a living person.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("blow in")

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, fukikom-are-ru (吹き込まれる) or “blow in” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )