{"id":132,"date":"2009-01-30T07:39:50","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T20:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/?p=132"},"modified":"2010-11-24T00:11:06","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T13:11:06","slug":"a-foreignising-translation-of-genesis-1-part-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"a foreignising translation of genesis 1: part IV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, at last it is time to finish the remainder of Genesis 1. I’m sure there remains much room for improvement, so I’m still open to any and all suggestions. I’m also aware that there are parts of the text which remain susceptible to inappropriate domestication, so this is in no way intended to be a finished work!<\/p>\n

\n

\tThen God said, \u201cLet the waters swarm with swarms of living things, and let flying things1<\/a><\/sup> fly over the land, in front of the barrier of the sky.\u201d And God established the great sea-monsters2<\/a><\/sup> and all the varieties of squirming living things with which the waters swarm, and all varieties of winged flying things. God recognised that it was good.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

\tAnd God blessed them with the words, \u201cBe fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the flying things multiply on the land.\u201d And there was evening and then morning, a fifth day.<\/p>\n

\tThen God said, \u201cLet the land produce varieties of animals\u2014varieties of cattle, creeping animals, and wild animals.\u201d And it was so. God made the varieties of wild animals, varieties of cattle, and all varieties of animals which creep over the ground. God recognised that it was good.<\/p>\n

\tThen God said, \u201cLet us make humankind as our representation4<\/a><\/sup> to be our proxy5<\/a><\/sup> so they may rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, and over the entire land as well as all of the creeping animals which creep over the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

So God established humankind as his representation,
\nas the representation of God he created that one,<\/span>
\nmale and female he created them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\tThen God blessed them with the words, \u201cBe fruitful, multiply, fill the land and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying things of the sky, and all the animals which creep over the land.\u201d And God said, \u201cNow I give you all the crops which are on the land and all trees bearing fruit containing its seed\u2014these shall be your food. To all the wild animals, to the birds of the sky, and to the animals which creep over the land which are alive, [I give] every green plant for food.\u201d And it was so.<\/p>\n

\tGod recognised that all which he had made was now very good. And there was evening and then morning, a sixth day.<\/p>\n

\tThen the sky and the land was finished, and all their entourage. By the seventh day God had finished the work which he had done, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it sacred, because on it he rested from all his work which God established.<\/p>\n\n

\t1.<\/a> In light of the apparently all-encompassing reference in the previous clause to sea-life, it seems probable that \u05e2\u05d5\u05e3 here refers to more than merely birds but encompasses everything that flies (see Lev 11:20; Deut 14:19). Using \u201cflying things\u201d also allows me to preserve something of the parallelism of the Hebrew \u05d5\u05e2\u05d5\u05e3 \u05d9\u05e2\u05d5\u05e4\u05e3.<\/p>\n

\t2.<\/a> Translations for \u05d4\u05ea\u05e0\u05d9\u05e0\u05dd \u05d4\u05d2\u05d3\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd include \u201cgreat sea creatures\u201d (ESV, NET), \u201cgreat creatures of the sea\u201d (NIV, TNIV), \u201cgreat whales\u201d (KJV), \u201chuge whales\u201d (Message). These all overly domesticate a term which likely incorporated some element of mystery: \u201csomething large lurking in the depths whose identity is not entirely clear to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t3.<\/a> The term \u201cgood\u201d is pretty vague, but then so also is the Hebrew \u05d8\u05d5\u05d1. Hamilton translates as \u201cbeautiful,\u201d although there are other Hebrew terms (e.g. \u05d9\u05e4\u05d4) which may better express the aesthetic quality inherent in this English word. Perhaps \u201csuitable\u201d or \u201cappropriate\u201d would be good renderings (if Sailhamer\u2019s emphasis on the anthropocentric nature of the narrative is correct, then God\u2019s observation would highlight the suitability of each phase of creation for human habitation). HALOT<\/em>\u2019s suggestion, \u201cin order, usable,\u201d would seem to fit well here.<\/p>\n

\t4.<\/a> \u201cImage\u201d and \u201clikeness\u201d are difficult primarily because they incorporate millenia of theological baggage. \u201cRepresentation\u201d is nice because it incorporates the notion of physicality inherent in \u201cimage\u201d but also invokes the idea of a representative which is inherent in the use of \u05e6\u05dc\u05dd but absent from the English \u201cimage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t5.<\/a> Obviously \u201cproxy\u201d fails to reflect the aspect of physical resemblance inherent in \u201clikeness,\u201d but I\u2019m trying to avoid \u201clikeness\u201d in order to distance the translation from the theological baggage which would otherwise be imposed upon the text by the use of conventional terms. On the other hand, \u201cproxy\u201d nicely conveys the notion of representation inherent in both \u05e6\u05dc\u05dd and \u05d3\u05de\u05d5\u05ea.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, at last it is time to finish the remainder of Genesis 1. I’m sure there remains much room for improvement, so I’m still open to any and all suggestions. I’m also aware that there are parts of the text which remain susceptible to inappropriate domestication, so this is in no way intended to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,25,24,5,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-genesis","category-hebrew","category-languages","category-old-testament","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}