Translation Tangles

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. Genesis 1.6-8 NIV

We can get into sticky issues with regard to how words, phrases, sentences, meaning (!) hold up through translation. Here is how some of the main translations present Genesis 1.8.

New International Version, NIV God called the vault "sky."
New Living Translation God called the space "sky."
English Standard Bible And God called the expanse Heaven.
New American Standard Bible God called the expanse heaven.
King James Bible And God calleth the firmament Heaven.
Revised Standard Versions And God called the firmament Heaven.
International Standard Version God called the canopy "sky."
God's Word Transltn God named [what was above] the horizon [sky].
Jubilee Bible 2000 And God called the firmament Heavens.
Amplified God called the expanse [of sky] heaven.
Darby Bible Translation And God called the expanse Heavens.
Expanded Bible God named the air "sky."
World English Bible God called the expanse "sky."
Young's Literal And God calleth to the expanse Heavens;'
Complete Jewish Bible and God called the dome sky.
Jewish Study Bible, 1985 JPS edition God called the expanse Sky.
Masoretic Text, MT* And God called the firmament Heaven.
*authoritative Hebrew & Aramaic text of the Tanakh for Rabbinic Judiasm

Unfortunately, ancient writers and copiers didn't leave us a dictionary relating their vocabulary to that of twenty-first century American English. At any rate, I'm told the common Hebrew interpretation for what God creates here in verse 8, raqiya, means actually a firm, solid, dome, like an inverted bowl made of hammered out metal. More on this next time.

Why evening and morning, not morning and evening?

And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1.5b NIV

Ever wonder why the evening is stated before the morning? Normally we'd say we work from morning to evening, right? Was God doing these things at night?

All I can figure is that it was dark when he started--before the light was born. As that was the original condition, it gets first billing. Or maybe it's because God reckons the same as his chosen people, the Jews.

Why doesn't God call light light?

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” Genesis 1.5 NIV

John Walton, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, asks the following burning question about verse 5:
Why does God call the light day? Why doesn't he simply call it light? Hmmm.

Walton, like Lennox, points out that in this verse, light--as called day--is contrasted with night and thus represents a period of time. God called the period of light day. That makes sense.

Extending the logic back through verses 4 and 3 gives the reading, "God said let there be a period of light," and it was so. "We must inevitably consider day one," says Walton in chapter 5 of The Lost World of Genesis One, "as describing the creation of time." Oh! "The basis for time is the invariable alteration between periods of light and periods of darkness. This is a creative act, but it is creation in a functional sense, not a material one."

More explanation on this model is yet to come.

How long is a day? Well, . . . which kind of day?

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1.5 NIV

Mathematician John Lennox points out that the word day is used in several different ways in Genesis 1 and 2.

Here, since it is contrasted with night, it means a 12-hour day, the period of daylight.

The second use of day, in this same verse, includes evening and morning and so of course would mean a 24-hour day.

Jump ahead to Genesis 2.2. After the six-time repetition of "and there was evening, and there was morning--the ___day," we come to the seventh day and see this phrase is missing. On this day, creation activity has stopped and God begins his reign over all that he has made. There's no end to this day of God's ceasing to create and beginning to rest (or rule clarifies John Walton). It is on-going until now. Lennox says, ". . . we are still today in God's Sabbath rest." So the seventh day in this case is what St. Augustine looked at as "an epoch that extends onward into eternity."

Finally, consider Genesis 2.4. Although the NIV uses when, other translations more accurately translate that Hebrew as "in the day that." NASB, AMP, ESV, and Young's Literal all say, "in the day that" the Lord God made the earth and the heavens . . . . In this case, it's like saying, "In my day, we did it this way." It means an era of time.

Thanks to John Lennox (7 Days That Divide the World) for these examples.

Again something to think about as we consider how to read the Bible.

Light splashed through darkness or . . .?

God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1.4 NIV

God does a lot of separating in Genesis 1, a lot of organizing, ordering.
In verse 2 there is only darkness over the primeval water.

Then--POW!--God creates light!

But it's not yet separated from the dark. What does that look like? Could the light have been splashed through the darkness? Imagine floating along in the dark when suddenly you hit a patch light! After further bobbing, you're back again in utter darkness. Grope about and, ah!, there's the light again. Or perhaps the light and dark were mixed into an eerie half-light. What could it have been like before these two were definitively separated? We can only imagine.

And Light Is

And God saith, `Let light be;' and light is.
Genesis 1.3 Young’s Literal Translation

Wow! I like this translation.

Early Genesis is not the only ancient creation story. As discovered in the mid 1800s, other cultures of the Ancient Near East had their own renditions of how our world came to be, the Egyptians, Sumerians, and most notably the Babylonians with their Enuma Elish. Because of fascinating similarities with Genesis 1, when Enuma Elish first came to light, theories abounded that the biblical author had copied from or was at least influenced by it and the other stories from older traditions.

More recently scholarship has focused on the remarkable differences. The Hebrew story breaks radically from the understanding of other cultures. In Enuma Elish there are many gods, and the world is formed as a direct result of their conflict with each other. In Genesis, there is one God. No conflict. His power is such that he can create light with only is word. Let there be light and light is. So be it!

If you’d like further reading on the similarities and differences between Genesis 1 and Enuma Elish, see this article by Peter Enns.
http://biologos.org/blogs/archive/genesis-1-and-a-babylonian-creation-story

Sources

It's time for a disclaimer. I make no assertion of any expertise whatsoever on the topic of early Genesis and the origins of the universe, origins of our world, origins of life, origins of humanity. I am not a primary source. But I have become interested in the topic and been reading and listening to those who do have some expertise, both scientists and Bible scholars and some who are both. Of course, there is no consensus.

Beloved author, lecturer, church watcher and founding author of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, Phyllis Tickle says, quite seriously, that one shouldn't go into the pastorate today without having a degree in physics.

Here are some of the things I've been reading.

By John C Lennox, Professor of Mathmatics at Oxford: Seven Days that Divide the World, lectures on the internet
By John H Walton, OT scholar at Wheaton: The Lost World of Scripture, The Lost World of Genesis One, lectures on the internet, lecture in Urbana
By Robin A. Parry: The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrims Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible
By Henri Blocher, Professor of Theology at Faculte Libre de Theologie Evangelique, France: In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis
By Francis S. Collins, geneticist and head of the Human Genome Protect: The Language of God
By Johnny Miler, professor emeritus at Columbia International University, and John Soden, author: In the Beginning. . . We Misunderstood
By Christine Hayes, Professor of Religious Studies, Yale: Introduction to the Old Testament, online Open Yale course
By Bruce Fouke, Professor in Geology, Microbiology, and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, at UIUC: The Emergence of Life--Osher Lifelong Learning course
By Peter Enns, Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University: The Bible Tells Me So
The Jewish Study Bible