“In the Beginning,”
Phase 1 complete (ready for Phase 2).
Let's consider the following source material in groups of three:
We will begin by comparing the KJV, ASV and RSV. In cases where the wording of the RSV matches the ASV exactly, we will explicitly reject the wording of the RSV and go with the wording of the ASV in order to avoid copyright issues. In cases where the wording of the RSV differs from the wording of the ASV, we will adopt the wording of the ASV but we will immediately check the theology of the verse against the JPS 1917 Tanach and ArtScroll's Stone Edition Tanach, in order to choose an appropriate wording which matches an accepted theology. In any case, if the reading of the KJV is better than the reading in the ASV we may regress towards the KJV in order to retain the literary value of the work.
The second pass will be to compare with the WEB, YLT, and DARBY translations to see if a better wording can come out; Finally a third pass will be done using the the RSV, JPS 1917 and Stone Edition Chumash, and possibly other trustworthy translations, to verify that the theology of the chosen line is acceptable and can support the proper commentary.
All such stages and changes will be listed We'll mark the stage of review as 1, 2 and 3 and we will mark the chosen translation, and explain any other notes in a footnote section. Underneath the footnote section (or beside the text) we will begin making reference notes such as concordance or commentary. No commentary will be included which contradicts an established commentary such as that found in the Stone Edition.
After we do Genesis 1 and maybe Genesis 2, we will re-evaluate this strategy and see if there isn't a way to improve the process.
See “strategy” above.
titling marked with “GNV” since it's from the GNV and will be changed later. 1 God created the heaven and the earth.
Example link for external comparison:
| KJV | ASV | RSV |
|---|---|---|
| 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. | 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. | 1 In the beginning God created[a] the heavens and the earth. |
| 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. | 2 And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God [a]moved upon the face of the waters. | 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit[b] of God was moving over the face of the waters. |
1. One purpose of this passage is to express creation ex nihilo, out of nothing. This is done explicitly in the Wycliffe Bible (“of nought”). It should be noted that the statement reads like “at the beginning (of time),” or “at the first moment”, or “before anything else,” such that there was nothing prior to that statement.
Here 'heavens' may refer to the stars and universe as well as the spiritual realm. We keep 'heavens' not for this sake but to note that even if we are discussing God's creation of the spiritual world alongside the physical world, we assume there are different “locations” in the spiritual world due to how such a world is eventually alluded to in the bible. In any case the bible says nothing about this other than what is written, so we couldn't speculate further.
2. There is little in the text to suggest this is necessarily a sequence of events. In fact, there is rabbinic commentary for and against such a reading. In this case we will prefer the ASV reading. We will also note that this inclusion of “and” (which appears in the underlying Hebrew) can often insulate one from intentional misquotations which start in the middle of a verse, or which wrongly assume a verse which begins with 'and' may stand in context on its own. This will also prevent a bad translation from being used to hide such a verse (beginning with “and”) and in the long run should improve the clarity of the translation. We thus prefer the ASV reading here.
Secondly, we prefer the KJV “without form” to note here that 'darkness' is not merely the absence of light but that there was an absence of form (creation). This coincides with rabbinic commentary from the Stone Edition
“Without form” and “Void” are two separate and complimentary meanings. The reference to Isaiah 45:7 shows us that this darkness itself was created. “Crated the heavens and the earth” i.e. the physical world; but not necessarily anything inside of it per-se. There was simply nothing (void). Also “without form,” may mean there was a potential here such as the potential to separate light and darkness from a void. I find it an interesting aside that this is how matter and antimatter operate, and seems to gel with my limited understanding of the initial moments of the so-called 'big bang'.
Notes.
Here the ASV mentions “brooded upon” versus “moved” and the RSV mentions “wind” as an alternate to “Spirit of God”. Wind is the underlying Hebrew term, rendered by the Stone Edition as “Divine Presence”. Here we will go with “ a wind from God” which reflects the underlying Hebrew, and keep in the notes that this refers to the Divine Presence. We want to avoid “The Spirit of God” because it has become ensconced within Christian Trinity theology. We also note explicitly that God does not have a spirit in that there is any separate “spirit” of God – nor is God himself a spirit. We thus feel “Spirit of God” is a shoehorned translation.
We will also keep the 'actionable reading of moved because we feel that this is a good set-up for the next verse where God then said let there be light. We don't want to give the impression that “Let there be light” was the start of creation. Although we will note the JPS reading infinitely tempting to adopt, it is logically equivalent due to our use of “and”, and we think English readers will prefer the more familiar layout.
Ref.
a. Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” (KJV)
Example link for external comparison:
1 In the beginning, God[a] created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. (WEB)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (DARBY)
1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. 2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters. (DRA [Douay-Rheims])
1 In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth – 2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters, (YLT)
Notes.
Here YLT reads closest to the JPS 1985 in theme, and is supported by the Stone Edition's reading as well. We begin by noting “hovered” (which matches the Stone Edition) could be used to give a tone closer to the JPS or Stone Edition reading, while the JPS's “Sweeping over” is a nice middle ground. “Moved on” has perhaps a different connotation. It may be time to look at the original Hebrew. The word is 7363. mə·ra·ḥe·p̄eṯ [e] (מְרַחֶ֖פֶת) “was hovering” (V‑Piel‑Prtcpl‑fs). We should probably use hovering as well then, in order to further insinuate that the passage could be read in two ways. But many Jewish translations note that this word is mainly used to mean acting upon in some way i.e. the same root word in Deuteronomy 32:11 describe a mother bird fluttering over her young. YLT syupports this reading as well. Thus we will prefer an active reading over a passive one (such as 'hovering').
Finally we will choose “surface” from WEB versus “face” as a tip of the hat to the Stone Edition. We also consider “face” to have special meaning so “surface” here is better than reifying a created object.
We will only rarely quote passages from the Stone Edition or JPS because we would end up reproducing a copyrighted work by the time we finished this project. However the theology of this verse seems to be sound as chosen below:
Fs; keep ‘I pray thee’ as ‘I pray you’. (From genesis 37 or so).
What I find myself doing is checking the KJV, ASV, RSV and then immediately the JPS and/or Stone Edition to choose a decent translation. The others (WEB, YLT, etc) have only shown themselves as useful as an excuse to use a wording from a copyrighted book which also happens to be used in a public domain version; In this case we were able to use WEB and DARBY's “hovering”, while JPS 1985's “wind” (and RSV notes) is more problematic. We need to change it from 'Spirit of God' to avoid a Christian shoehorn; so we take the definition from 7307. ruach “breath, wind, spirit” and Ref. Genesis 8:1 “8 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.” (KJV) [and Deuteronomy 32:11 notably 'fluttered' ex. YLT]. We note here the same imagery at the end of the flood. We may then choose to use ruach as wind here in order to link these two events. In any case, and considering that Genesis 8:1 and Deu. 32:10-11 likely have Genesis 1:2 in mind, we will use 'wind' and keep “moved on” or better “moved upon” with the note 'acted upon' or 'affected', as well as it being a familiar reading.
The First Book of Moses, called Genesis.
“In the Beginning,”
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (KJV)
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And a wind[a] from God moved[b] upon the surface of the waters. (KJV, Darby, YLT, Strong's, others)
Notes.
[1] The name of God used here is 430. “elohim” (אֱלֹהִ֑ים, ’ĕ-lō-hîm) as printed in the Masoretic text. This name will be used throughout Genesis chapter 1 and until Genesis 2:4. [a] Ruach Ha-Kodesh; the breath of God. The Christian translation is usually “the Spirit of God” (compare with Deuteronomy 4:15 et.) As far as I am aware this rationale for the tn is original among English versions.
Ref.
[2] Isaiah 45:7 [a] Genesis 8:1, Deuteronomy 4:15-18 [b] Deuteronomy 32:10-11
“The First Day” (GNV 3 The light and the darkness,)
I will revise the source material as follows;
Others
I will also revise the quotation style to be more parallel, and compare several versions at once. I will reorder the translations verse by verse to try and weed out translations which are, in general, superfluous.
The Gevena 1599 version is interesting because it contains a short summary of the chapter. I thought I saw this in the OEB as well, but it turns out I must have seen it somewhere else. The interesting thing is that because this was in a four way comparison, when I read it, I thought I was just reading a very general translation of the bible. This led me to consider a very rupert-esque sort of summary of each chapter. This may have some value as a separate project; or as a starter for chapter titles.
I am also including YLT because it read 'surface' and actually has an interesting way of putting things which often comports with JPS and Stone.
I'd also like to record how interesting it is to me that the NRSV so often returns to a KJV-inspired reading over the RSV…
I'll also quickly point out that I am not going to dump 10 or 15 different translations here, only the ones which we end up considering for use. In many cases the readings are exactly the same; for example here, Darby, GNV, and ASV all match the KJV.
| Genesis 1:3 | |
|---|---|
| And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. | KJV |
| and God saith, `Let light be;' and light is. | YLT |
| And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light. | JPS 1917 |
| God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. | WEB |
| God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. | JPS 1985 |
There are a number of issues here, mainly stylistic, but for theological purposes we will contniue to keep 'and' for now (KJV, ASV). Next we note the the initially desirable looking semicolon in JPS 1985, but get distracted by the wonderful comma inside the quotes of WEB. We will change the style of quotes to a unique common-ASCII straight-quote “, keep the comma inside, but remove the comma inside as follows:
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
I actually find the double commas strange, but a colon instead of the first comma feels falsely dramatic, while at the same time the first comma is itself too dramatic to remove.
| Genesis 1:4 | |
|---|---|
| And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. | KJV |
| And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. | ASV |
| And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated [a]the light from the darkness. | GNV |
| God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. | WEB |
| And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness. | DRA |
| And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. | JPS 1917 |
| And God seeth the light that [it is] good, and God separateth between the light and the darkness, | YLT |
| God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. | JPS 1985 |
| God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. | NET |
| And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. | RSV |
So, we can keep 'and' again (ASV and others). We would like to keep the 'seeing' and 'that it was good' as separate events to express that God is not impulsive but carefully considers things. However this raises issues with the underlying hebrew which does not make such a distinction. Therefore we continue not “God saw the light, and saw that it was good,” or any intermediate form, but directly “God saw that the light was good”. From NET we have following this “so…”, roughly “and” in all others. For this issue we turn to Rashi and the Rambam (Stone Edition). The Stone edition reads 'and', despite the commentary which shows Rashi saying 'God saw that the light was good, therefore he separated it from the darkness and declared that it should function independantly (during the day)”, and Ramban as commenting 'God expressed his approval (saw that it was good)' thus made it a permanent change; it was good (complete) and required no further perfection (creation). Rashi continues this idea noting that the waters are not called 'good' until the third day, when they were gathered into seas and oceans.
From this we understand 'so' may in fact be quite an interesting reading. We could use 'therefore', but we are already keeping 'And'. Actually, 'therefore' might sound better. How does it read so far?
And God saw that the light was good, therefore God separated the light from the darkness.
This reads more formally than “And God saw the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness.” Stone Edition reads “between the light and the darkness”, and 'divided' is another common word used. Here, I think separated the light from the darkness is fine, although YLT's “separated the light and the darkness” is also interesting. Also we may note that the underlying Hebrew and similar usages of it would imply a more literal reading that God 'set apart' the light and 'set apart' the darkness, or 'between' and 'between', but this doesn't seem to matter from a theological standpoint and reads coarsely in English. Wyclyffe uses 'parted… from'. I guess now we can appreciate studying the bible in Hebrew versus English – in Hebrew the word choice, order and lettering are of utmost importance.
Here we are left looking at the wording of the RSV and we have no source for it. If however we examine as follows;
| And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ^ RSV |
| And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ^ NAS |
| And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ^ ESV |
| And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ^ NHEB |
| And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ^ JUB 2000 |
| God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ^ NASB |
| God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ^ NIV |
| God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. ^ CSB |
| God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. ^ HCSB |
| God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. ^ NET |
This leads us to a second strategic principle; We may take from a copyrighted translation so far as there are a very large number of other (copyrighted) translations which use the same reading; For surely then it is not that particular portion which is copyrighted. There are a number of reasons why this is guaranteed to be safe, one is that by not suing existing (new) translations the (original) author of the translation loses his right to defend copyright over that particular line (at least, in isolation).
We may now carefully read:
4 And God saw that the light was good, therefore God separated the light from the darkness.
Noting that no such translation exists with 'and' and a comma, nor, 'therefore'. Here we take 'separated from YLT and update the spelling; which is a standard technique (see the modern Geneva bible, for instance).
Next, taking 'separated' from YLT we wonder if we may continue with this reading, which incidentally agrees with the Stone Edition:
4 And God saw that the light was good, therefore God separated between the light and the darkness.
This seems to be a bit closer to the meaning of the Hebrew; and due to cross references such as Isaiah 45:7 it is probably better to chose the second wording. This will enter the notes for at least [4], [7] and [14] to make it clear.
| Genesis 1:5 | |
|---|---|
| And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. | GNV, KJV |
| And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. | ASV, RSV |
| God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day. | WEB |
| And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day. | DRM |
| and God calleth to the light `Day,' and to the darkness He hath called `Night;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning – day one. | YLT |
| God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day. | NET |
| God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day. | NLT |
There is little to say about these lines and deciding between them. The first point is “and”. We keep the “and” here, as usual. Next we notice we like the quotes in WEB and other modern translations. We'll use those as well. I think using a semicolon here would help differentiate the line from other translations, moreso than retaining or dropping 'and', or using quotes. I will next note the semicolon or colon after 'night' and then 'and' is not strictly required here, since this 'and' is more of an 'and then' (both comparatively with other verses and in terms of how we grasp the sequence of events in the creation account). That is, we tend to assume that God called the darkness 'night' before evening came; and that in a worst case scenario if we were wrong the fault would lie more in the fact that it doesn't matter to say so out loud because we're translating the work into English anyways. I suppose a period here will serve this purpose, and we may start the next sentence with a capitalized 'And'. We finally come to 'one day' versus 'day one'. Considering the above there are a couple of interesting readings here:
5 And God called the light 'day', and the darkness 'night'.
'Day one' sounds a bit much; and the first reading is a little dry. I prefer the second reading. Check out that beautiful and unique semicolon after 'evening'!
Secondly consider that the underlying Hebrew uses the ordinal 'one' and not the cardinal 'one'. This obviously would render as coarsely in Hebrew as it would in English; but since it is biblical it would have acquired a certain historical and religious charm if nothing else. Finding a similar wording in English could be difficult. Here are some possibilities:
Looking at Stone edition, the meaning might translate better into English with a colon instead of a comma.
However, the underlying Hebrew actually says “day one”, and it seems to work better now that there's a colon there. We will try it out.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good, therefore God divided[a] between the light and between[b] the darkness.
5 And God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. And there was morning and there was evening: day one.
[4a] Knowing God through his actions, we see that one of God's actions is the act of separating the light (which was found to be good) from the darkness. Therefore, one of God's actions is to choose good over what is not good.
[4b] This follows the hebrew word order and supports cross references and commentary such as Isaiah 45:7.
[5] The Hebrew text uses the ordinal number 'one' versus the cardinal number 'first' to indicate God's oneness. Rashi continues that the angels were not created until the second day thus this could be given a second reading of 'the day of the One and Only' as well.
“The Second Day”
(GNV 8 The firmament,)
We'll try a slightly different approach here. We enjoy the 'and' from the ASV and it's general wording, we will try starting from the ASV and compare merits of other translations after verifying the theology of the lines.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament[a] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided between the waters which were under the firmament and between[a] the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
[6a] Genesis 1:6 Hebrew 'expanse'.
[7a] “ū-ḇên” (and between) as noted (see 1:4, 1:14).
The first point concerns firmament versus expanse. All of the 10 sources show one or the other. Some other notables are vault (NIV), space (NLT), horizon (God's Word Translation) and canopy (ISV). We like CEV's “dome”, but the CEV is under a very restrictive license, and similar word usages in Hebrew do not really support the idea of a dome. Similar readings refer to the expanse of a bird's wings, the firmament ala the brightness of the firmament (i.e. the night sky), and in general the great expanse of space that is in the sky. Ultimately the word 'firmament' is probably going to be more correct, in the long run, but we cannot shake the feeling that there is a better word out there somewhere. Until then we will place a note here that the firmament refers to an expanse of space where there was previously little to no space, and this may represent a sort of expanding. It is charming to consider this along the lines of the big bang and the formation of the basic physical laws such as entropy, gravity, centripetal force, etc.
In any case there is a perceived similarity between Genesis 3-5 and 6-8 in that there is a division of fundamental material.
The ASV reading can stand on it's own here, as almost all other relevant sources use midst and similar if not exactly similar wording.
Rabbnic commentary states that this is the only day that is not called good because the work on this day was not yet completed in that it was the intended finishing point of that work. Whether you consider it as the physical explanation of the waters being divided; as the physical world going through some process of being created; the lakes and rivers have not yet been created. Or, as some other rabbinic commentary suggests, that even though the angels were created on the second day (according to midrash, I suppose) this was again not the primary purpose of creation. In any case, it is not until the third day where the waters are completed into lakes and rivers that the waters are deemed 'good'.
“The Third Day”
GNV 9 He separateth the water from the earth.
Again we will begin with the ASV. It is noted that among the 10 initial sources almost all of them read nearly exactly the same as the ASV; ex. “and let the dry land appear: and it was so” or “And God called the dry land Earth,” appear exactly the same in 7 and 9 out of 10 translations, respectively.
For consistency we will “quote” words and speech using the grammar established above. We are also making a minor change to 11 (he called vs called he). We will also decapitalize the words because they are not considered 'names'.
Replaced colon with semicolon in 10, 11 and 12.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land “earth”; and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”; and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth put (ASV) bring (KJV) forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seeds inside, upon the earth; and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seeds inside, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
[9] A theological point here is that just as God set the proper limits for the level of the water, he set the proper limits for everything else; the right amount of oxygen in the air, for example, to support the rest of his creation. I.E. he had the rest of his creation in mind when he did this (including Human beings).
[10] We will use 'bring forth' (KJV) versus 'put forth' (ASV). We like YLT's yield, but this word is used elsewhere in the verse and the passage, so we still have that word and it's meaning clearly shown.
[11,12] We will alter the wording here towards WEB with 'with their seed' and say “with seeds inside..after their kind'. This is a reading seeingly closer to the Hebrew than the Stone Edition and I think that's cool.
“The Fourth Day”
By this time we are seeing some stylistic requirements which arise out of previously chosen wording. For example,
1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
seems to insinuate
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so.
The common points here are; chosen to begin with capitalized And, “God” for “elohim”, comma before speech and again inside quotes at end of speech, lowercase and (without colon or semicolon) to continue the phrase. Further, due to the calling of light and darkness “day” and “night” we don't feel like capitalizing “Earth” and “Seas”; this is, together with the use of quotes, a style from the WEB bible which is also found in YLT. It is also sometimes used by the NET bible.
Noted again for 1:4, 1:7 and 1:14; The word order is based on the Hebrew interlinear. We will be going with the PD word order which reads well and which most closely matches the Hebrew. This helps us deal with the underlying text by providing notes on individual words versus having to justify the spirit of the translation or an entire passage.
Here's an example:
| Hebrew | English |
| way-yō-mer | And said |
| ’ĕ-lō-hîm, | God |
| yə-hî | let there be |
| mə-’ō-rōṯ | lights |
| bir-qî-a‘ | in the firmament |
| haš-šā-ma-yim, | of the heavens |
| lə-haḇ-dîl | to divide |
| bên | between |
| hay-yō-wm | the day |
| ū-ḇên | and between |
| hal-lā-yə-lāh; | the night |
| wə-hā-yū | and let them be |
| lə-’ō-ṯōṯ | for signs |
| ū-lə-mō-w-‘ă-ḏîm, | and seasons |
| ū-lə-yā-mîm | for days |
| wə-šā-nîm. | and years |
Given the above, all ten of the five-way comparisons have similar word order for the first part (“in the firmament of the heavens” or “in the expanse of sky”), but the idea of “between the day and between the night” is a reflection of the same issues we faced in Genesis 1:4 and 1:7. After long and careful thought we will choose 'between and between'; as noted it is closest to the Hebrew and does not imply on it's own that God chose the light over the darkness in terms of creation – as if the darkness was an unintentional leftover – rather that they were “also created” (see Isaiah 45:7).
With this in mind, here is the source material for now; we will continue with the GNV vs KJV comparison, the ASV vs RSV comparison, and then consider alternate readings from DRA, DARBY, YLT, WYC as well as WEB and NET; despite NET and RSV being considered copyrighted, it is often so that the particular wording they use is found in many other translations such as NIV, NASB, and so forth; or even in free bibles such as “The Free Bible”. These will be checked as need and time permits to avoid copyright issues.
GNV 16 He createth the sun, the moon, and the stars.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide between the day and between[a] the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them serve as signs, and for seasons, and for days and years,”
15 and let them serve as luminaries in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.
16 And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.
17 And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 and to govern over the day and over the night, and to divide between the light and between the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
[14] see 1:4, 1:7.
GNV 21 He createth the fish, birds, beasts,
20 And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth [a]in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters teem with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heavens.”
21 And God created the great whales, and every living creature that moves, (which) with the waters teemed after their kinds, and every bird with wing after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply; fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
“The Sixth Day”
GNV 26 He createth man, and giveth him rule over all creatures,
GNV 29 And provideth nurture for man and beast.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that [a]moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: 30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is [b]life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind,” and it was so.
25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that moves upon the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves upon the earth.”
27 AndSo God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth; and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing[a] that moves upon the earth.”
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every green herb bearing seed upon the face of the earth, and every tree bearing fruit yielding seed; to you it shall be for food;
30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that moves upon the earth, wherein there is life[a], I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Notes:
[21a] ne·p̄eš ḥay·yāh “living creatures”
[24a] ne·p̄eš ḥay·yāh “living creatures”
[28a] 2416.ḥay·yāh “living thing”
[30a] ne·p̄eš ḥay·yāh “the breath of life”