Straight To the Highest Authority Part III

“If I do not know the meaning of the language… the speaker [shall be] a foreigner to me.”  (1 Corinthians 14:11)

(restating from my previous posting) On this issue it is highly significant how far afield popular English translations can deviate from the original Hebrew manuscript in both vocabulary and grammar.  To be specific I quote in endnote 5 of my own work, “The Biblical Demand to Take Another Look,” in order to lay out ten specific examples, almost all of which have a direct bearing on the correct interpretation of the creation days of Genesis:

 “The importance of this question [the interpretation of the days of Genesis] is heightened by the controversial nature of the texts at hand. I highlight the ESV (English Standard Version) because it is representative of a host of other popular translations. Although the ESV bills itself as “an essentially literal” Bible translation that is “carefully weighed against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to ensure the fullest accuracy” (The Lutheran Study Bible English Standard Version. (Concordia Publishing, 2009), p.XV.), the following details raise important challenges concerning that claim: 1) In Genesis 1:2 the decisive conjunction, “and,” is missing even though it is both present in the Hebrew text, and is studiously included, as the Hebrew demands, everywhere else in the English translation of Genesis 1.  2) In Gen. 1:5, two errors are involved. First there should be no definite article since it is not present in the Hebrew. Also, the term “first day” should instead be translated “day “1” since it is a cardinal number, not ordinal.  3,4,5,6) There should not be a definite article (“the”)  for days 2 through 5 since it is omitted in the Hebrew. They should instead be translated as “a second day…, a third day…,” etc.  7) In Gen. 2:4b the definite article (“the earth and the heavens”.) is used twice even though it is not present in the Hebrew.  8,9) Although the ESV translates Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 as “For in six days,” the Hebrew text does not include the preposition “in” (as in “within”). It only appears in the English translation (of inter-linear texts) inside brackets [ ]. The Hebrew text literally says, “For six days God made….” While this necessary excision does not nullify the aspect of time altogether, it does suggest that the exact duration involved was not the central point of the statement. In any case the actual text cannot bear the weight young-earth creationists place upon it (see p.5, above).  10) In Daniel 8:26, the Hebrew text does not employ plural nouns, but singular ones, thereby actually saying, “the vision of the evening and the morning” (note articles). This point is significant for the reason that young-earth creationists consistently argue that the “evening…morning” refrain signals the “bound[ing]” of expressly 24-hour days (the LSB (above), note on Genesis 1:5). I reply to the contrary that in this instance the span of time recalled in the singular “evening” and “morning” vision in Daniel 8:26 actually spans several centuries, as implied earlier in 8:20,21.”

It is not sufficient, however, for you to merely become aware of these deviations.  It is important that you finish my essay with an eye on the ramifications for interpretation that follow from each of them.

To be continued