In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 11The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
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Where did Moses get this historic account of creation? Was this story from a human source? I can't imagine a human intellect to know Gods creation. I also agree with Linda about certain wording of the bible translation for this blog defines things not as clear.
Many see this as a second story, unconnected to the first story of creation. One of the first clues that lead people to see this is there is a change in the name to which God is referred. Did you notice it? We'll see other clues as this chapter goes forward.
Many people who have carefully studied the first 5 books of the Old Testament see the hand of four authors that have been brought together into these five books, much like what someone would do who is writing a term paper and drawing upon other authorities.
One author is called the "priestly" writer, and many people believe that the first chapter of Genesis by this person. This author is called the Priestly writer because it seems that he wrote for worship situations or with worship in mind. Notice how the first chapter of Genesis could have easily been a responsive reading, or a liturgical poem, or maybe even a song.
The second author is called the "Elohist" because there are parts of these books where God is referred to as "El" - the Hebrew word for "god". As you can see, that is the name by which God is referred to in this section.
The third writer is often called the "Jawist" because there are many sections that God is referred to as "Jahweh"...which we used to translate as "Jehovah". The NRSV preserves the Hebrew practice of not saying the name of God, and so when the Hebrew for Jahweh appears, it is translated "LORD".
The fourth writer is often called "the Deuteronomist" and this writer focuses on the laws of God, as in the book of Deuteronomy.
This four strands of the story of God's work among God's people are woven together in these five books that have traditionally been called the "Books of Moses". I don't know when they were given that name, but nowhere in these first 5 books that I know of does it every say, "I, Moses, have written these things.".
To see the handiwork of four individuals in these first five books of the Bibles does not diminish the inspiration of God in these books, but rather it seems to me increases it. After all, to use four very different people to bring these foundational stories together speaks of the span and power of the Word of God.
Wow! That was a long blog!
Pastor Jerry, thanks for taking time to explain the different translations of Hebrew. (Wink) It was my hope to engage you in this discussion of bible translation & how we interpret it. Thank You! Now all can see that one can not take just "ANY" translation as the gospel truth.
What a wonderous & glorious garden it must have been. Imagine all the most beautiful plants & gems. We also see for the 1st time, that which holds the knowledge of light & darkness, goodness & evil. So there was evil already in the world. But where did it come from? I'll can already see this great book as an edge of your seat thriller that you just don't want to put down. You never know what is going to come with the next turn of the page or the next chapter. What lesson we might take from it.
Also, no plant or herb of the field to toil? A translation of these in Hebrew gives us "eseb" which is plant & "cya" which is herb. "Eseb" being crops/plants & "cya" being thorns & thistles.
How nice it must have been for a while not to have to toil to plant & harvest that which to sustain them or have to toil to rid the garden of those pesky weeds of destruction.
And alas, we are also given a nice geography lesson of the region. This surely will be helpful down the road.
FYI...one translation of bdellium is a precious stone.(Hebrew).
Another translation for bdellium is "The tear of the Arabian Tree" (Arabic). A gum like substance similar to myrrh. The bdellium is transparent, fragrant, resembling wax, greasy to the touch, and of a bitter taste. The tree from which they say it comes has yet to this day been sufficiently classified thus it still remains a mystery. Also, this translation came from an unnamed medieval arab writer.
(Num 11:7) And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. HMMM...
A transparent seed?
Oooops! Upon closer study, this section of the story uses "Jahweh", and should be attributed to the Jahwist, not the Eloist. I was thrown for a loop with this version of the NRSV which does not do what is normally done in the NRSV and that is capitalize all the letters for the name of God when that name is Jahweh.....mmmmm...wonder why this computer version did not follow that practice?
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