Hi Jim,
You keep clamoring for me to discuss the Hebrew of Gen. 1:26,27. Peter has
already done so quite well in his article "Genesis Reconsidered."
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1999/PSCF12-99Held.html
There he wrote:
There is an obvious contrast between (a) Gen. 1:26ff and (b) 2:7ff. In (a),
God is called elohim, representing his general relationship to the creation;
in (b), Yahweh elohim. Yahweh, freely translated "I am,"76 is his name used
in the context of his covenants with humans, implying a personal
relationship. While (a) deals with "man" [adam] in a collective sense, or
humankind, (b) deals with "the man" named Adam. In (a), God created "them,"
collectively; in (b), he designed "him" individually. In (a), humans are
declared to be created "male and female," two collective terms; in (b), the
Lord deals with "Adam and his wife," an individual couple. Consistently, (a)
uses general, collective language; but (b) uses specific, personal terms.
These and other features are explainable if (a) and (b) deal with different
epochs, whereas making them versions of the same story creates problems.
I have discussed the Hebrew of Gen. 1:29,30 at some length in a previous post
to this list showing how the 'adam in Gen. 1:26,27 were preadamic omnivores
(meat eaters).
There I wrote:
I believe the Hebrew in Gen. 1:29,30 has been widely mistranslated due to its
translators having a strong bias towards a belief that Gen. 1 and Gen. 2 are
both describing the same creation acts.
Gen. 1:29,30 (NIV) reads as follows: Then God said, "I give you every
seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has
fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of
the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the
ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant
for food." And it was so.
Why would God have told man what wild animals were allowed to eat? Why would
man have had any interest in their diets? Man would not have had any control
over what they ate. If this translation is correct then both verses 29 and 30
appear to be scientifically inaccurate. After all, neither mankind nor all
creatures in the animal kingdom have ever been strict vegetarians.
Anatomically, human beings appear to have been designed by God as omnivores.
And many animals clearly appear to have been designed by God as carnivores.
Both human and animal physiology seem to clearly contradict Gen. 1:29 and 30.
With these things in mind, I contend that the Hebrew language in Genesis 1:30
has been widely mistranslated, in a way that also greatly affects the meaning
of verse 29.
I believe these two verses should read as follows: Then God said, "I give you
every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that
has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food, and all the beasts of
the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the
ground-everything that has the breath of life in it - I give, as every green
plant, for food." And it was so.
This variant translation only involves the removal of one word, "to," at the
beginning of verse 30, which does not appear in the Hebrew, and the addition
of one word, "as," toward the end of verse 30. Small words like "as" are
often added for clarity when biblical Hebrew is translated into English, just
as the small word "to" has long been added at the beginning of verse 30.
However, these two tiny changes in the translation of verse 30 completely
change the meaning of both verses 29 and 30. Instead of telling us that God
created mankind and all animal species to be strict vegetarians, they tell us
that God created mankind to be omnivores.
Peter has also discussed the Hebrew of Gen. 5:1,2 in previous posts. In reply
to Dick ( > ) he wrote:
> and implied in Genesis 5:1-3: "This is the book of the generations of
Adam."
"Generations" is the Hebrew "toledoth". It is the colophon (a title
appended to, rather than preceding, the text to which it refers, as in
clay tablets of those times) appended to what went before, i.e. the part
of the story as it was told by Adam.
> "In the day that God
> created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female
> created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the
> day when they were created."
A literal word-by-word translation of the Hebrew from "The NIV(TM)
Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament", ed. J.R. Kohlenberger III
(Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1987) (- links English words translated
from a single Hebrew word; *** stands for Hebrew 'et, the definite
direct object indicator, which is never translated):
Gen.1:27-28: Gen.5:1-2:
in-day (opening parenthesis)
so-he-created God to-create God (beginning of quote)
*** the-man man
in-image-of-him
in-image-of God in-likeness-of God
he-created him he-made him
male and-female male and-female
he-created them he-created-them
and-he-blessed them and-he-blessed them (end of quote)
and-he-called (this was a quote about
*** name-of-them ... generic man)
man
in-day (closing parenthesis)
to-be-created-them
Gen.5:1-2 obviously refers back to Gen.1:27-28, basically repeating it
with similar expressions. Therefore, I would consider it as just as
generic. That God called "their" (not "his") name Adam confirms the
generic use.
> "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty
> years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and
> called his name Seth."
Now, of course, the individual Adam is in view.
So far as your saying, "The YEC crowd will laugh," I believe the opposite is
true. They will laugh at you. That is if you tell them God created the human
race long before He created Adam, but that Genesis 1 fails to mention this
important event. They will say that makes absolutely no sense since Gen. 1
mentions the creation of everything else God ever made. I know. Because
that's what they have told me. They have said, "If God made men before Adam
Genesis would say so." I tell them, "It does." I then point to Gen. 1:26,27.
Mike
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