The translation of the Hebrew Bible we are reading for class is very different than traditional translations, such as King James version, of the Bible. It is very contemporary like a modern piece of literature more than a scripture. In the Book of Genesis, the story of the origin of humankind is composed into prose. It has paragraphs and dialogues. The language is extremely vernacular because the translator is looking at the Bible as a literary title than a religious text. We see this when the story starts in complete sentences rather than verse. We can compare it with this image which is the King James version.
The Book of Genesis, King James <http://files.lib.byu.edu/exhibits/kingjamesbible/geneva_1611_Genesis1.jpg>
The translator will also make the text into something poetic and use repetition a lot to emphasize the importance of what is happening in the story of creation. For example, he writes “And God created the human in his image, / in the image of God He created him, / male and female He created them.” Also, the translator shifts the passage to a sort of verse when major events happen. He does this when God creates the woman from the bone of the man and when God curses the serpent, woman, and man for eating the forbidden fruit. So the translator wanted to view the Bible as literature than scripture by making it prosaic. But he still uses verses to show the point where important things are happening. We can also look at his translation as a modern translation of the Bible as opposed to the older King James version.
Hi, Eric,
You did not shows some detail things from the literature, but you compare the translator of our reading to the traditional translators. I was agree with you, just like you said the translator pay more attention to the bible as the literature rather than it’s religious. The translator make the bible more narrative and plot. So, the Hebrew Bible that we read in class is more imaginative, and easy to make us to understand.
You said the translator opposed to the older King James Version, and using the modern translation to the Hebrew Bible. Using the words is much easier and using the complete sentence to discuss a stories. I go over to the all chapter of the Hebrew bible, and just like you say, every story was happening has its coherence.
The translator was breaking the conventional translation mode, and the shackles of the traditional format. To put the literary added into the Bible.