Tackling Translations
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.” – Genesis 1:14-19
Dear Friends,
As we continue in our Bible study, I will try to point out important considerations in understanding the text. One of the greatest challenges we have is the translation itself. When we read the Bible in English, we are not reading it in the original language. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. So we are dependent upon the work of the modern day translators.
Take the word light for example. On the first day of creation, God said, “Let there be light.” On the fourth day of creation, God said, “Let there be lights…” While the English translation “light” may lead us to think that these two concepts of light are the same, they are very distinct in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew text, on the first day we have “or”, meaning light energy, and on the fourth day “maor”, meaning a light source or light bearer.
Personally, I prefer the translation of “light bearer”. It fits the context best. It applies the literary technique of personification, attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects. The sun and moon are made to serve. They are to mark the passage of time, to give light to the earth and to govern the separation of day and night, light from darkness.
Which leads us to another challenge of translation, punctuation. The original Hebrew and the Greek did not have punctuation marks, so you will find that some Bibles, such as the NIV above, begin a new sentence, “He also made the stars”, while other Bibles, such as the ESV, continue from the prior sentence so that the stars are included in the discussion of the moon governing the night sky. I prefer this later translation because by tying it to the work of the light bearers it explains why God made the stars. The stars aid the moon in marking the seasons. As the earth rotates and tilts on its axis, the position of the stars change in the night sky. The position of the stars is a more reliable indicator of the season than the sun or moon, thus a better marker.
Now you may be saying to yourself that this is all very interesting, but I don’t know Hebrew nor do I have a Hebrew Bible or a Hebrew dictionary. My first response is if you want to be a serious Bible student, purchase a Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament, a Strong’s concordance and the accompanying Hebrew and Greek dictionaries. This was how I started. I had not taken a single language class, but I was able to work my way through it. You can too. And imagine the funny look you’ll get from your spouse when asked what do you want for Christmas? “Gee honey, I was really hoping for an interlinear Bible in Hebrew, Greek and English and a Strong’s concordance with the accompanying Hebrew to English and Greek to English dictionaries.” Talk about the gift for someone who has everything!
But if you do not choose to go that route, I will offer a simpler one. There are many good Bible study websites. The one I use most often is biblegateway.com. With it you can simultaneously look up multiple English translations of the same verse or passage. By doing this, you can look for the differences between translations and then study to decide which you believe is the most correct.
One final comment. While you will find many different translations, please remember that it is the Holy Spirit who opens your heart and mind for the understanding of the scripture. While I believe that some translations are truer to the original text than others, regardless of the translation it will be the Holy Spirit doing a work in you that will bring you to a greater understanding of His revelation in God’s Word.
In Christ,
David
