(Author: Gloria Sandak-Lewin, Vol. 65, No. 2, Rosh Hashanah 2010)
The opening chapters of (the Book of Genesis) describe the creation of the world, declaring it to be “the work of One Almighty Beneficent God”1. They are, arguably, the greatest in Western literature, although Isaiah and certain of the Tehillim (Psalms) come close in grandeur.
Speaking of the stories of Genesis, especially that of Joseph, Rabbi Dr J H Hertz, late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, refers to their “sublime simplicity, high seriousness and marvelous beauty”.2 The same description would apply even more so to the Creation story.
As an Orthodox Jewess with a limited knowledge of Hebrew, I feel humbled to write this article. What I wish to do is make a literary study of certain of the stylistic features of the English translation of three texts describing the Creation story which I have in my possession: the Hertz Chumash (2nd ed., 5729/ 1968), the Artscroll Chumash (Stone ed., 11th Edition, 2005), and the Authorized King James Version (hereafter KJV).3 I shall confine myself to the first Creation story, Genesis Chapter I, vv.1–31 and Chapter II, vv.1–3.
The opening lines of the Hertz Chumash read: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” (Chapter 1.vv.1–2).
These are possibly the most beautiful and perfect lines that have ever been written. There is simplicity and restraint in the opening sentence; the immediacy of the adverb ‘now’ suggests that the author is addressing an audience or readership as a storyteller; the image “the face of the deep”[italics, and all that follow, are mine] subconsciously paves the way for the ethereal “the spirit of God”, an image which, combined with the word ‘hovers’, suggests an awesome yet mysterious indefinable Presence. Also, the off-assonance (part-rhyme) in “unformed and void”, suggests chaos, emptiness, disorder (partial definitions given by Alkalay), and the alliteration in ‘darkness’ and ‘deep’ evokes the vastness, remoteness of unfathomable waters. The Hertz rendition is surprisingly similar to the KJV, whose English is equally superb and dignified: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
My preference is for Hertz’s “unformed and void” over the KJV’s “without form”, although the latter possibly emphasizes the shapelessness of the universe; and while the verb ‘moved’ (“upon the face of the waters”) is both beautiful and good, Hertz’s ‘hovered’ is more subtle and elusive. I also do not like the capitalization of the word ‘Spirit’ which has, not surprisingly, Christological characteristics which I found foreign to the Hebrew scripture.
In the Artscroll Chumash, by contrast, the English translation is clumsy, strange, unfamiliar, at times unidiomatic, at other times outrageous. To quote: “In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth… When the earth was astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters…God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light”.4
The opening phrase is totally unidiomatic – it is not English, in fact; the qualifying adverb “astonishingly empty” appears nowhere in the Hebrew original and comes as something of a shock to the reader accustomed to the Hertz Chumash and the KJV.5 The noun ‘surface’ (repeated), a hard cold clinical word, sits uneasily with the gentle fluttering poetry of the verb ‘hovered’.
While I am not including the text used by the Progressive community in South Africa in this study, it is of interest here to cite its rendition of the opening three lines of Bereishit, based on that of the Jewish Publication Society (1962, 1967), viz.: “When God began to create the heaven and the earth – the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water – God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light”.
The Commentary on this, by Rabbi W. Gunter Plaut, reads: “Other translations render this, ‘In the beginning God created.’ Both translations are possible, but we cannot be sure that this difference is more than stylistic. Our translation follows Rashi, who said that the text would have been if its primary purpose had been to teach the order in which creation took place. Later scholars used the translation ‘In the beginning’ as proof that God created out of nothing (ex nihilo), but it is not likely that the biblical author was concerned with this problem”.6
The Artscroll continues (vv4-5): “God saw that the light was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness. God called to the light ‘Day’, and to the darkness He called ‘Night’. And there was evening and there was morning, one day”.
Here, again, the English translation is unidiomatic: in English, one does not separate ‘between’ (although the Hebrew idiom is but rather one thing from another, or one thing and another. With regard to the rendition “called to the light: ‘Day’ and to the darkness He called night”, Alkalay renders as “to call (cry) out; to proclaim, pronounce; to name, call by name”. It is therefore absurd to think, as the Artscroll Chumash suggests, that God was speaking to His creation (the light and darkness). As both Hertz and the KJV signify, He was naming them: “And God called the light ‘Day’, and the darkness he called ‘Night’. …” (Here the Hertz and KJV versions are identical). Likewise, in verses 8-10 Hertz reads: “…God called the firmament Heaven, and God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas …”
The English of the KJV is, of course, superb and dignified. Its annotations are few but significant – occasionally a brief translation, but more frequently ‘Old’ and ‘New Testament’ source comparisons. The Hertz Chumash is similar, at times almost identical, to the King James. For example, Genesis I v.28: “And God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth over the earth.’ The KJV differs in one punctuation mark only, as well as its use of the word ‘moveth’ instead of ‘creepeth’, which enhances the dignity and majesty of the translation. (Note the wonderful musical cadences in verse 28: the rising cadence in the first three injunctions “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” leading to a climax in “and subdue it”, and the falling cadence in “and have dominion” over the fish of the sea, …” etc).7
The Hertz text continues (vv29-30): “And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed – to you it shall be for food”; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food’”.
The KJV renders this passage as: “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat’”.
Hertz gives ‘food’, which is blander, but more accurate (closer to the Hebrew the King James version gives ‘meat’, a good Old English word (mête), loved by the Elizabethans, and used figuratively by Shakespeare in As You Like It (“It is meat and drinke to me to see a Clowne”, Act V, sc. I)). To the modern mind, there is also the strong contrast between ‘herb’ and ‘meat’, and between vegetarianism and carnivorousness.
A word about the refrain: In Hertz, it reads: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day. …and there was evening and there was morning, a second day. …and there was evening and there was morning, a third day, and so on. Though closer to the original Hebrew, this is not as good and imposing as the KJV, which reads: “And the evening and the morning were the first day. …And the evening and the morning were the second day. …And the evening and the morning were the third day”.
Also note two other refrains counter-pointed against the narrative text, namely: “And God saw that it was good” (e.g. “And God saw the light, and it was good …”, v1.4), and the phrase “… and it was so”, which helps create a sense of wisdom and sagacity on the part of the storyteller.
A few observations regarding the concluding sentences to this initial section of the first Creation Story of Bereishit (Chapter II, vv.1–3) now follow. To quote Hertz:
And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all his work which God in creating had made.
The closing phrase (“He rested from all his work which God in creating had made”) is very neat and circumvents the awkward Hebrew idiom, so offensive to the English ear, in the Artscroll’s literal translation: “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it he abstained from all his work which God created to make”.
In the above passage, both the KJV and Artscroll use the word ‘sanctified’, whereas Hertz has it as: “And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it”. Hertz’s translation is gentler; the verb ‘hallowed’ is close to holy (a gentle, aspirated alliteration of the semi-vowel ‘h’; ‘sanctified’ is more formal).
Finally, there is the use of the word ‘array’, in the Artscroll (as also in Plaut), compared with that of ‘host’ in the Hertz and King James versions of Genesis II, 1. In the Artscroll, the translation reads: “Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array”, where in the Hertz it is: “And the heaven and the earth were finished and all the host of them”.
I dislike the word ‘array’, which suggests luxury and boastfulness, perhaps a stunningly beautiful necklace, with its jewels sparkling in the night, like the constellation of the stars; ‘hosts’ is far more modest, suggestive, elusive and indefinable.
I conclude with a few thoughts on Bereishit by two profound rabbinical scholars, commencing with Rabbi Hertz:
When neighboring peoples deified the sun, moon and stars, or worshipped stocks and stones and beasts, the sacred River Nile, the crocodile that swam in its waters, and the very beetles that crawled along its banks, the opening page of Scripture proclaimed in language of majestic simplicity that the universe, and all that therein is, are the products of one supreme directing Intelligence; of an eternal, spiritual being, prior to them and independent of them….
Rashi, the greatest Jewish commentator of all times, taught that the purpose of Scripture was not to give a strict chronology of Creation; while no less an authority than Maimonides declared: ‘The account given in Scripture of the Creation is not, as is generally believed, intended to be in all parts literal’….…the sublime revelation of the unique worth and dignity of man, contained in Genesis I, 27 (“And God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created Him”), may well be called the Magna Charta of humanity. Its purpose is not to explain the biological origins of the human race but its spiritual kinship with God. 8
Finally Rabbi Berel Wein, in his fascinating lecture on Bereishit, speaks not only of the God of Creation, but also of the God of Mercy and the God of Justice. Asserting that in Judaism Justice and Mercy are synonymous, he quotes Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice: “The quality of Mercy is not strained.”9
Gloria Sandak-Lewin, a frequent contributor to Jewish Affairs, is a poet and writer living in Cape Town. She has published two books of poetry, My Father’s House (1985, 1997) and My Father’s House and Other Poems 1965-1985 (2000), and a collection of short stories A Separate Life: Tales of a Woman Estranged (2006). She has been listed in the International Who’s Who in Poetry and Poet’s Encyclopaedia (Cambridge: 7th edition,1993/4) and is mentioned in the latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica (SA section) in connection with her poetry. She has taught, tutored and lectured in English Literature at Herzlia High and the University of Cape Town.
NOTES
- J.H. Hertz, C. H. Late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, ed., The Pentateuch and Haftorahs. Hebrew text English Translation and Commentary, 2nd Ed., (London: Soncino Press (1968), Introductory note.
- , p141
- The Holy Bible containing the OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS Translated out of the Original Tongues and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command Appointed to be read in Churches. Authorized King James Version London and New York, frontispiece.
- Rabbi Nosson Scherman/Rabbi Meir Zlotovitz General Editors, The Chumash, The Stone Edition, Artscroll Series, Eleventh Edition, New York: Mesorah Publications, 2005, vv.1–3, p3
- But Rashi states DESOLATE and VOID – the word signifies astonishment and amazement, for a person would have been astonished and amazed at its emptiness. … and VOID – the word signifies emptiness and empty space. (PENTATEUCH with TARGUM ONKELOS HAPHTAROTH and prayers for Sabbath and RASHI’S COMMENTARY Translated into English and Annotated by Rev. M. Rosenbaum and Dr A.M. Silbermann in collaboration with A. Blashki and L. Joseph of Sydney, N.S.W. GENESIS (London: Shapiro, Vallentine & Co. 1929)), p3, n2
- The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Commentaries by W. Gunther Plaut and Bernard J. Bamberger. Essays by William W. Hallo), 1981
- King James Version (Holy Bible) Gen. I v.28, p8
- Hertz, “Additional Notes to Genesis: The Creation Chapter”, pp193-5. Hertz here assert that “evolution, far from destroying the religious teaching of Genesis I, is its profound confirmation”
- Rabbi Berel Wein, recorded lecture on
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