A Contarian Spirit
My latest at the Partial Observer was provoked by a re-reading of the Genesis account. "God" appears in Chapter 1, but then in Young's Literal Translation, "Jehovah God" comes onto the scene in Chapter 2. In popular translations, "Jehovah" is replaced by "The LORD."
To help in this exercise, wherever "God" appears, read "Smith." And wherever "the LORD" appears, read "Bob."
What will you discover? That "Smith,: whoever or whatever he/they are (Smith speaks in first person plural, like saying "our" instead of "my") created the heavens and the earth, the plants and animals. And created man, male and female, in Smith's image, and that Smith - as Young's Literal Translation puts it - "ceased" work on the seventh day.
But then, beginning with 2:4, we are introduced to "Bob Smith." This "Bob Smith" also somehow created the heavens and the earth - or at least some portion of which, and created a man named Adam, and from Adam a woman named Eve. This Bob Smith, who later on usually just goes by Bob, seems to be a physical person, walking around, talking with Adam and his descendants. We learn in Genesis 5 that Smith named man Man, but it is unclear if Bob Smith, or Adam himself, named Adam.
Bob deals with Cain, but it doesn't say that Enoch walked with Bob; Enoch walked with Smith. The sons of Smith mated with the daughters of men, but it is Bob that places a limit on man's age. Smith saw the wickedness on the earth, but Bob is the one who repents of making man. One striking piece of information: Smith commands Noah to bring one pair of every sort of animal onto the ark, but Bob wants seven pairs of each kind of bird and "clean" beast. Bob shuts the ark. Smith ends the flood. Smith tells Noah to leave the ark with his family and animals and multiply the earth, but Noah builds an altar to Bob, and apparently makes animal sacrifices of clean animals and birds from the surplus pairs that Bob, not Smith, commanded.
Bob resolves to no more curse the ground for man's sake; Smith sends the rainbow.
And unless I am mistaken, Bob, not Smith, is the chief character in the rest of the Old Testament. It is not to be doubted that Bob is a Smith, or "part" of whatever it is Smith is; it is by no means clear that the opposite is true. "Bob" and "Smith" (that is, "the LORD" and "God") may be interchangeable names, but it is far from obvious. The Town Car is a Lincoln, but not every Lincoln is a Town Car. I can be called James or Jim, and I am also Wilson, but not every Wilson is James.
Perhaps translation and conceptual problems lead to confusion. The LORD (Jehovah) in the OT, "Lord" (Jesus) in the NT. Is Jesus Jehovah? Is he the same guy, the same LORD God who hung out with Abraham, Moses, Job, etc? Or is he the son of the LORD God? Is the "Father" the LORD God, or is the "Father" just plain God, of Genesis 1?
This is something I'd like to investigate sometime.
To help in this exercise, wherever "God" appears, read "Smith." And wherever "the LORD" appears, read "Bob."
What will you discover? That "Smith,: whoever or whatever he/they are (Smith speaks in first person plural, like saying "our" instead of "my") created the heavens and the earth, the plants and animals. And created man, male and female, in Smith's image, and that Smith - as Young's Literal Translation puts it - "ceased" work on the seventh day.
But then, beginning with 2:4, we are introduced to "Bob Smith." This "Bob Smith" also somehow created the heavens and the earth - or at least some portion of which, and created a man named Adam, and from Adam a woman named Eve. This Bob Smith, who later on usually just goes by Bob, seems to be a physical person, walking around, talking with Adam and his descendants. We learn in Genesis 5 that Smith named man Man, but it is unclear if Bob Smith, or Adam himself, named Adam.
Bob deals with Cain, but it doesn't say that Enoch walked with Bob; Enoch walked with Smith. The sons of Smith mated with the daughters of men, but it is Bob that places a limit on man's age. Smith saw the wickedness on the earth, but Bob is the one who repents of making man. One striking piece of information: Smith commands Noah to bring one pair of every sort of animal onto the ark, but Bob wants seven pairs of each kind of bird and "clean" beast. Bob shuts the ark. Smith ends the flood. Smith tells Noah to leave the ark with his family and animals and multiply the earth, but Noah builds an altar to Bob, and apparently makes animal sacrifices of clean animals and birds from the surplus pairs that Bob, not Smith, commanded.
Bob resolves to no more curse the ground for man's sake; Smith sends the rainbow.
And unless I am mistaken, Bob, not Smith, is the chief character in the rest of the Old Testament. It is not to be doubted that Bob is a Smith, or "part" of whatever it is Smith is; it is by no means clear that the opposite is true. "Bob" and "Smith" (that is, "the LORD" and "God") may be interchangeable names, but it is far from obvious. The Town Car is a Lincoln, but not every Lincoln is a Town Car. I can be called James or Jim, and I am also Wilson, but not every Wilson is James.
Perhaps translation and conceptual problems lead to confusion. The LORD (Jehovah) in the OT, "Lord" (Jesus) in the NT. Is Jesus Jehovah? Is he the same guy, the same LORD God who hung out with Abraham, Moses, Job, etc? Or is he the son of the LORD God? Is the "Father" the LORD God, or is the "Father" just plain God, of Genesis 1?
This is something I'd like to investigate sometime.
posted by Unknown at 12:44 AM
3 Comments:
Jim - Not to be too contrary, but I think you spelled 'contrarian' wrong.
Here's a little background on your biblical obversations (er, I mean observations...).
The word translated as 'God' in Genesis 1 is 'Elohim,' which literally means something like 'gods.' For some reason, God is often referred to in the Older Testament by the plural form of 'god.' Makes me think of the Trinity, but it may be something like a royal plural.
But God is also referred to by a name in the Old Testament, 'Yahweh.' The original authors no doubt meant the proper name to be pronounced, but as time went on, the religious consciousness of Israel decided that wherever 'Yhwh' was printed in the text, they would substitute 'Lord,' adonai, when read aloud. That is how the mispronunciation 'Jehovah' came about - they inserted the vowels of adonai into Yhwh, and when German scholars transliterated it, they got Jehovah.
Anyway, whenever you read 'the LORD' in all capitals in the NRSV translation, what is actually in the original is YHWH, and in Genesis 2 it is Yhwh Elohim.
In the Newer Testament, the Greek word for 'Lord' is used for God, for Jesus, or (without a capital 'L' in English) for any human lord. What is really amazing is that early followers of Jesus called him 'Lord' in as strong a sense as God (remember Thomas: "My Lord and my God!"). For me, it is not a question of Elohim being the Father (only) and YHWH being the Son (only) - for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are One God, one Elohim, one Yhwh, in three persons... but that is a discussion for another day.
Thanks for writing regularly and thoughtfully.
Jim-
Here's an added thought or two (I just put it on my blog, too):
Check out Exodus 3, God meeting Moses in the burning bush. There, you'll find God referred to as both Elohim and Yhwh. You'll also find an explanation for God's name, Yhwh.
In verse 12, God promises Moses that "I will be ['ehyeh'] with you."
In verse 14, God says to Moses, 'ehyeh asher ehyeh,' usually translated, "I AM WHO I AM," but (as an imperfect) is perhaps better translated, "I will be who I will be." God is "I will be with you." It brings to mind Immanuel, God with us, a God who promises and acts, a God who chooses a people as God's own, a God who becomes flesh and dwells among us, a God of Resurrection, a God who is coming rather than statically being.
The confusion stems from the translation. The best way to understand what is REALLY being said is to try to do a little study (or a lot) in the original Hebrew.
YHVH has been mentioned; another important piece is that in Gen 1:1,
(Bereshiet), the line in Hebrew has an untranslated "et" (aleph-tov) in the exact middle, and has been the subject of much study. When Yeshua (literally "Yah - saves"; Christ) said "I am the aleph-tov" (not 'alpha & omega' which loses MOST of the point) those with 'ears to hear' in the original language knew what He meant, and that He was there "in the beginning".
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