Genesis 1

Notes

1. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (KJV) / "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (RSV)

   Rulings 1, 46, 52, 138

   Ἐν ἀρχῇ has no article and stands absolute. The Greek has no temporal clause, so v. 1 is a whole sentence and the crux of the Masoretic version, which reads "When Elohim began creating the skies and the land—", does not arise here. "In beginning" keeps the missing article (guide §4.2), as John 1:1 (Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος) takes the phrase up; Theophilus (Ad Autolycum 2.10) read the ἀρχή of this verse as the Logos through whom God made all things. ποιέω "make" stands for בָּרָא here and at vv. 21 and 27, so the Greek has one verb where the Masoretic version keeps "create" and "make" apart. Doctrinally decisive (46): the absolute reading is the one that carried creation from nothing (2 Macc 7:28).

2. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "without form, and void" (KJV) / "without form and void" (RSV)

   Rulings 5, 52

   ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος: "unseen," of ὁράω, the chapter's verb of seeing, and "unfurnished," not yet built and fitted out (κατασκευάζω, Heb 3:3–4; 11:7). The Masoretic version's rhyming pair, "tohubohu," becomes two Greek privatives. Wis 11:17 speaks of the world made "out of formless matter," and Philo (On the Creation 29–32) read the unseen land as part of the incorporeal pattern made before the visible world. ἀόρατος returns at Col 1:15–16, "the icon of the unseen God," "things seen and unseen."

3. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "the deep" (KJV, RSV)

   Rulings 5, 18, 57, 80

   ἄβυσσος, "bottomless," is the Greek for תְּהוֹם, and English has the word in its living sense (Luke 8:31; Rom 10:7; Rev 9:1–2; 20:1–3). The capital follows the Masoretic version for the same name-like cosmic place (80); the Greek has the article, so the English has "the." The Masoretic version reads "on the face of Abyss"; the Greek has ἐπάνω, "above," with no "face."

4. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "the Spirit of God" (KJV, RSV)

   Rulings 1, 46, 56

   Crux, as in the Masoretic version. πνεῦμα θεοῦ has no article on either noun. The split of ruling 56 gives "spirit" where a person possesses it, but cruxes stay under ruling 1, and the setting is weather and water: darkness, the Abyss, the water, and a verb of being carried (ἐπιφέρω in the passive), not of hovering. For "spirit": the Vulgate spiritus Dei, Basil (Hexaemeron 2.6), and the Christian reading of the verse as the Spirit's first appearance. For "wind": Targum Onkelos, Ibn Ezra, and the Greek's own verb. Doctrinally decisive (46). "A wind" keeps the Greek's lack of an article; the Masoretic version reads "the wind of Elohim was fluttering on the face of the waters."

5. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 57, 142

   συστέματα (σύστημα, "a thing standing together") is the mass of water held together, the result of the gathering of v. 9; "systems" would be a false friend. Ruling 142 gives "mass," keeping "body" for σῶμα. The Masoretic version reads "the pool of the waters," singular.

6. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 54, 141, 143

   Two things in this verse are decided here. (a) εἰς ὁμοιότητα, "for resemblance," stands in Swete's text from Alexandrinus and has nothing behind it in the Masoretic version; the alignment does not mark it, and it is marked as a plus (54, 141). (b) The second κατὰ γένος, "after kind," stands after "whose … is in it" in the Greek and before it in the Masoretic version ("fruit-tree making fruit after its kind, whose … is in it"); the alignment pairs the two, so the move is a difference of order, printed in the Greek order, set ⸤⸥ as a difference of order (143), and not marked as a plus and a minus.

7. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 54, 141, 143

   καὶ καθ᾽ ὁμοιότητα, "and after resemblance," repeats v. 11 in Swete's text; the Masoretic version reads only "after its kind" here. The alignment does not mark it; it is a plus and is marked (54, 141).

8. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 54, 141, 143

   καὶ ἄρχειν τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῆς νυκτός, "and to rule the day and the night," stands in Swete's text from Alexandrinus and anticipates v. 18; the Masoretic version has no ruling here, only at v. 18. The alignment marks "for shining on the land" and not this clause, which is marked as a second plus (54, 141).

9. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "the greater light to rule the day" (KJV) / "the greater light to rule the day" (RSV)

   Rulings 20, 26

   εἰς ἀρχάς is plural, "for rules." ἀρχή of power is a plural of abstraction here and becomes an English singular (26), as in the Masoretic version's "for the rule of the day." ἀρχή is "beginning" at v. 1 and "rule" here by construction (20): the word that opened the chapter returns as the light-givers' office. The marker is repeated at "the rule of the night."

10. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 52

    The Masoretic version reads "Let the waters swarm a swarm of living soul." The Greek has ἐξάγω, "bring out," the verb of v. 24, so both commands to bring living things out of the water and the land use one verb, the verb of the Exodus (Exod 20:2, "who brought you out of the land of Egypt"). The Hebrew cognate figure is not carried. The plus "And it came to be thus" gives the fifth day the formula of the others.

11. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 6, 57

    κατ᾽ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ᾽ ὁμοίωσιν: "according to" twice, and "our" only with the icon. The Masoretic version reads "in our icon, as our likeness." ὁμοίωσις is a noun of process, "a making like," as in Plato's ὁμοίωσις θεῷ (Theaetetus 176b) and Jas 3:9 ("who have come to be according to the likening of God"); Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.6.1) built his distinction of image and likeness on this pair.

12. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 54, 141, 143

    σπόριμον stands beside σπεῖρον σπέρμα, so the Greek has both "sowable" and "sowing seed"; the Masoretic version reads only "seeding seed." The word is set as an addition, though the alignment pairs it with the participle. Later in the verse σπορίμου renders the Hebrew participle and is not marked.

13. Reading↩ Back to the text

    ψυχὴν ζωῆς, "a soul of life," against ψυχὴ ζῶσα, "living soul," in vv. 20, 24 and 2:7. The Masoretic version reads "living soul" in all four.

14. Reading↩ Back to the text

    ἡμέρα ἕκτη has no article, "a sixth day," like the second to the fifth. The Masoretic version reads "the sixth day," the only one of the six with the article; the Greek levels what the Hebrew marks.