The N factor

Recently I reread the introduction to Everett Fox's book Genesis and Exodus: A new English rendition with commentary and notes (Schocken Books, 1983/1990), i.e. the "Preface to the paperback edition", pp. xiii-xxx. As will sometimes happen with good books, what I recall from my first reading over twenty years ago was the sensation that this is good stuff but it doesn't tell me much I hadn't already figured out. By saying that I don't mean to ask to be given any special credit, just to say that, to quote one of my mother's favourite sayings, "all great thinkers think alike".

The beads of the necklace (2)

This is a short passage from Genesis 36 which lists the kings of Edom. The English translation is that of the King James Version:

31 And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.	לא וְאֵלֶּה הַמְּלָכִים אֲשֶׁר מָלְכוּ בְּאֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם לִפְנֵי מְלָךְ-מֶלֶךְ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:
32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah.	לב וַיִּמְלֹךְ בֶּאֱדוֹם בֶּלַע בֶּן-בְּעוֹר וְשֵׁם עִירוֹ דִּנְהָבָה:
33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead.	לג וַיָּמָת בָּלַע וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו יוֹבָב בֶּן-זֶרַח מִבָּצְרָה:
34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead.	לד וַיָּמָת יוֹבָב וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו חֻשָׁם מֵאֶרֶץ הַתֵּימָנִי:
35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith.	לה וַיָּמָת חֻשָׁם וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו הֲדַד בֶּן-בְּדַד הַמַּכֶּה אֶת-מִדְיָן בִּשְׂדֵה מוֹאָב וְשֵׁם עִירוֹ עֲוִית:
36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead.	לו וַיָּמָת הֲדָד וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו שַׂמְלָה מִמַּשְׂרֵקָה:
37 And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead.	לז וַיָּמָת שַׂמְלָה וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו שָׁאוּל מֵרְחֹבוֹת הַנָּהָר:
38 And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead.	לח וַיָּמָת שָׁאוּל וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו בַּעַל חָנָן בֶּן-עַכְבּוֹר:
39 And Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.	לט וַיָּמָת בַּעַל חָנָן בֶּן-עַכְבּוֹר וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו הֲדַר וְשֵׁם עִירוֹ פָּעוּ וְשֵׁם אִשְׁתּוֹ מְהֵיטַבְאֵל בַּת-מַטְרֵד בַּת מֵי זָהָב:

The beads of the necklace

Today I am going to begin with a little experiment, and I must ask you, dear reader, to participate in it with me. If you will bear with me and do as I say, I promise it will be interesting!

First of all I would like you to look at this, figure out what it is (that shouldn't take long, I don't think) and then - and this is the important bit - read it out loud. This is not to find out if you can read, we know that; just do it anyway...

hmpty dmpty st n ' wll hmpty dmpty hd ' grt fll ll th kngs hrss nd ll th kngs mn cldnt stck hmpty tgthr gn t b r nt t b tht s th qstn whthr ts nblr n th mnd t sffr th slngs nd rrws f trgs frtn r t tk rms gnst ' s f trbls nd by ppsng nd thm nc pn ' tm thr wr thr brs dddy br mmmy br nd bby br...

Now of course what I have done here is to remove the letters a, e, i, o and u (but I have replaced the occurrences of the indefinite article a with an apostrophe to stop it disappearing altogether). One purpose of this was to give those of you who don't already know this from experience a glimpse of approximately how it feels to be reading a Biblical Hebrew consonantal text, as it appears in torah scrolls for example, and what all Hebrew (or Aramaic or Ugaritic or Arabic etc.) reading was like before the introduction of vowel signs.

When is a chapter not a chapter?

The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the chapters has no basis in any ancient textual tradition. Rather, they are medieval and early modern Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as technical references within the Hebrew text.... The earliest extant Jewish manuscript to note the chapter divisions dates from 1330, and the first printed edition was in 1516. (Wikipedia article on "Chapters and verses of the Bible", 26-11-2014)

I understand "technical references" to mean that, whatever else their worth or significance may or may not be, the practical value of the conventional divisions of the text of Bible books into chapters and verses is that we can all be sure which spot in the original text we think we're at. When asked where in the Bible the Ten Commandments are to be found, if there were no chapters and verses (or some such system) we wouldn't be able to reply that the first place they are found is in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, versus 1 to 17 (Exodus 20:1-17). We'd have to say "somewhere in Exodus", or "on page 115", or open our bible and point to it and say "here." Footnotes in bibles would be more complicated, as would biblical commentaries, blogs like this one, and so on.

Between documentary hypothesis and textual fact

IN the Middle Ages, the Bible was widely believed to have been written down in exactly its present form and to be infallible because it was the word of God.

We are no longer in the Middle Ages.

The belief that the Bible (however defined and delimited) was written by people has many far-reaching consequences since it implies that the same things that are usually true of most things written by people, by many people rather than a single man, by people living at different times, with different backgrounds, indeed in different languages, making different assumptions, pursuing different agendas and knowing different things, are also applicable to the Holy Scriptures.

It means recognition that the biblical text is heterogeneous in content, style and genre; brings together elements composed in different periods and contexts; and has reached its present form (which in the case of the Hebrew Bible of which Genesis forms part was fixed and codified in writing by the mediaeval Masoretes) through a prior process of written and oral transmission in the course of which changes occurred, either deliberately or unwittingly.

The evidence of all these things is everywhere to be seen in the existing text, as irrefutable as the unearthed bones which prove the existence of dinosaurs on the face of the earth many millions of years ago. Bible scholars of today, whether they be Jewish or Christian, Protestant or Catholic, religious or secular, accept these basic facts, and the study of biblical texts is so much more fascinating because of it!

Introduction: When God began building the sky and the land

The following article is loosely based, with quite a lot of added content and more detailed observations, on two talks I gave at Temple Emanu-El (Reform Jewish) in Honolulu, Hawai'i in October, 2014 in which I discussed with the synagogue's Seniors' Group and the Saturday morning Torah Study Group my personal views of my work translating the Book of Genesis into the Nawat language. I wish to thank Diane Farkas and Ken Aronowitz for their kind invitations to give these talks and to my audiences for their attention and their generous reception of my presentations. This article is also meant to serve in lieu of an "introductory chapter" to the blog which I hope to develop on this site over the coming year.

WHEN God began building the sky and the land	בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
the land was not yet arranged darkness over depths wind of God fluttering on the face of the water	וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל-פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל-פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם
then said God there should be light and there came to be light	וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי-אוֹר
God liked the light God separated light and darkness	וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאוֹר כִּי-טוֹב וַיַּבְדֵּל אֱלֹהִים בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ
the light he called Day and the darkness he called Night night fell, morning dawned, one day	וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָאוֹר יוֹם וְלַחֹשֶׁךְ קָרָא לָיְלָה וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר יוֹם אֶחָד