From 1be76671535cbca5d0e267877d15ff233f646e13 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Mahn Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2023 06:35:48 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] Fixes to Genesis intros --- tn_GEN.tsv | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/tn_GEN.tsv b/tn_GEN.tsv index ae50f1297b..a340c121ce 100644 --- a/tn_GEN.tsv +++ b/tn_GEN.tsv @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ Reference ID Tags SupportReference Quote Occurrence Note -front:intro d9wn 0 # Introduction to Genesis\n\n## Part 1: General Introduction:\n\nIn the book of Genesis, God communicates to all people the early history of the universe. He begins with how he created everything from nothing, including the earth and all the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars), all the plants and animals, and especially how he created human beings in his image to be in a relationship with him. This book also explains how sin and death came into the world and what God’s plan is to save people from that. In fact, all the important teachings in the Bible begin in Genesis. That makes this book **foundational** and important for everyone so that they can know and understand the truth about God and his plan for their lives.\n\nBeginning with verse 1, the book of Genesis is a **narrative** that tells the history of events that actually happened. This is confirmed by the fact that the conjunctions and the forms of the verbs that are used in the Hebrew text reflect the Hebrew narrative style, which is used to narrate historical accounts. In the same way, those who translate the book of Genesis should also use grammatical structures in their languages that are used for true, historical narratives. God uses narrative, which is one of the most interesting styles of communication, to not only tell people about the events in the early history of the world, but also to teach them about himself and about the way he interacts with people as their loving Creator.\n\nGenesis provides the **vital context** for the rest of God’s Word, especially the gospel message about Jesus, and so it helps people to understand their need for him to be their Savior. In fact, without Genesis, it would not be clear why everyone needs to trust in Jesus as the only one who can save them from sin and its consequences, so that they can associate with God and be part of his eternal family.\n\nIn light of all that, Genesis should be one of the first books of the Bible that is translated into every language that needs a translation. May God guide and bless you and your translation team as you undertake this important task together by his power.\n\n### Author and Date of Writing:\n\nMoses was the human author of the first five books of the Bible, including the book of Genesis (Exodus 24:3-4; Deuteronomy 31:9, 24; John 1:45). The Holy Spirit is the one who inspired what Moses wrote in those books (2 Peter 1:21), so ultimately God is the author, and these books are part of his Message to mankind. Those five books are sometimes referred to as the Torah (a Hebrew word that means “teaching,” “instruction,” or “law”) or the Pentateuch (a Greek word that means “five books”). In the New Testament this set of books is also referred to as “the Law” (John 1:45) or “the Law of Moses” (Acts 28:23), and Jesus himself affirmed that Moses wrote them (John 5:46-47; 7:23).\n\nMoses was born in the country of Egypt around 1526 B.C. (Exodus 2:1-10). According to the genealogies in Genesis, his birth was about 1,000 years after the Flood (which was about 1,650 years after creation). Moses may have written much of the Pentateuch during the forty years that he led the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness (around 1446 B.C.—1406 B.C.).\n\nThe very first verse in Genesis assumes that God (the author guiding the human author) has always existed and that he has no beginning and no end (also see Genesis 21:33; Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 90:2). He uses his personal name “Yahweh” for the first time in Genesis 2:4. The name “Yahweh” means “he is” and indicates that God is eternal. His name also means that he is unchanging and that he is always present.\n\n### Book Outline:\n\nIn all, Genesis covers a span of about 2200 years of history. After the world’s early history, the rest of Genesis tells about the ancestors of God’s people, with special focus on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (and their families). Genealogies are an important part of what ties the book together from beginning to end.\n\nThe following outline shows these two main divisions in the book of Genesis: (1) Early World History, and (2) The History about the Ancestors of God’s Chosen People. Those two divisions each have roughly four main subdivisions, which are based on four key events (in the first division) and four key ancestors (in the second division). Some scholars prefer to divide the book up into ten divisions that are introduced by the Hebrew phrase that means “these are the generations of...” In the outline below, **asterisks** mark the sections that contain that phrase. [1]\n\n**Bolded words** in the outline show which sections contain promises and covenants from God and also mark who the main ancestors were in the various sub-divisions.\n\n**Division 1:** Early World History\n\nCreation\n- God creates the universe and everything in it (1:1-2:3)\n- Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden (2:4-25)\\*\n\nThe Fall\n- The first sin and God’s judgment; prophecy of Christ (3:1-24) - **promise**\n- Cain and Abel: the first murder; Cain’s descendants (4:1-26)\n- The descendants of Adam to Noah (5:1-32)\\*\n\nThe Flood\n- God destroys the world with a flood, puts rainbow in the sky - **covenant** (6:1-9:17)\\*\n- Noah curses his son Ham and his grandson Canaan, blesses other sons (9:18-27)\n- The descendants of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth (10:1-32)\\*\\*\n\nTower of Babel\n- Mankind rebels against God at Babel, so God creates many different languages and scatters the people over the earth (11:1-9)\n\n**Division 2:** The History about the Ancestors of God’s Chosen People\n\nThe history about **Abraham** [Genesis 11:10-25:11]\n- The descendants of Shem to Abram (11:10-26)\\*\n- Terah and his three sons’ families in Haran; Terah dies (11:27-32)\\*\n- Abram travels to Canaan with Sarai and his nephew Lot (12:1-9) - **promise**\n- Abram lies about Sarai to Pharaoh, king of Egypt (12:10-20)\n- Back in the Negev Desert, Abram and Lot part ways (13:1-18) - **promise**\n- War of the kings; Abram rescues Lot and the other citizens of Sodom (14:1-17)\n- Melchizedek blesses Abram; Abram refuses bounty from king of Sodom (14:18-24)\n- God’s **covenant** with Abram (15:1-21) - **promise**\n- Hagar and Ishmael (16:1-16)\n- New names: Abraham and Sarah; **covenant** of circumcision (17:1-27) - **promise**\n- Three men visit Abram, Yahweh renews promise, Sarah laughs (18:1-15) - **promise**\n- Abram pleads with Yahweh to spare Sodom (18:16-33)\n- Lot and two daughters escape destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (19:1-29)\n- Lot’s grandsons: the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (19:30-38)\n- Abraham lies about Sarah to Abimelech, king of the Philistines (20:1-18)\n- Isaac is born to Sarah; Ishmael grows up in the desert (21:1-21)\n- Abraham makes a treaty with King Abimelech at Beersheba (21:22-34)\n- God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19) - **promise**\n- Sarah dies and Abraham buys burial property in the land of Canaan (23:1-20)\n- God provides Rebekah as a wife for Isaac (24:1-67)\n- Abraham’s descendants by second wife Keturah (25:1-6)\n- Abraham dies and is buried by Isaac and Ishmael (25:7-11)\n\nThe history about **Ishmael** and **Isaac** [Genesis 25:12-35:29]\n- Ishmael’s descendants and his death (25:12-18)\\*\n- Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob; Esau sells his birthright (25:19-34)\\*\n- Isaac lies about Rebekah to Abimelech, king of the Philistines (26:1-22) - **promise**\n- God’s **covenant** with Isaac in Beersheba; treaty with Abimelech (26:23-33)\n\nThe history about **Esau** and **Jacob** [Genesis 26:34-36:43]\n- Jacob steals Esau’s blessing; Esau plans revenge (26:34-27:46)\n- Jacob flees and heads to Haran; stairway to heaven at Bethel (28:1-22) - **promise**\n- Jacob works for Laban to marry his wives Leah and Rachel (29:1-30)\n- Jacob’s wives have eleven sons (29:31-30:24)\n- Jacob becomes wealthy while working for Laban (30:25-43)\n- Jacob and his family flee from Laban; Jacob’s treaty with Laban (31:1-55)\n- Jacob wrestles with God, who names him **Israel** (32:1-32)\n- Jacob and Esau reconcile, and Jacob settles in the city of Shechem (33:1-20)\n- Shechem rapes Dinah, and Jacob’s sons take revenge (34:1-31)\n- God blesses Jacob at Bethel (35:1-15) - **promise**\n- Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin (35:16-20)\n- List of Jacob’s twelve sons; Isaac dies and is buried by Esau and Jacob (35:16-29)\n- Esau’s descendants, the Edomites (36:1-43)\\*\\*\n\nThe history about **Jacob** and **Joseph** [Genesis 37-50]\n- Jacob’s family; Joseph’s dreams anger his brothers (37:1-11)\\*\n- Joseph sold as a slave and taken to the country of Egypt (37:12-36)\n- **Judah** and his daughter-in-law Tamar have children (38:1-30)\n- Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph, and he is imprisoned (39:1-23)\n- In the prison, Joseph interprets dreams for Pharaoh’s officials (40:1-23)\n- Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams about famine (41:1-40)\n- As governor over Egypt, Joseph stores up grain; he has two sons (41:41-57)\n- Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy grain, then return to Jacob (42:1-38)\n- All Joseph’s brothers return to Egypt and have a meal with him (43:1-34)\n- Joseph tests his brothers with his silver cup (44:1-17)\n- Judah pleads with Joseph for Benjamin’s freedom (44:18-34)\n- Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers; they give the news to Jacob (45:1-28)\n- Jacob and his family move to Egypt; list of his descendants (46:1-27)\n- Joseph settles Jacob and his family in the land of Goshen (47:1-12)\n- Joseph sells grain to all the people of Egypt (37:13-31)\n- Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh (48:1-22)\n- Jacob blesses each of his twelve sons (49:1-28)\n- Jacob’s death (49:29-33)\n- Joseph has his father Jacob embalmed and buries him in Canaan (50:1-14)\n- Joseph reassures his brothers that he has forgiven them (50:15-21)\n- Joseph’s death (Gen 50:22-26)\n\n### Special Formatting:\n\nThe book of Genesis sometimes uses poetic language to emphasize what is being said. Many translations use a special format to identify these passages as poetry by indenting each clause on a new line. Many other translations do not do this, but rather use regular paragraph formatting everywhere, including for poetry. It may be helpful to look at a translation in the national language of your country that uses poetry formatting, to help you decide whether or not you want to do something similar in your translation. Some translations put some of the following passages in poetry format since these verses have certain features of poetry such as parallelisms and metaphors: Genesis 1:27; 2:23; 3:14-16, 17b-19; 4:23-24; 8:22; 9:6, 25-27; 12:2-3; 14:19-20; 15:1; 16:11-12; 24:60; 25:23; 27:27-29, 39-40; 48:15-16, 20; 49:1-27. You may not want to put all these passages in poetry format since some of them have parallelisms that are not necessarily poetry but may just be emphasizing certain events in the narrative or certain points in a prophecy.\n\n\n[1](#sdfootnote1anc) These are the verses that have the Hebrew phrase “these are the generations of...”: Genesis 2:4 (heavens and earth), 5:1 (Adam); 6:9 (Noah); 10:1, 32 (sons of Noah); 11:10 (Shem); 11:27 (Terah); 25:12 (Ishmael); 25:19 (Isaac); 36:1, 9 (Esau); 37:2 (Jacob).\n\n### Possible titles for this book:**\n\n- “Genesis”\n- “The Book of Genesis”\n- “Genesis: The First Book By Moses”\n- “Genesis: The Book About Beginnings”\n- “The First Book That God's Prophet/Spokesman Moses Wrote: Genesis”\n\nThe English title “Genesis” is a transliteration of a Greek word that means “origin” or “beginning” or “birth”; the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (the Septuagint) uses this word for the first time in Genesis 2:4. The Hebrew title of this book בְּרֵאשִׁית (pronounced “bereshith”) is the first Hebrew word in verse 1 and literally means “In the beginning.” The Latin translation of the Bible (the Latin Vulgate) was the first translation to use the title “The Book of Genesis.” Since that time, many other translations include “Genesis” in the book title because people are familiar with that name. Sometimes as part of the title, translators also include the fact that Moses was the author and that he was inspired by God. Do what is best in your language. +front:intro d9wn 0 # Introduction to Genesis\n\n## Part 1: General Introduction:\n\nIn the book of Genesis, God communicates to all people the early history of the universe. He begins with how he created everything from nothing, including the earth and all the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars), all the plants and animals, and especially how he created human beings in his image to be in a relationship with him. This book also explains how sin and death came into the world and what God’s plan is to save people from that. In fact, all the important teachings in the Bible begin in Genesis. That makes this book **foundational** and important for everyone so that they can know and understand the truth about God and his plan for their lives.\n\nBeginning with verse 1, the book of Genesis is a **narrative** that tells the history of events that actually happened. This is confirmed by the fact that the conjunctions and the forms of the verbs that are used in the Hebrew text reflect the Hebrew narrative style, which is used to narrate historical accounts. In the same way, those who translate the book of Genesis should also use grammatical structures in their languages that are used for true, historical narratives. God uses narrative, which is one of the most interesting styles of communication, to not only tell people about the events in the early history of the world, but also to teach them about himself and about the way he interacts with people as their loving Creator.\n\nGenesis provides the **vital context** for the rest of God’s Word, especially the gospel message about Jesus, and so it helps people to understand their need for him to be their Savior. In fact, without Genesis, it would not be clear why everyone needs to trust in Jesus as the only one who can save them from sin and its consequences, so that they can associate with God and be part of his eternal family.\n\nIn light of all that, Genesis should be one of the first books of the Bible that is translated into every language that needs a translation. May God guide and bless you and your translation team as you undertake this important task together by his power.\n\n### Author and Date of Writing:\n\nMoses was the human author of the first five books of the Bible, including the book of Genesis (Exodus 24:3-4; Deuteronomy 31:9, 24; John 1:45). The Holy Spirit is the one who inspired what Moses wrote in those books (2 Peter 1:21), so ultimately God is the author, and these books are part of his Message to mankind. Those five books are sometimes referred to as the Torah (a Hebrew word that means “teaching,” “instruction,” or “law”) or the Pentateuch (a Greek word that means “five books”). In the New Testament this set of books is also referred to as “the Law” (John 1:45) or “the Law of Moses” (Acts 28:23), and Jesus himself affirmed that Moses wrote them (John 5:46-47; 7:23).\n\nMoses was born in the country of Egypt around 1526 B.C. (Exodus 2:1-10). According to the genealogies in Genesis, his birth was about 1,000 years after the Flood (which was about 1,650 years after creation). Moses may have written much of the Pentateuch during the forty years that he led the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness (around 1446 B.C.—1406 B.C.).\n\nThe very first verse in Genesis assumes that God (the author guiding the human author) has always existed and that he has no beginning and no end (also see Genesis 21:33; Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 90:2). He uses his personal name “Yahweh” for the first time in Genesis 2:4. The name “Yahweh” means “he is” and indicates that God is eternal. His name also means that he is unchanging and that he is always present.\n\n### Book Outline:\n\nIn all, Genesis covers a span of about 2200 years of history. After the world’s early history, the rest of Genesis tells about the ancestors of God’s people, with special focus on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (and their families). Genealogies are an important part of what ties the book together from beginning to end.\n\nThe following outline shows these two main divisions in the book of Genesis: (1) Early World History, and (2) The History about the Ancestors of God’s Chosen People. Those two divisions each have roughly four main subdivisions, which are based on four key events (in the first division) and four key ancestors (in the second division). Some scholars prefer to divide the book up into ten divisions that are introduced by the Hebrew phrase that means “these are the generations of...” In the outline below, **asterisks** mark the sections that contain that phrase.\n\nThese are the verses that have the Hebrew phrase “these are the generations of...”: Genesis 2:4 (heavens and earth), 5:1 (Adam); 6:9 (Noah); 10:1, 32 (sons of Noah); 11:10 (Shem); 11:27 (Terah); 25:12 (Ishmael); 25:19 (Isaac); 36:1, 9 (Esau); 37:2 (Jacob).\n\n**Bolded words** in the outline show which sections contain promises and covenants from God and also mark who the main ancestors were in the various sub-divisions.\n\n**Division 1:** Early World History\n\nCreation\n- God creates the universe and everything in it (1:1-2:3)\n- Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden (2:4-25)\\*\n\nThe Fall\n- The first sin and God’s judgment; prophecy of Christ (3:1-24) - **promise**\n- Cain and Abel: the first murder; Cain’s descendants (4:1-26)\n- The descendants of Adam to Noah (5:1-32)\\*\n\nThe Flood\n- God destroys the world with a flood, puts rainbow in the sky - **covenant** (6:1-9:17)\\*\n- Noah curses his son Ham and his grandson Canaan, blesses other sons (9:18-27)\n- The descendants of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth (10:1-32)\\*\\*\n\nTower of Babel\n- Mankind rebels against God at Babel, so God creates many different languages and scatters the people over the earth (11:1-9)\n\n**Division 2:** The History about the Ancestors of God’s Chosen People\n\nThe history about **Abraham** [Genesis 11:10-25:11]\n- The descendants of Shem to Abram (11:10-26)\\*\n- Terah and his three sons’ families in Haran; Terah dies (11:27-32)\\*\n- Abram travels to Canaan with Sarai and his nephew Lot (12:1-9) - **promise**\n- Abram lies about Sarai to Pharaoh, king of Egypt (12:10-20)\n- Back in the Negev Desert, Abram and Lot part ways (13:1-18) - **promise**\n- War of the kings; Abram rescues Lot and the other citizens of Sodom (14:1-17)\n- Melchizedek blesses Abram; Abram refuses bounty from king of Sodom (14:18-24)\n- God’s **covenant** with Abram (15:1-21) - **promise**\n- Hagar and Ishmael (16:1-16)\n- New names: Abraham and Sarah; **covenant** of circumcision (17:1-27) - **promise**\n- Three men visit Abram, Yahweh renews promise, Sarah laughs (18:1-15) - **promise**\n- Abram pleads with Yahweh to spare Sodom (18:16-33)\n- Lot and two daughters escape destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (19:1-29)\n- Lot’s grandsons: the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (19:30-38)\n- Abraham lies about Sarah to Abimelech, king of the Philistines (20:1-18)\n- Isaac is born to Sarah; Ishmael grows up in the desert (21:1-21)\n- Abraham makes a treaty with King Abimelech at Beersheba (21:22-34)\n- God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac (22:1-19) - **promise**\n- Sarah dies and Abraham buys burial property in the land of Canaan (23:1-20)\n- God provides Rebekah as a wife for Isaac (24:1-67)\n- Abraham’s descendants by second wife Keturah (25:1-6)\n- Abraham dies and is buried by Isaac and Ishmael (25:7-11)\n\nThe history about **Ishmael** and **Isaac** [Genesis 25:12-35:29]\n- Ishmael’s descendants and his death (25:12-18)\\*\n- Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob; Esau sells his birthright (25:19-34)\\*\n- Isaac lies about Rebekah to Abimelech, king of the Philistines (26:1-22) - **promise**\n- God’s **covenant** with Isaac in Beersheba; treaty with Abimelech (26:23-33)\n\nThe history about **Esau** and **Jacob** [Genesis 26:34-36:43]\n- Jacob steals Esau’s blessing; Esau plans revenge (26:34-27:46)\n- Jacob flees and heads to Haran; stairway to heaven at Bethel (28:1-22) - **promise**\n- Jacob works for Laban to marry his wives Leah and Rachel (29:1-30)\n- Jacob’s wives have eleven sons (29:31-30:24)\n- Jacob becomes wealthy while working for Laban (30:25-43)\n- Jacob and his family flee from Laban; Jacob’s treaty with Laban (31:1-55)\n- Jacob wrestles with God, who names him **Israel** (32:1-32)\n- Jacob and Esau reconcile, and Jacob settles in the city of Shechem (33:1-20)\n- Shechem rapes Dinah, and Jacob’s sons take revenge (34:1-31)\n- God blesses Jacob at Bethel (35:1-15) - **promise**\n- Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin (35:16-20)\n- List of Jacob’s twelve sons; Isaac dies and is buried by Esau and Jacob (35:16-29)\n- Esau’s descendants, the Edomites (36:1-43)\\*\\*\n\nThe history about **Jacob** and **Joseph** [Genesis 37-50]\n- Jacob’s family; Joseph’s dreams anger his brothers (37:1-11)\\*\n- Joseph sold as a slave and taken to the country of Egypt (37:12-36)\n- **Judah** and his daughter-in-law Tamar have children (38:1-30)\n- Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph, and he is imprisoned (39:1-23)\n- In the prison, Joseph interprets dreams for Pharaoh’s officials (40:1-23)\n- Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams about famine (41:1-40)\n- As governor over Egypt, Joseph stores up grain; he has two sons (41:41-57)\n- Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to buy grain, then return to Jacob (42:1-38)\n- All Joseph’s brothers return to Egypt and have a meal with him (43:1-34)\n- Joseph tests his brothers with his silver cup (44:1-17)\n- Judah pleads with Joseph for Benjamin’s freedom (44:18-34)\n- Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers; they give the news to Jacob (45:1-28)\n- Jacob and his family move to Egypt; list of his descendants (46:1-27)\n- Joseph settles Jacob and his family in the land of Goshen (47:1-12)\n- Joseph sells grain to all the people of Egypt (37:13-31)\n- Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh (48:1-22)\n- Jacob blesses each of his twelve sons (49:1-28)\n- Jacob’s death (49:29-33)\n- Joseph has his father Jacob embalmed and buries him in Canaan (50:1-14)\n- Joseph reassures his brothers that he has forgiven them (50:15-21)\n- Joseph’s death (Gen 50:22-26)\n\n### Special Formatting:\n\nThe book of Genesis sometimes uses poetic language to emphasize what is being said. Many translations use a special format to identify these passages as poetry by indenting each clause on a new line. Many other translations do not do this, but rather use regular paragraph formatting everywhere, including for poetry. It may be helpful to look at a translation in the national language of your country that uses poetry formatting, to help you decide whether or not you want to do something similar in your translation. Some translations put some of the following passages in poetry format since these verses have certain features of poetry such as parallelisms and metaphors: Genesis 1:27; 2:23; 3:14-16, 17b-19; 4:23-24; 8:22; 9:6, 25-27; 12:2-3; 14:19-20; 15:1; 16:11-12; 24:60; 25:23; 27:27-29, 39-40; 48:15-16, 20; 49:1-27. You may not want to put all these passages in poetry format since some of them have parallelisms that are not necessarily poetry but may just be emphasizing certain events in the narrative or certain points in a prophecy.\n\n### Possible titles for this book:\n\n- “Genesis”\n- “The Book of Genesis”\n- “Genesis: The First Book By Moses”\n- “Genesis: The Book About Beginnings”\n- “The First Book That God's Prophet/Spokesman Moses Wrote: Genesis”\n\nThe English title “Genesis” is a transliteration of a Greek word that means “origin” or “beginning” or “birth”; the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (the Septuagint) uses this word for the first time in Genesis 2:4. The Hebrew title of this book בְּרֵאשִׁית (pronounced “bereshith”) is the first Hebrew word in verse 1 and literally means “In the beginning.” The Latin translation of the Bible (the Latin Vulgate) was the first translation to use the title “The Book of Genesis.” Since that time, many other translations include “Genesis” in the book title because people are familiar with that name. Sometimes as part of the title, translators also include the fact that Moses was the author and that he was inspired by God. Do what is best in your language. 1:intro zb6f 0 # Genesis 1 General Notes\n\n## Structure and formatting\n\nThis chapter presents the first account of God creating the world. There is a pattern to this account: “God said … God saw that it was good … This was evening and morning, the first day.” Translators should preserve this pattern in their versions.\n\n## Special concepts in this chapter\n\n### The universe\n\nThis account of creation is told within the framework of ancient Hebrew ideas about the universe: the earth was resting with water around it and below it. Over the earth was something like a vast dome, called “an expanse between the waters” (1:6), on top of which was more water. Translators should try to keep these original images in their work, even though readers in their project language might have a completely different idea of what the universe is like.\n\n### Evening and morning\n\nGenesis 1 presents the ancient Hebrew idea of a day: it begins with sunset, lasts through the night and continues through the daylight hours until the next sunset. This pattern should be preserved in translation, even if readers in the project language define “day” differently.\n\n## Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter\n\n### “In the beginning”\n\nSome languages and cultures speak of the world as if it has always existed, as if it had no beginning. But “very long ago” is different from “in the beginning,” and you need to be sure that your translation communicates correctly.\n\n### “God said, ‘Let there be’”\n\nThis expression occurs often in this chapter. It can be difficult to translate, because God is not shown as talking to a particular person. If God is talking to a thing, it is something not yet in existence. Translators should find the most natural way in the project language to signal the idea that God spoke things into existence; he created the world and the things in it by simply commanding that they should exist. 1:1 uiu4 rc://*/ta/man/translate/figs-abstractnouns בְּ⁠רֵאשִׁ֖ית 1 “At the beginning {of time/everything}” or “{Everything} began when”. Many Bible scholars think that verse 1 records God’s first act in creating the universe. This is also the traditional, historically held view and fits with the narrative structure of the Hebrew text. It also fits with the wider context of Scriptures which states that God created everything out of nothing at the very beginning of the world (Psalm 33:6, 9; Hebrews 11:3). Also, some languages must use a verb (“began”) in verse 1 rather than a noun (“beginning”). Do what is best in your language. 1:1 b730 rc://*/ta/man/translate/translate-key-terms אֱלֹהִ֑ים 1 Translate the title “God” in a way that refers to the Supreme Being who created everything, who has complete power, who knows everything and is present everywhere. He is the only true God and has always existed.