New Beginnings - Part I. Genesis 1:1-5

May the mumbling commence!

It’s time to start a new journey.  And it’s exciting to start a new journey.  Will you join me in the journey?  I will slowly progress through the Bible from start to finish comparing Eugene Peterson’s The Message (a paraphrase) with the NIV translation.  I choose the NIV because I am most familiar with it.  It’s the translation that I began my daily devotions with many years ago.

The NIV sits firmly in the camp of a thought-by-thought translation, as opposed to a word-for-word translation that the NRSV translation does.  We must note there is a notable difference between a translation and a paraphrase.  The NRSV translates word-for-word to reduce any chances of interpretation.  The NIV, by translating thought-by-thought, can be said to do a little more interpretation. 

A paraphrase, like what Peterson has done, goes a step further and embraces interpretation.  While this is great and it opens the Bible in a new way for us, there is also a danger when there are competing interpretations and multiple valid ways to interpret.  That is why I’ve chosen to read the NIV along with The Message as a firmer grounding in the Word of God.

Well, let’s dive into the first creation story recorded in Genesis chapter one and the beginning of chapter two.  Today, I will concentrate on the first day for space and time reasons.  Read from The Message below:

First this: God created the Heavens and the Earth – all you see, all you don’t see.  Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.  God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

God spoke: “Light!”

            And light appeared.

God saw that light was good

            and separated light from dark.

God named the light Day

            he named the dark Night.

It was evening, it was morning –

Day One. (Genesis 1:1-5)

Now read from the NIV translation of the same passage:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)

In both cases, the rendition of these verses gives honor to the poetic nature of the Hebrew words.  There is much parallel between The Message and the NIV.  I note the strongest parallels with green italics.  But, I believe that we see some of the interpretation of Peterson in the additions and stronger use of descriptive words.  I’ve noted these in red italics.

In this case, I believe that the interpretation of Peterson is not problematic for me.  I struggle most with the addition of “all you see, all you don’t see”.  It bolsters the poetic repetition of the passage, but it’s unnecessary.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out