Biblical question for original version scholars (Rrhain, doctrbill,etc)

HI,Do you mean the 'earliest' versions, because there are no original versions of ANY biblical book, Old testament or New.We do not even know who wrote ANY Old Testament book, we do not know who wrote ANY of the Gospels, even some of Paul's letters have been taken off him , Hebrews and the Pastorals for example.So do you mean the earliest extant texts?Brian

Hi Holmes, No offence taken, and none was meant in my reply. The reason I asked was that there are people out there who think that there were original contemporary texts, and what we have are copies of them. By original contemporary texts I mean that, for example, that Adam actually wrote the events that concerned him down onto tablets, Noah wrote his down and so on. Then it was Moses who apparently gathered all these tablets together and compiled the Torah! Sounds crazy I know, but there are people who believe this. I apologise if my post seemed silly.Anyway, you are in luck, here is the Hebrew Text from the Masoretic Text, which was the oldest Text available until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. I don’t know if your computer has Hebrew fonts installed so I scanned the Masoretic Text and added the English translation underneath on a white background.The commentary is from the Chief Rabbi Dr. J.H. Hertz.I am really pressed for time tonight and tomorrow, but hopefully we can discuss various interpretations, and what I think are blatant contradictions in the text, from Friday onwards? Since your question is in relation to the ‘Tree of Knowledge’, I have copied out the text where this is introduced and the first sin occurs. If you need anymore texts, or if I can provide you with any resources at all, just ask I will be more than happy to help.I thought a good place to finish would be Genesis 3:16 as this allows the inclusion of 3:15, which I think has been taken out of context by some Christians.Genesis1.jpg starts at Genesis 2:7, up to Genesis 3:17 in Genesis7.jpgI hope this isnt too inconvenient.Commentary:7: formed. The Heb. is vayyitzer from the same root, yatzar, as is used of the potter moulding clay into a vessel, possibly to remind us that man is " as clay in the hands of the Potter." The Rabbis point to the fact that in this verse the word for " formed " is written with two yods, whereas in v. 19 when relating the creation of animals, it has only one yod. Man alone, they declare, is endowed with both a Yetzer tob (a good inclination) and a Yetzer ra (an evil inclination); whereas animals have no moral discrimination or moral conflict. Another explanation is, man alone is a citizen of two worlds; he is both of earth and of heaven. dust of the ground. " From which part of the earth's great surface did He gather the dust? " ask the Rabbis. Rabbi Meir answered, " From every part of the habitable earth was the dust taken for the formation of Adam." In a word, men of all lands and climes are brothers. Other Rabbis held that the dust was taken from the site on which the Holy Temple, with the altar of Atonement, was in later ages to be built. That means, though man comes from the dust, sin is not a permanent part of his nature. Man can overcome sin, and through repentance attain to atonement with his Maker.a living soul. The term may mean nothing more than " living entity." The Targum, however, renders it by " a speaking spirit " ; viz., a personality endowed with the faculty of thinking and expressing his thoughts in speech.8. garden. The ancient Versions translate it by the Persian word " Paradise," lit. enclosure or park. eastward. Either, " in the East," the home of the earliest civilisation ; or, situated east of Eden. The Targum translates it, " aforetime." Eden. The Heb. word means " delight " ; but it is probably the name of a country, Edinu (signifying " plain, steppe ") ; and may denote the extensive plain watered by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The phrase Garden of Eden " became in course of time descriptive of any place possessing beauty and fertility. In later Jewish literature, it signifies the Heavenly Paradise where the souls of. the righteous repose in felicity.9. tree of life. The fruit of which prolongs life, or renders immortal. The phrase also occurs in a purely figurative sense, e.g. Prov. 3:18. the knowledge of good and evil. The Targum paraphrase is, " the tree, the eaters of whose fruits know to distinguish between good and evil." The expression good and evil denotes the knowledge which infancy lacks and experience acquires (" Your children which this day have no knowledge of good or evil," Deut. i, 39). Knowledge of good and evil may also mean, knowledge of all things, i.e., omniscience ; see 3:5.10. it was parted. After passing through the Garden, it divided into four separate streams.11. Pishon. Nowhere else mentioned in the Bible. Havilah. Cf. x, 29. N.E. of Arabia, on the Persian Gulf. Arabia was famed in antiquity for its gold.12. bdellium. Possibly the pearl.13. Gihon. Like the Pishon, the identity of this river is a matter of conjecture.
Cush. Usually rendered Ethiopia ; but it may also denote some territory in Asia.14. Assyria. Which lies some distance to the East of the Tigris and may possibly also include Babylonia. Euphrates. No further description is given, because it was universally known as " the great River " (Deut. i, 7) and " the River " (Exod. 23: 31, Isa. 7:20).15-16. to dress it and to keep it. i.e. to till it and guard it from running wild. Not indolence but congenial work is man's Divinely allotted portion. See, what a great thing is work! The first man was not to taste of anything until he had done some work. Only after God told him to cultivate and keep the garden, did He give him permission to eat of its fruits " (Aboth di Rabbi Nathan).17. thou shalt not eat. Man's most sacred privilege is freedom of will, the ability to obey or to disobey his Maker. This sharp limitation of self-gratification, this " dietary law," was to test the use he would make of his freedom ; and it thus begins the moral discipline of man. Unlike the beast, man has also a spiritual life, which demands the subordination of man's desires to the law of God. The will of God revealed in His Law is the one eternal and unfailing guide as to what constitutes good and evil-and not man's instincts, or even his Reason, which in the hour of temptation often call light darkness and darkness light. thou shalt surely die. i.e. thou must inevitably become mortal (Symmachus). While this explanation removes the difficulty that Adam and Eve lived a long time after they had eaten of the forbidden fruit, it assumes that man was created to be a deathless being. A simpler explanation is that in view of all the circumstances of the temptation, the All-merciful God mercifully modified the penalty, and they did not die on the day of their sin.18. it is not good. From this verse the Rabbis deduce that marriage is a Divine institution, a holy estate in which alone man lives his true and complete life. Celibacy is contrary to nature. an help. A wife is not a man's shadow or subordinate, but his other self, his " helper," in a sense which no other creature on earth can be.meet for him. To match him. The Heb. term k'negdo, may mean either " at his side," i.e. fit to associate with ; or " as over against him," i.e. corresponding to him.19. Better, The LORD God, having formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl of heaven, brought them unto the man (S. R. Hirsch, Delitzsch and W. H. Green). See 1, 21, 25. The fishes are not alluded to because they are precluded from becoming man's companions. call them. Man alone has language, and can give birth to languages. In giving names to earth's creatures, he would establish his dominion over them (1, 26, 28). The name would also reflect the impression produced on his mind by each creature, and indicate whether he regarded it as a fit companion for himself.20. but for Adam. The dignity of human nature could not, in few words, be more beautifully expressed (Dillmann).21. a deep sleep. As in xv, 12, the word implies that something mysterious and awe-inspiring was about to take place.one of his ribs. Woman was not formed from the dust of the earth, but from man's own body. We have here a wonderfully conceived allegory designed to set forth the moral and social relation of the sexes to each other, the dependence of woman upon man, her close relationship to him, and the foundation existing in nature for the attachment springing up between them. The woman is formed out of the man's side ; hence it is the wife's natural duty to be at hand, ready at all times to be a " help " to her husband it is the husband's natural duty ever to cherish and defend his wife, as part of his own self " (Driver).22. made. lit. Builded; This teaches that God has endowed woman with greater intuition than He has man."23. bone of my bones. The phrase passed into popular speech (29:14). woman. The Heb. word is Ishshah ; that for man is Ish. The similarity in sound suggests the spiritual identity of man and woman.24. shall a man leave. Or, "therefore doth a man leave his father and his mother, and doth cleave .... and they become one flesh." Rashi says : These words are by the Holy Spirit; i.e. this verse is not spoken by Adam, but are the inspired comment of Moses in order to inculcate the Jewish ideal of marriage as a unique tie which binds a man to his wife even closer than to his parents.The Biblical ideal is the monogamic marriage ; a man shall "cleave unto his wife, not "unto his wives." The sacredness of marriage relations, according to Scripture, thus goes back to the very birth of human society ; nay, it is part of the scheme of Creation. The purpose of marriage being to preserve and sanctify that which had been made in the image of God. one flesh. One entity, sharing the joys and burdens of life.25. not ashamed Before eating of the forbidden fruit, they were like children in the Orient, who in the innocence and ignorance of childhood run about unclothed.Chapter Three1. the serpent. According to the Rabbinic legend, the serpent in its original state had the power of speech, and its intellectual powers exceeded those of all other animals, and it was its envy of man that made it plot his downfall. subtil. The same Heb. root signifies both " naked " and " subtle, clever, mischievous." Seeming simplicity is often the most dangerous weapon of cunning. The gliding stealthy movement of the serpent is a fitting symbol of the insidious progress of temptation.yea, hath God said, lit. " Is it really so, that God (Elohim) hath said "a statement expressing surprise and incredulity with the object of creating doubt in the reasonableness of the Divine prohibition.2. the woman. Guileless and unsuspecting, she falls into the trap-even enlarges on God's command.3. neither shall ye touch it. There was no word concerning " touching " in the original prohibition. This exaggeration on the part of the woman, says the Midrash, was the cause of her fall.4. ye shall not surely die. The serpent boldly denies the validity of God's threat.5. God assigned no reason for the command ; the serpent suggests one; namely, when God gave His order, it was not for man's benefit, but because God was envious of what man would become, if he ate the forbidden fruit.opened. To new sources of knowledge, hidden from ordinary sight-a strong appeal to the curiosity of the woman.as God. i.e. you will become endowed with a power which is at present reserved exclusively to Himself, viz., omniscience (Sforno) ; and, having acquired omniscience, you will be in a position to repudiate His authority.good and evil. A Heb. idiom for " all things " (Cheyne, Ehrlich) ; cf. II Sam. xiv, 17. The same Heb. idiom occurs in a negative form in 24:50 and xxxl, 24, 29, where it means nothing at all." The ordinary explanation of the phrase "good and evil" in the literal sense, assumes that God would for any reason withhold from man the ability to discern between what is morally right and wrong-a view which contradicts the spirit of Scripture. Moreover, Adam would not have been made in the image of God," if he did not from the first possess the faculty of distinguishing between good and evil. And if he lacked such faculty, his obedience or disobedience to any command whatsoever, could have no moral significance. None of these objections holds good in regard to the temporary withholding of ordinary knowledge from Adam, pending his decision to work with or against God.6. the woman saw. Though the tempter did not tell the woman to eat the fruit, he had woven the spell. The woman looked upon the tree with a new longing-it was good to eat, a delight to the eyes, and it would give wisdom. She turns her back upon the impulses of gratitude, love and duty to God. The story mirrors human experience.with her. Either, who was with her," or, " to eat with her." The desire for companionship in guilt is characteristic of sin.7. were opened. The knowledge attained is neither of happiness, wisdom or power, but of consciousness of sin and its conflict with the will of God (Ryle). Next come shame, fear, and the attempt to hide.naked. They forfeited their innocence. Rashi gives a metaphorical interpretation to the words: They knew that they were naked "-naked of all sense of gratitude and obedience to the Divine will: one precept alone had they been asked to obey, and even this proved too much for them!fig-leaves. Because they were the largest and best suited for a loin-covering 8. the voice. Or, " sound."in the cool of the day. i.e. towards evening when, in the Orient, a cooling breeze arises (Song of Songs, ii, 17).hid themselves. Conscience makes cowards of them. 9-21.9. where art thou ? The Midrash explains that this question was asked out of consideration for Adam to afford him time to recover his self-possession. Where art thou ? is the call which, after every sin, resounds in the ears of the man who seeks to deceive himself and others concerning his sin " (Dillmann).10. because I was naked. The Rabbis maintain that " one sin leads to another sin." Adam commits a further offence by attempting to conceal the truth by means of this excuse.11. hast thou eaten? An opportunity is given Adam for full confession and expression of contrition. A sin unconfessed and unrepented is a sin constantly committed.12. Finding his excuse useless, Adam throws the blame upon everybody but himself. First of all it is " the woman"; then he insolently fixes a share of the responsibility upon God-" whom Thou gayest to be with me."13. Instead of a question, the words may be taken as an exclamation, What is this thou hast done " ! shalt thou go ... shalt thou eat. Better, upon thy belly thou goest, and dust thou eatest. "Till the eighteenth century, it was the general belief that the serpent had been walking upright and was now reduced to crawling. This is quite un-Biblical. The meaning is, Continue to crawl on thy belly and eat dust. Henceforth it will be regarded as a curse, recalling to men thy attempt to drag them to the dust (B. Jacob).15. enmity. The sight of the serpent will create loathing in man, and fear of its deadly sting will call forth an instinctive desire to destroy it.bruise. The serpent strikes at the heel of man ; while the man deals the fatal blow by crushing its head. Therefore the victory will rest with man.16. Better, wilt thou bring forth children, and thy desire is unto thy husband, and he ruleth over thee. (B. Jacob).This is no sentence upon the woman. It does not contain the term " cursed." Moreover, God Himself pronounced the fruitfulness of man a blessing (i, 28), and therewith woman's pain and travail are inexecrably bound up, being part of woman's physical being. The words addressed to the woman are therefore parenthetical and signify in effect, " Thee I need not punish, and a sufficiency of woe and suffering is thine because of thy physical being " (B. Jacob). [Adjusted image size to make page a standard width. --Admin][This message has been edited by Admin, 09-01-2003]