Biblia Sancta

1 And when men had begun to multiply over the earth, and they had begotten daughters, 2 the sons of God, seeing the daughters of men who were beautiful, had taken for themselves wives from all, whom they chose. 3 And God said: My spirit will not persist in men forever, because it is flesh; its days will be one hundred twenty years.

4 Moreover, there were giants on the earth in these days. And after the sons of God were engaged to the daughters of men, and they begat children, they were powerful to a generation of notorious men.  5 Moreover, God, seeing that there was much wickedness of men on earth and all thoughts of the heart were extended towards evil in every time, 6 he repented that he made man on earth. And he was touched with sorrow in his heart internally.

7 “I will eliminate man,” he said, “whom I created, from the face of the earth, from man up to the living things, from the creeping things to the flying things, indeed I repent that I created them.”

8 But Noë discovered friendship in the presence of God. 

9 These are the generations of Noë: Noë, a man just and perfect was in his generation and walked with God. 10 And he begat three sons, Sem, Cham and Japeth.

11 And the world was corrupted in the presence of God and was filled with iniquity. 12 And when God saw the world to be corrupt (surely in all flesh had corrupted its way on earth), 13 he said to Noë: the end of all flesh comes before me; the earth is full of iniquity by their aspect, and I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make for yourself an ark out of smoothed wood. You will make small dwellings in the art and you will besmear it with pitch internally and externally. 15 And thus you will make it: three-hundred cubits will be the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth and thirty cubits its height. 16 You will make windows in the ark, and in a cubit you will finish its top; moreover you will put a door of the ark from the sides downwards, rooms and a third floor you will make in it. 17 Behold, I will bring the waters of the flood over the earth so that I will destroy all flesh, in which the spirit of life is below heaven. Everything which is on earth is finished. 18 And I will place my pact with you; and you will enter your ark, and your sons, your wife, and the wives of your sons, with you. 19 And you will bring in pairs into the ark from all living things of all flesh, so that they may live with you of the male sex and female. 20 From the flying things according to their kind, and from draft animals in their own kind, and out of every creeping thing of the earth following its kind: two from every one will go in with you, so that they will be able to live. 21 You will therefore take with you from all food which they can eat and you will take it to you, and that will be to you, which is for them food.

22 Noë did therefore all things that God enjoined him.

Theological Notes

“The sons of God” form a mysterious presence in the opening verses of this chapter. They seem to have been responsible for God first deciding to limit the lifespan of humans to 120 years (a rough limit that still holds) and then for the wickedness of men in general that leads to God repenting of having creating humankind. 

In some traditional Jewish glosses on these verses, “the  sons of God” are interpreted as being fallen angels. Certainly, the phrase as it appears elsewhere would indicate that it refers to angels, and the context here doesn’t paint them in a very good light.

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, to the likeness of God he created him. 2 Male and female he created them, and blessed them, and called the name of them Adam, in the day in which they were created.

3 Moreover Adam lived one-hundred thirty years, and begat as his image and likeness, and called his name Seth. 4 And the days of Adam were done, after he begat Seth, eight hundred years; and he begat sons and daughters. 5 And all the time which Adam lived was done, nine hundred thirty years, and he died.

6 Seth likewise lived one hundred fifty years and begat Enos. 7 And Seth lived for eight hundred seventy years after he begat Enos, and he begat sons and daughters. 8 And all the days of Seth were done, nine hundred twelve years, and he died.

9 But Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan. 10 After the birth of him he lived eight hundred fifteen years and begat sons and daughters. 11 And all the days of Enos were done nine hundred and five years, and he died.

12 Cainan likewise lived seventy years, and begat Malaleel. 13 And Cainan lived after he begat Malaleel, eight hundred forty years, and begat sons and daughters. 14 And all the days of Cainan were done nine-hundred ten years, and he died.

15 Moreover Malaleel lived sixty-five years, and begat Jared. 16 And Malaleel lived after he begat Jared, eight-hundred thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 17 And all the days of Malaleel were done, eight-hundred ninety-five years, and he died.

18 And Jared lived one-hundred sixty-two years, and begat Henoch. 19 And Jared lived eight-hundred years after he begat Henoch, and begat sons and daughters. 20 And all the days of Jared were done nine-hundred sixty-two years, and he died.

21 Henoch lived sixty-five years further and begot Mathusalam. 22 And Henoch walked with God; and lived, after he begot Mathusalam three-hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 23 And all the days of Henoch were done three-hundred sixty-five years. 24 And he walked with God, and was not seen, because God took him.

25 Likewise Mathusela lived one-hundred eight-seven years, and begat Lamech. 26 And Mathusela lived, after he begat Lamech, seven-hundred eight-two years, and begat sons and daughters. 27 And all the days of Mathusela were done, nine-hundred sixty-nine years, and he died.

28 Moreover Lamech lived one-hundred eighty-two years, and begat a son. 29 And he called his name Noë, saying, he will console us, by the works and labors of our hands, on the earth which God has cursed. 30 And Lamech lived, after he begat Noë, five-hundred ninety-five years, and begat sons and daughters. 31 And all the days o Lamech were done, seven-hundred seventy-seven years, and he died. But Noë when he was five-hundred years old , begat Sem, Cham, and Japheth.

Linguistic Notes

St Jerome deviates from both the Hebrew and LXX texts in offering some variations in wording for all the “xxx lived” phrases which I’ve done my best to translate literally. Both the Hebrew and LXX (along with most translations) maintain parallel phrasing for each generation with no variation in wording along the way.

The Douai-Rheims translation renders quingentorum esset annorum as “when he was five-hundred years old.” I could find no indication of what’s happening grammatically in the Latin, so I followed D-R for that phrase.

Theological Notes

I’ve always tended to gloss over the begats when reading the Bible. Even the occasional interposition of someone like Henoch who didn’t die isn’t usually enough to keep me focused. So it’s worth noting a few things along the way. First is the mentions of other sons and daughters in the genealogy. This is the first mention of Adam and Eve’s daughters (v. 4), or for that matter anyone’s daughters (the descendants of Cain in the previous chapter are only given as sons). It’s also worth noting that many of the names in this genealogy duplicate names in the list of Cain’s descendants (something I only noticed when checking for daughters in Genesis 4. This makes me wonder whether the two genealogies were meant to reconcile competing and slightly different traditional lists of the early patriarchs). Finally, there’s a strong tendency in the Old Testament for God to favor second-born sons over first-born sons even as their fathers might have the opposite preference. Yet here, only first-born sons are listed (unless there are unnamed first-borns that were omitted from the genealogy). 

1 But Adam knew his wife Heva, who conceived and gave birth to Cain, saying: I have possessed a man by means of God. 2 And again she gave birth to his brother Abel. While Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and Cain a farmer.

3 Whereas it took place after many days as Cail will offer from the frutis of the land gifts to the Lord. 4 Abel also offered from the firstborn of his flock and from the fat of them; and the Lord had regard to Abel and to his offering. 5 But to Cain, and to his offering, he had no regard; and Cain was violently angry and his face fell.

6 And the Lord said to him: Why are you angry? and for what reason did you face fall? 7 If you will not perform well, you will take back; but if on the other hand you do badly will sin arrive in the gates? But his desire will be under you and you will dominate him.

8 And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go outside. And when they were in the field, Cain ambushed his brother Abel, and killed him.

9 And the Lord said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother? 

He answered: I do not know? Am I my brother’s keeper?

10 And he said to him: What have you done? the voice of the blood of your brother calls to me from the earth. 11 Now, therefore, you will be cursed upon the earth, the mouth of which opens itself and receives the blood of your brother from your hand. 12 When you will work it, it will not give you its fruit, wandering and uncertain you will be on the earth.

13 And Cain said to the Lord: Great is my crime, which I have come to deserve. 14 Behold you are casting me out today from the face of th earth and from your face I will hide, and I will be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth, therefore all who will come upon me, will kill me.

15 And the Lord said to him: By no means will it thus be done; but all who might kill Cain, I will punish sevenfold. And the Lord put on Cain a sign, so that they wouldn’t kill him, all who came upon him.

16 And Cain, having gone out from the face of the Lord, lived exiled in the land to the East of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife who conceived and gave birth to Henoch, and he built a city, and called its name out of the name of his son, Henoch. 18 Further Henoch begot Irad, and Irad begat Maviael, and Maviael begat Mathusael, and Mathusael begat Lamech, 19 who received two wives, the name of one was Ada, and the name of the other Sella. 

20 Ada begat Jabel who was the father of those living in tents and shepherds. 21 And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the father of those playing lyre and musical instruments.

22 Also Sella begat Tubalcain, who was a hammerer and forger in all works of brass and iron. But the sister of Tubalcain was Noëma. 

23 And Lamech said to his wives Ada and Sella: Listn to my voice, wives of Lamech, hear my sermon: Since I have slain a man in my wound, and a young man in my bruise 24 seven times vengence will be given concerning Cain; but concerning Lamech seventy times seven.

25 Also Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and he called his name Seth, saying: God has placed for me another seed for Abel whom Cain has slain.

26 But also to Seth was born a son, whom he called Enos; he began to invoke the name of the Lord.

Linguistic notes

In verse 4, St Jerome employs “num” to introduce the famous question, “am I my brother’s keeper?” which is parallel to the Septuagint’s use of μή to introduce the question there. Both imply an answer of “no.” My Hebrew is more than a little rusty, but it appears that this isn’t reflected in the Hebrew text at all (although as far as I know, Hebrew doesn’t have a similar construction to prompt what the expected answer to a yes or no question that Greek and Latin have). It’s unclear whether this is an indication that St Jerome was cribbing from the Septuagint when he was translating the Hebrew or not.

Theological Notes

This chapter marks the introduction of sex and violence into the history of humanity. I’ve noted elsewhere the interesting co-occurrence of these themes (and their bifurcation as well) in the animal kingdom. There’s something fascinating about their co-introduction together in Genesis. It’s also worth noting that we finally, in the seventh generation of mankind, we get the names of some of the wives, perhaps because Lamech had two wives and the genealogist felt compelled to distinguish the two distinct matrilineal lines. So much for cracking the patriarchy here.

1 But also the serpent as more cunning than all the living things of the earth which the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman: Why has God commanded you not to eat from every tree of paradise?

2 The woman answered him: We eat from the fruit of the trees which are in paradise; 3 God has commanded us not to eat from the fruit in particular of the tree which is in the middle of paradise, and we shall not touch it, that by chance we do not die.

4 But the serpent said to the woman: By no means shall you die. 5 God knows truly that in whatever day you eat from it your eyes will open; and you will be like Gods, knowing good and evil.

6 Therefore, the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and beautiful to the eyes, and in seeing agreeable; and she took the fruit of it, and ate, and gave it to her man, who ate. 7 And the eyes of both were opened; and when they knew they were naked, they sewed together fig leaves and made for themselves loincloths. 8 And when they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in paradise in the afternoon breeze, Adam hid himself and his wife from the face of the Lord God in the middle of the trees of paradise.

9 And the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him: Where are you?

10 He said: I heard your voice in paradise; and I was afraid because I was nude, and I hid myself.

11 He said to him: So who revealed to you that you are nude, unless because from the tree, from which I prohibited you to eat, you ate?

12 And Adam said: The woman, who you gave me as a companion, gave to me from the tree and I ate.

13 And the Lord God said to the woman: Why have you done this? 

She responded: The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

14 And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed among all the living things and beasts of the land; on your breast you will go, and you will eat dirt for all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and your offspring and her offspring; she will bruise your head and you will ambush her heel.

16 To the woman he also said: I will multiply your toils and your conceptions; in pain you will give birth to children, and under man’s power you will be and he will dominate you.

17 But to Adam he said: Because you paid attention to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree, from which I had ordered you not to eat, cursed is the earth in your work; in labor you will eat from it all the days of your life. 18 Thorns and thistles will sprout for you, and you will et plants of the land. 19 In the sweat of your face you eat bread, while you return into the earth from which you began; because you are dust, and to dust you will return.

20 And Adam called the name of his wife, Eve, because she is mother of everyone living.

21 Also the Lord God made for Adam and his wife tunics of skin and put them on them. 22 And he said: Behold Adam made like one of us, knowing good and evil; now therefore not by chance sending his hand, and taking also from the tree of life, and eating, and living forever.

23 And the Lord God sent him out from the paradise of pleasures so that he might work the earth from which he was claimed. 24 And he cast out Adam, and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubim, and a sword of fire revolving around and guarding the way of the tree of life.

Linguistic Notes

What struck me as interesting in this chapter was the use of qui as a pronoun, for example v. 10 has Qui ait for “He said” and v. 11 as Cui dixit for “[He] said to him.” I did a quick check and this doesn’t follow the Septuagint (I have a vague notion that the interrogative pronoun can stand in for a personal pronoun in Greek), nor the Hebrew text. I’m too much a Latin tiro to know how common this is in Latin.

Theological Notes

Oh my. Translating this chapter it struck me as painfully misogynistic, particularly v. 16, but really the whole chapter. 

1 Then heaven and earth were finished, and all of them adorned. 2 And God finished his work which he had made on the seventh day: and he rested on the seventh day from the whole work which he had brought about. 3 And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, which he in himself ceased from all his work which God created just as he made it.

4 Those are the begettings of heaven and earth, when they were created on the day which the Lord God made heaven and earth, 5 and before every plant of the field rose up and before every herb of the region sprouted, for the Lord God had not rained over the earth, and man had not worked the earth. 6 But a spring rose up out of the earth irrigating everything on the surface of the earth.

7 Therefore the Lord God shaped a man out of the mud of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and the man was made into a living soul. 8 But the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning in which he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And the Lord God drew out of the earth every beautiful tree seen, and to eat sweetly; and also the tree of life in the middle of paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out from a place of pleasure to irrigate paradise, which thence divided in four sources. 11 The name of one is Phison; the very one which encompassed all the land of Hevilath where gold is born; 12 and the gold of that land is best; in that place is found bdellium and onyx marble stone. 13 And the name of the second is Gehon; the very one which encompasses all the land of Ethiopia. 14 The name of the third is Tigris; the very one which goes opposite Assyria. While the fourth river, this is Euphrates.

15 Therefore the Lord God took the man and put him in the paradise of pleasure so that he might work and care for it; 16 and he directed him saying: eat from every tree of paradise; 17 but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil do not eat; in a day whenever you eat from it truly, you will die.

18 Also the Lord God said: it is not goood for the man to be alone; let us make for him a help similar to himself. 19 Therefore the Lord God brought to Adam from out of the soil every living thing of the earth, and from all flying things of heaven so that he might see what to call them; so each which Adam called of everything of life its own name. 20 And Adam called by their own names every living thing, and all flying things of heaven, and all beasts of the land. But Adam did not find a helper similar to him.

21 Then the Lord God sent sleep into Adam and when he fell asleep, he took one of his ribs and he filled the flesh for him. 22 And the Lord God framed the rib, which he took from Adam into a woman; and he brought her to Adam. 23 And Adam said: Now this is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh; she shall be called Woman since from man she was taken. 24 For this reason a man leaves his father and mother, and will cleave to his wife; and they will be two in one flesh.

25 But they were both nude, to wit Adam and his wife; and they were not ashamed.

Linguistic Notes

St Jerome renders “she shall be called Woman since from man she was taken” as vocabitur Virago quoniam de viro sumpta est. Which allows him to keep the pun in the original Hebrew (אִשָּׁ֔ה-אִ֖ישׁ) which translates more smoothly in English (woman-man). I have to imagine that a lot of bad theology of gender has resulted from Jerome’s word choice here: Virago is translated as “a warlike woman” in my dictionary and as the word has been adopted into other languages has come to mean a belligerent, scolding, domineering or highly opinionated. Wiktionary points readers at the thesaurus entry for shrew.

Theological Notes

Those familiar with Biblical scholarship will doubtless be aware of the fact that we transition into a second creation story here, marked by the shift in the naming of God from the Hebrew elohim to the holy name, Yahweh which St Jerome renders as Dominus Deus following the lead of the Septuagint. The transition happens here with vs 4 as we realize that having created man and women in his image (1:27), he repeats the process here. Literalists will find ways to smooth out the difficulty here (e.g., the people of Genesis 1 were those who lived outside of paradise while Adam and his wife were created specifically to dwell in Paradise although this interpretation makes other glosses on the creation story, particularly the common descent of all humanity from Adam, and the original sin of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, difficult or untenable), but it’s probably best to accept the readings of the textual critics and understand that the Pentateuch is the blending of at least four traditional narratives of the origins of the people of Israel.

1 In the beginning God created heaven and earth. 2 Moreover the earth as empty and vacant, and darkness was over the shape of the abyss; and the Spirit of God carried over the waters. 3 And God said: Let there be light. And there was light. 4 And God saw the light which was good. And he divided the light from the darkness. 5 And he called the light Day and the darkness Night. And it was done evening and morning, the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the middle of the waters and let it divide waters from waters. 7 And God made the firmament and divided the waters that were below the firmament, from those which were above the firmament. And thus it was done. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And it was done evening and morning, the second day. 

9 Truly, God said: Let the waters be gathered, which are under heaven, in one place, and dry land appeared. And so it was done. 10 And God called the dry areas Earth, and the gathered waters he called Sea. And God saw that it was good. 11 And h said, Let the earth sprout herbage flourishing and making seed, and fruit-bearing trees making fruit according to its kind, whose seed in itself may be over the earth. And so it was done. 12 And the earth brought forth herbage flourishing, and making seed according to its own kind, and trees bearing fruit, and each one having seed following its type. 13 And God saw that it as good. And it as done evening and morning, the third day.

14 Moreover God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, and let them divide day and night, and let them be in the signs and the times, both days and years. 15 So that they might shine in the firmament of heaven, and they might illuminate the earth and so it was done. 16 And God made the great lights: the larger to shine so that it might preside over the day, and the lesser to shine, so that it might rule over night, and stars. 17 And he put them in the firmament of heaven so that they would shine over the earth 18 and preside over day and night, and divide light and darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And it was done evening and morning, the fourth day.

20 Again God said: Let there be made living life of water creeping, and birds over the earth under the firmament of heaven. 21 And God created the great sea monsters, and all creatures living and moving, which produced in water in its own kind and every bird following its own kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And he blessed them saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea; and birds multiplied over the earth. 23 And it was done, evening and morning, the fifth day.

24 Also God said: Let the earth produce living life in its own kind, beasts of burden and crawling things, and beasts of the land according to their own kind. And so it was done. 25 And God made beasts of the land on a par with their types, and beasts of burden and every crawling thing of the land in its land. And God saw that it was good. 26 And he said: Let us make man in our image and likeness, and the control of the fish of the sea, and flying things of the sky, and beasts, and all the lands, and all creeping things that move on the land. 27 And God created man in his image, in his image God created him, male and female he created them.  28 And God blessed them, and said: Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth, and make it subject, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the flying things of the sky, and every living thing which moves on the earth. 29 And God said: Behold, I have given you every plant producing seed over earth, and every tree which has in itself its kind of seed, so that they might be food to you, 30 and with all animals of the earth, and all flying things of heaven, and in all things which move on earth, and in which is a living spirit, so that they might be for you to eat. And so it was done. 31 God saw all which he had made; and they were powerfully good. And it was done evening and morning, the sixth day.

Linguistic Notes

Et creavit Deus hominem ad imaginem suam. The student of Latin might find that ad a bit odd there. “And God created man to his image”? At least one on-line translation of the vulgate that I found makes that choice. Ad, however, has a broader range of meanings than simply “to.” It actually can mean anything in the range of “to”-ness from “towards” to “at” with an implicit sense of coming in from the outside. (Ex carries a similar range of meanings coming from the inside). This directionality of prepositions is something characteristic of Latin, it seems and I’m reminded of the opening of the Credo, “Credo in unum deum,” which would translate literally as “I believe into one God…”

Theological Notes

I’ve often heard it claimed that one of the theological meanings of Genesis 1 is that God only “saw that it was good” when he created things, not when he divided them. Getting close and dirty with the text like you do when doing a translation (not to mention my process of writing out by hand the whole Latin text and then interlinearly the English before typing a final version here), it’s hard to elide over the fact that this isn’t actually true. In verse 10, after separating the waters and the dry land, “God saw that it was good.” Some logical gymnastics might save the point, but whether it’s worth saving is left as an exercise to the reader.