Foreword

THIS EDITION of Genesis Unfolded is presented to those who wish to familiarize themselves with the text as it was written.

The vocabulary has been enhanced by an ongoing examination of each letter’s relationship to each other letter. This is significantly more involved than learning an accepted vocabulary and assigning particular meanings to each word; meaning in ancient Hebrew has relationships produced by the form of the text itself. Like poetry, one cannot know how to interpret it until one reads it; clues are in the form itself.

In Hebrew, nothing can be ignored, nothing can be assumed, and there is never a ‘right’ translation of a passage . . .only approaches that lead closer to expressing the multitude of interrelationships found at every level in the text. Rhyming and paronomasia cannot be carried over into English; theres are many such unfortunate losses in the process. Yet the text is powerfully written with a depth designed to communicate; it is a rewarding endeavor. The translation process requires full immersion and the reading process is rewarded by the same.

The necessary element is the sense of being there. The fact is, we are not there; anachronistically separated by thousands of years. These are the records from those who were there, and the form of what has been handed down to us is quite as vital—often more important—than the content. This approach addresses both, and attention to each letter allows many Hebrew words of obscure origin to open their meaning in context, including each name of a city, nation, and individual.

The order of words is maintained as well as odd hiatuses and internal sentence punctuation, the which are required to get the nuances of thought being expressed. It is not enough to say. . .

“He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.”

. . .when the actual text says:

“And he, writhing still more seven of days, difficult ones; and he is adding to send away the dove from being a part of the ark.”

The first is the ESV, the second Genesis Unfolded. As you read this text, allow your mind to conform to the fabric of the text. Seemingly insignificant details become the very indicators that provide the flow of the text which is necessary if one is to catch the subtleties. For example, in the rare case when the subject of a sentence occurs at the beginning of the sentence (it can be inserted anywhere, yet in our translations is almost always translated according to the standard English subject–verb–direct object), it means that not only is the subject to be emphasized, but the entire paragraph is dramatically set in its context. A rare example of a triple drama of this kind is found in 19:25 (here the exclamation mark is added to show the emphasis). . .

“The sun!—he issues over the earth, and Lot!—he comes toward Zoar, and Jehovah!—he causes rain over Sodom and over Gomorrah: sulfur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens.”

Compare this to the NIV:

“By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens.”

Genesis Unfolded is designed to preserve this drama.

How much value one extracts from the text depends entirely on how much one believes that it is what it says it is. Yet to effectively study a subject, one needs a modicum of objectivity, as well as the ability to explore others’ accomplishments without externally imputed bias. This process begins by reading it and finding the protocols of interpretation initially within the text itself and subsequently within the context of scholarly or traditional opinion. In order to establish standards by which we assess the information we must root our process in the culture in which it was written, the best source of which is the text itself.

So welcome to Genesis Unfolded. It has been written specifically for the purpose of handing to you the pure text unencumbered by dogma. And welcome to the Hebrew language with its dreamscape of images, depth, and possibilities.