Creation – Day Two

A new translation of Gen 1:6-8

A second free post this week, since this one has the full text and recording of the Hebrew for Day Two.

We’ve carefully read through the first five verses of the Bible, comprising the first day of the first creation story. Now it’s time to continue with Day Two. Here’s the translation of Gen 1:6-8 that we’ll begin with for purposes of our discussion:

6 God thought, Let there be a cupola in the middle of the water, and let it be a separator between water and water.  7 God made the cupola and it/he separated the water below the cupola and the water above the cupola.  And it was so.  8 God called the cupola Sky.  There was an evening and then a morning: a second day.

And here is an interlinear English-Hebrew version, with my recording of the Hebrew:

6 God thought, Let there be a cupola in the middle of the water, and let it be a separator between water and water.  

‏ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַמָּ֑יִם וִיהִ֣י מַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין מַ֖יִם לָמָֽיִם׃

7 God made the cupola and it/he separated the water below the cupola and the water above the cupola.  And it was so. 

וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֮ אֶת־הָרָקִיעַ֒ וַיַּבְדֵּ֗ל בֵּ֤ין הַמַּ֙יִם֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ מִתַּ֣חַת לָרָקִ֔יעַ וּבֵ֣ין הַמַּ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר מֵעַ֣ל לָרָקִ֑יעַ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃

8 God called the cupola Sky.  There was an evening and then a morning: a second day.

וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֱלֹהִ֛ים לָֽרָקִ֖יעַ שָׁמָ֑יִם וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שֵׁנִֽי׃ פ

I don’t think it will take us a month and a half to get through this day, as it did for us to work through Day One. And I can pretty much guarantee that by the time we get to Genesis 5 we will not be laser-focused on every single word.

For now, though, we still have a fair amount of careful work to do. As you recall from my discussion of “The Big Picture,” what puzzled me about Genesis 1 was how the various “created” things came into being. The two major aspects of creation whose story we were promised in the first verse of the Bible were “sky” and “land.” Yet, as I noted last time, the sky is not in fact “created.”

How did it come into being? And what, exactly, is the sky? We’ll start working on that next time.