Genesis 11 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 5 Similar 5 Different 3 Divergent 5 Disparate 14
Disparate in this chapter: 11:4, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:20, 11:22, 11:24, 11:25, 11:31, 11:32
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
The Tower of Babel
11:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:1 The whole earth had one language and the same words.
Greek · Saints priority
11:1 The whole earth had one language, and one voice belonged to all.
H emphasizes shared words; G adds one voice for all. Neither requires identical acoustic pitch.
11:2 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:2 As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Greek · Saints priority
11:2 As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
The corresponding content agrees; ordinary name transliterations are normalized.
11:3 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” They used brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.
Greek · Saints priority
11:3 One said to another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire.” They used brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.
H uses an emphatic burning expression; G explicitly mentions fire. The construction materials agree.
11:4 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:4 They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over all the earth.”
Greek · Saints priority
11:4 They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over all the earth.”
H presents preventing dispersion as a motive; G presents dispersion as the event before which they act. This changes the relation between their purpose and the coming dispersal.
11:5 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:5 YHWH came down to see the city and the tower that the human beings had built.
Greek · Saints priority
11:5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the human beings had built.
The corresponding content agrees; ordinary name transliterations are normalized.
11:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:6 YHWH said, “Behold, they are one people and all have one language, and this is what they have begun to do. Now nothing they plan to do will be withheld from them.
Greek · Saints priority
11:6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people and all have one language, and this is what they began to do. Now nothing they undertake to do will fail them.
People renders H am and G genos without importing a modern racial category. The capability statement corresponds.
11:7 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's language.”
Greek · Saints priority
11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that each will not understand the voice of his neighbor.”
Both hearing verbs can express understanding in this context. G voice differs from H language; both use plural divine deliberation.
11:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:8 YHWH scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Greek · Saints priority
11:8 The Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city and the tower.
G expressly adds the tower to what they stopped building.
11:9 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there YHWH confused the language of all the earth; from there YHWH scattered them over all the earth.
Greek · Saints priority
11:9 Therefore its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confused the languages of all the earth; from there the Lord God scattered them over all the earth.
G translates the name as Confusion and has Lord God in the final clause. H uses the Babel/balal wordplay; Confusion is not substituted into H.
Genealogy of Shem
11:10 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
Greek · Saints priority
11:10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old when he begat Arphaxad, in the second year after the flood.
Both anchor the genealogy at age 100 in relation to the flood; H uses two years and G the second year.
11:11 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:11 Shem lived five hundred years after he begat Arphaxad, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:11 Shem lived five hundred years after he begat Arphaxad, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining 500 years agree; G adds a death notice.
11:12 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years and begat Shelah.
Greek · Saints priority
11:12 Arphaxad lived one hundred and thirty-five years and begat Cainan.
H gives 35 years before the named son; RH gives 135. H names Shelah directly; G names Cainan.
11:13 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:13 Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years after he begat Shelah, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:13 Arphaxad lived four hundred and thirty years after he begat Cainan, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died. Cainan lived one hundred and thirty years and begat Shelah. Cainan lived three hundred and thirty years after he begat Shelah, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining years are H 403 and RH 430; G also adds a death notice. G includes Cainan's additional 130/330-year generation. RH reads 430 for Arphaxad, not the draft's 400.
11:14 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:14 Shelah lived thirty years and begat Eber.
Greek · Saints priority
11:14 Shelah lived one hundred and thirty years and begat Eber.
H gives 30 years before the named son; RH gives 130. These figures change the cumulative chronology.
11:15 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:15 Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he begat Eber, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:15 Shelah lived three hundred and thirty years after he begat Eber, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining years are H 403 and RH 330; G also adds a death notice.
11:16 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:16 Eber lived thirty-four years and begat Peleg.
Greek · Saints priority
11:16 Eber lived one hundred and thirty-four years and begat Peleg.
H gives 34 years before the named son; RH gives 134. These figures change the cumulative chronology.
11:17 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:17 Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he begat Peleg, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:17 Eber lived three hundred and seventy years after he begat Peleg, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining years are H 430 and RH 370; G also adds a death notice.
11:18 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:18 Peleg lived thirty years and begat Reu.
Greek · Saints priority
11:18 Peleg lived one hundred and thirty years and begat Reu.
H gives 30 years before the named son; RH gives 130. These figures change the cumulative chronology.
11:19 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:19 Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he begat Reu, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:19 Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he begat Reu, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining 209 years agree; G adds a death notice.
11:20 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:20 Reu lived thirty-two years and begat Serug.
Greek · Saints priority
11:20 Reu lived one hundred and thirty-two years and begat Serug.
H gives 32 years before the named son; RH gives 132. These figures change the cumulative chronology.
11:21 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:21 Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he begat Serug, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:21 Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he begat Serug, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining 207 years agree; G adds a death notice.
11:22 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:22 Serug lived thirty years and begat Nahor.
Greek · Saints priority
11:22 Serug lived one hundred and thirty years and begat Nahor.
H gives 30 years before the named son; RH gives 130. These figures change the cumulative chronology.
11:23 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:23 Serug lived two hundred years after he begat Nahor, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:23 Serug lived two hundred years after he begat Nahor, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining 200 years agree; G adds a death notice.
11:24 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years and begat Terah.
Greek · Saints priority
11:24 Nahor lived seventy-nine years and begat Terah.
H gives 29 years before the named son; RH gives 79. These figures change the cumulative chronology.
11:25 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:25 Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he begat Terah, and he begat sons and daughters.
Greek · Saints priority
11:25 Nahor lived one hundred and twenty-nine years after he begat Terah, and he begat sons and daughters, and he died.
The remaining years are H 119 and RH 129; G also adds a death notice.
11:26 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:26 Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Greek · Saints priority
11:26 Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The corresponding content agrees; ordinary name transliterations are normalized.
The Account of Terah
11:27 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:27 And these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
Greek · Saints priority
11:27 And these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
The corresponding content agrees; ordinary name transliterations are normalized.
11:28 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Greek · Saints priority
11:28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah, in the land where he was born, in the country of the Chaldeans.
H names Ur; G uses country without naming the city. In his father's presence can express death during his father's lifetime.
11:29 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
Greek · Saints priority
11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
The corresponding content agrees; ordinary name transliterations are normalized.
11:30 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Greek · Saints priority
11:30 Sarai was barren and bore no children.
The absence of children corresponds; H expresses possession and G childbearing.
11:31 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram. They went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. They came as far as Haran and settled there.
Greek · Saints priority
11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram. He led them out of the country of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. He came as far as Haran and settled there.
G explicitly makes Terah the leader and continues with singular arrival and settlement; H uses plural verbs and names Ur. H's they/with them expression remains syntactically difficult.
11:32 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
11:32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
Greek · Saints priority
11:32 The days of Terah in Haran were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
Both give 205 years, but G attaches in Haran to the days themselves as well as the death. H gives the lifespan without that first geographical qualifier.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.