Genesis — Hebrew and Greek compared · 1–23
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
Saints Translation: Genesis 1–23
Version 3 • Reference-aligned Hebrew–Greek comparison
Reader guide and review status
This Version 3 working revision follows the updated Bible Translation Reference Document. Read the Hebrew and Greek columns independently, then consult Classification & Notes. Rabbinic and Saints priorities guide attributed reception without replacing the source wording.
The 592 aligned rows cover Genesis 1–23. The final review checked all Greek reading units against the official RH main text; its scope and limits are described in the closing record. This is not independent specialist certification.
Key: Same (green), corresponding meaning; Similar (blue), modest expression or emphasis; Different (yellow), meaningful detail; Divergent (orange), addition, omission, or rearrangement; Disparate (red), major meaning or consequence. Direct contradiction is not required. One governing label per row; no quotas.
Book of Genesis
Reference and Translation Decisions
Independent Hebrew and Greek Translation
This revised working document covers Genesis 1–23 in 592 aligned verse rows. The Hebrew and Greek columns translate their selected source texts independently. The notes explain textual comparisons and distinguish them from Rabbinic and Christian reception. No combined translation overrides either column.
Source editions and limits
The inherited declared bases are Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fifth corrected edition (1997), and Rahlfs–Hanhart Septuaginta, second edition (2006), in the German Bible Society presentation. The final review checked every Greek reading unit in Genesis 1–23 directly against the official Rahlfs–Hanhart chapter pages and the final reference guide. This is a Greek main-text review, not a new Hebrew or critical-apparatus collation.
Göttingen is important for this project: John William Wevers’s Genesis (1974) is the specialist critical edition. Earlier revisions reported selected readings compared indirectly through NETS Genesis and its introduction, which also incorporates proposals from Wevers’s Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis (1993). The complete Göttingen Greek text and apparatus were not directly available for this revision. The Greek column therefore remains explicitly Rahlfs–Hanhart based; it must not be described as a complete Göttingen translation.
Swete is not the exclusive base. No reading is adopted merely because it appears in a previous draft or produces a stronger contrast. A future direct Göttingen review should identify and document each departure from the present Greek base. The same discipline applies to proposed Hebrew variants.
Selected edition decisions
The selected Greek text has Methuselah’s 167 years before begetting and 802 afterward (5:25–26), “sons of God” (6:2), and the eleventh month for the appearance of mountain tops (8:5). The NETS comparison was reported in earlier revisions, including a different divine title at 3:13. These NETS reports could not be reopened in the final review. The RH main text was checked directly and retains “Lord God” at 3:13. NETS is an English translation and a limited indirect check, not a substitute for reading the Göttingen apparatus.
Greek chronological and genealogical differences remain visible, including Cainan in 10:24 and 11:12–13, Arphaxad’s 430 later years (11:13), and Nahor’s 79 and 129 years (11:24–25). Names are normalized when they designate the same person, while added people, altered lists, and substantive differences are preserved. Dates and ages are not harmonized between columns.
What the historical dates mean
The Greek Pentateuch’s third-century BCE translation setting is distinct from the dates of surviving manuscripts and modern critical reconstructions. The Leningrad Codex was copied in 1008–1009 CE; that is a manuscript date, not the date when its underlying Hebrew traditions originated. Comparing the selected editions does not establish that every Greek difference arose before every Hebrew reading.
The Five Comparison Categories
Same — Corresponding meaning and content, allowing ordinary differences between languages.
Similar — Agreement in essentials with a modest difference in expression, idiom, or emphasis.
Different — A meaningful difference in a detail, name, number, action, or image, without the major force described by Disparate.
Divergent — Material added, omitted, or substantially rearranged between the selected texts. This label alone does not identify the historical direction of change.
Disparate — A substantial difference in agency, narrative assertion, legal or ritual force, theological presentation, imagery, or cumulative chronology. Direct contradiction is not required under the author’s clarified usage. Ambiguity and plausible alternative readings remain explicit.
The category word and its color are both displayed: Same green, Similar blue, Different yellow, Divergent orange, and Disparate red. A verse may contain several kinds of difference; the note explains them and the single label marks its principal comparison. There is no target count. The categories do not rank the religious value of the traditions, prove corruption, or establish how closely all modern translations follow a source. Claims about a particular modern translation require a separate comparison.
Language, Reception, and Publication
English conventions
Quantities are spelled out in translation prose; references and reference aids use digits. Genealogical formulas retain begat. Hebrew YHWH is distinguished from Greek Lord; routine correspondence alone is not disagreement. Other actual divine titles remain visible. Clear divine pronouns are capitalized; uncertain plural deliberations, messenger identities, and ambiguous antecedents remain unresolved. Ancient units and contextual slave/servant distinctions are retained.
Significant repetitions, negatives, agents, grammatical number, chronology, and images are preserved. Where Hebrew or Greek syntax remains difficult, the note identifies the uncertainty. Explanatory additions and harmonizations belong in the notes. The verse grid follows the aligned chapter and verse references used here; it does not silently import different NETS divisions.
Attributed interpretation
Rabbinic notes identify Rashi and the relevant Genesis passage, including disagreements or alternatives he records. Saints notes identify the New Testament passage or the named Father and work. These are selected primary receptions, not claims of unanimity. Typology and allegory are distinguished from lexical meaning and manuscript evidence. Hyperlinked labels lead to the cited passage or its chapter; modern English translations of commentary were used for consultation, not copied into the running translation.
Structure and remaining review
The columns remain Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority), Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority), and Classification & Notes. Both translation cells give full verse references. Native book, red chapter, and purple pericope headings remain; the document stays pageless. The term register, counts, review priorities, and version record below support continued work. Independent specialist Hebrew/Greek review, direct Göttingen apparatus review, and publication trim and pagination remain open.
Classification totals and Disparate index
Same: 105; Similar: 123; Different: 180; Divergent: 59; Disparate: 125. Total: 592 aligned rows. These are row classifications, not counts of unique variants.
Version 3 record
Updated to the Bible Translation Reference Document — Updated. Corrected source-supported readings and notes, standardized reference aids and clear divine pronouns, and recorded the actual review scope. Retained unresolved readings for further philological review; no full critical-apparatus verification is claimed.
Contextual term register
Divine names and pronouns — YHWH / Lord by source; El Shaddai and other titles retained. Capitalization identifies clear divine reference, not a manuscript difference. Ambiguous cases include plural deliberation, the visitors and messengers, 9:27, and 15:6.
Persons and status — Familiar names when the referent agrees; meaningful forms and added generations remain visible. Begat in genealogical formulas; wife, concubine, slave, and servant by context.
Units and materials — Cubits, seahs, shekels, and didrachms where the source uses them; no fixed modern conversion. Unknown woods, stones, and species remain qualified.
Images and interpretation — Living soul, spirit/wind, garden/paradise, walking/pleasing, and bodily imagery follow each source. Rabbinic and Saints interpretations stay in attributed notes. Spirit is capitalized for clear divine agency, including 1:2 and 6:3; this convention does not settle personal or Trinitarian interpretation.
Review priorities
The final review checked every Greek reading unit against the official RH main text, including inherited Same rows. Prioritize disputed Hebrew syntax, source-specific names and numbers, Greek variants in the specialist apparatus, and exact reception citations. All chapters retain source-specific figures and distinctions. Existing Rashi, New Testament, and patristic reception citations were checked in their cited contexts; English presentations of the Fathers were used, without claiming original-language collation.