On Jan 17, 2005, at 2:45 PM, maru dubshinki wrote:
I was thinking of Gen 2:15: 'The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.' But then again, my translation is 'The New American Bible', and I'm not sure of its trustworthiness.
Well, that's one part of the problem with trying to exert literal interpretations of vast agglomerations of mythology. There are many problems with the Bible, not the least of which is that there are two accounts of creation in Genesis that don't match in some respects; and there are multiple interpretations within any text of many putative words of alleged gods.
Also the books were written over a lengthy period and the first was (I think) initially developed in a pre-writing culture, after which came a lengthy time in history spread across four additional volumes. From there you get into a *lot* of detail regarding the kingdom of Israel and its various trials over the centuries. So there are different attitudes, ideas and political motivations affecting the various books. (As a parallel illustration, contrast how _War and Peace_ compared to _Moby-Dick_; also contrast how _Moby-Dick_ compares to, say _Star Wars_ -- you see that cultures are obviously extrinsically variant and even, internally, can change hugely in the metaphors they present.)
Also, as you note, there are many English translations. KJV was, IIRC, a translation of the Vulgate, and it's abundantly clear that Genesis was not written in liturgical Latin -- so even that's a translation.
The New American Bible was released, apparently, in 1987, a product of a project that began in 1944 and was originally finished in 1970. It was evidently developed from original texts -- whatever that really means -- so it's possible you've got something that's close in tone to what was actually written out in ancient Hebrew.
<http://www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/versions/NAB.htm>
As to whether it's the literal word of a deity: I'd find that as plausible as an original document of Santa's good/bad children list. But that's me, of course.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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