These first twelve chapters of Genesis are not only foundational to the biblical story, they well illustrate the essential methods, style, and approach of the Transparent English Bible. This version is numbered and revised from time to time, so check back to get the latest version:

GENESIS SAMPLE v1.0

Over the years we have received hundreds of helpful comments and insightful input from our many interested and dedicated readers. Gradually the translation has been shaped and honed by this process, just as much as we have benefited from the more formal expertise of our academic experts and consultants.

Please continue to offer your comments and ideas. Every message we get is carefully read and saved. In order to get the full benefit of this Translation Sample you will want to also download our Readers Guide, Abbreviation Key and Transliteration Chart.

Many have written to ask when the Transparent English Bible will be available in print and for purchase. Although we have not yet contracted with a trade publisher, the same agent I have used for my own publishing is very interested in taking on the TEB. When we reach that stage I have no doubt we will be able to secure a major mass market trade publisher that will offer us the kind of wide distribution and publicity that we would want. However, I don’t think we will see finished copies of the TEB in bookstores until 2012-2014, first the Hebrew Bible and then the Greek New Testament. We are still in the translation and editorial stages of the Project and its final preparation for publication, even when we are ready, will take up to two years, judging from my experience with trade publishers. In order to finish this project I will have to be at a place in my own professional life where I have completed my own administrative duties that have taken up 60% of my time the past four years, which will not be the case until May, 2010 at the earliest.

One possibility we are considering is the publication of the book of Genesis alone, with a major trade publisher, as early as 2009. This is a pattern that has been followed by a number of major translators in the past, including Everett Fox and Robert Alter, each of whom now have their versions of the Five Books of Moses on the market. I might just note here that each of these marvelous translations share much in common with the Transparent English Bible, so much so that I encourage readers to obtain these works but I am not consulting them in my own translation process in order to preserve independence. I might note here that Fox’s version of Genesis and Exodus was published in 1987, while his Five Books of Moses came out 1997, ten years later. Robert Alter published Genesis in 1996 and his Five Books of Moses in 2004. Both Fox and Alter have since published their versions of 1 & 2 Samuel as separate volumes and Alter has the book of Psalms out as well. I mention this just to illustrate that translations of this type, done by individual scholars, are going to be a minimum of two decades in the making, despite my earlier youthful optimism when I began in 1992 on the TEB.

What we are ready to do immediately though is begin to release what we have called Preliminary Translation Samples on the Web in PDF format here through this new Web site. These “Beta” versions are the same as the ones we are giving to our roster of academic experts for their professional feedback and evaluation. However, we are very much committed to also hearing fron non-specialist readers of the Bible who want to offer their suggestions and comments. Over the years I have found that thousands of such folk collectively, with or without the technical knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, come up with highly valuable insights and feedback. At one point I was concerned about making our translation available in this form all over the world for anyone to download and print out–free of charge! I have since decided that should not be a worry on our part. The material is copyrighted and I do not think its wide distribution will harm in any way our ultimate sales of the printed full version. In fact, if anything, I think the serial release of the TEB during 2007 and 2008, if anything, will only serve to whet the interest and appetites of our readers for more.

So, beginning in September, 2007 we began to put up a series of these Preliminary Translation Samples. As we continue to receive feedback from readers, both academic and non-specialist, I will be discussing some of the issues that have been raised here in this Web site. I am really looking forward to this process and welcome all of our hundreds of new readers to the OBP.

Several have written asking about the abbreviations used in the TEB. Below are links to two PDF documents that can be downloaded and printed out to assist readers in making full use of the Translation Samples. One shows a table of abbreviations, the other shows how Hebrew and Greek characters have been transliterated into English.

abbreviations.pdf

alphabets.pdf

I wanted to share this interesting comment from a new reader of the Transparent English Bible translation samples:

In reference the feeling that it will be awkward to read the TEB out loud: I am just enthralled at how beautiful the wording is and excited to read it aloud to the children especially! Talk about a fascinating story! It reminds me of a play being read. I can imagine someone like Mark Twain doing a reading with such life and beauty and meaning that you feel like you are there. It makes me stand up and move around and use body language as I read because I can visualize the whole scene. Believe me, my grandchildren are going to LOVE the bible now! Like the word soil-man, how much more explanatory can a word get? And boy, when God says, “To dust you will return because dust you were and dust you will return” it really causes you to see just exactly what he means, after- all, he is called soil-man! Thank you for ALL your work.

I hope this response can serve to reinforce what I wrote in my previous post on Reading the TEB Aloud.

We plan to release another segment of Genesis this weekend. Please continue to send in your comments and feedback. All are read carefully and saved.

I have had quite a bit of feedback on the question of how to translated the very first verse of the Hebrew Bible–Genesis 1:1. It is so familiar to English ears the world over, in its traditional rendering, that any variation seems to immediately raise a flag with people. The Transparent English Bible has:
Chapter 1:1 At the first of (bereshit) ELOHIM creating the skies and the land—

The traditional translation, known and loved by so many, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” ignores an important grammatical element in Hebrew. The first word is in a special grammatical form in Hebrew called the construct. This means it implies a prepositional phrase in relation to what follows. The precise phrase occurs in Jeremiah. 26:1: At the first of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from Jehovah, saying…

The meaning here is clear and the two verses are quite parallel. The TEB has opted for a fairly literal reading, but one could actually even be more literal since the feminine form of the world “first” comes from the Hebrew word Rosh or “head.” So one might translate the phrase: “At the head of…” Either way, the meaning is clear. When Elohim began to create the skies and the land–this was the state of things, namely “desolation and emptiness.” The whole point of the verse is not to tell us about when or how things began, but rather, what was the state of the “land and skies” when God began to create or bring order and form to the chaos.

Also, even though the definite article is not present in the first word, bereshit, we have added “the” in lower italics, because the subject of this preposition, namely “God” or ELOHIM, justifies the “definite” sense here. We could have just as easily said “When ELOHIM began to create the skies and the land,” as many other modern translations have done, but thought it better to be as “transparent” with the original words as possible. Also, there is a tiny Hebrew word before the object of the verbal phrase: ’et, that we have left untranslated. This is not because we are trying to remove any words from the original, but this, in Classical (and even Modern) Hebrew, is a sign of a Direct Object to follow, and in this form is simply not translated. It functions as a kind of signal for what follows. This first verse, if read as we have it, finally connects with verse 3—when God says, “Let there be light.” If you read it aloud as we have it, from verse one through verse 3, you will see the idea. Verse two is actually describing the “state of things” when God began, but before the declaration, “Let there be light.” It is a very powerful and moving opening to the first verses of the Bible.