Roy, read Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’ article, which appeared in Adoremus last year:
There is one section that is very telling:
I read Fr. Neuhaus’ article several times and enjoyed it very much. However, while most of his criticisms seem unquestionably valid, the part you quoted is actually bugging me.
Is it less accurate to include a “when” in Genesis 1:1? In my New Jerome Biblical Commentary Richard J. Clifford, S.J., the commentator on Genesis and Exodus, writes the following:
**The translation “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” has been traditional at least since the 3d cent. BC, when the LXX translated it so, but it is unlikely. The first two Hebr words of v 1 syntactically cannot be so translated. ** Other biblical and ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies use a “when… then” construction, e.g., “When Yahweh God made the earth and the heaven–when no plant of the field was yet on earth…–then Yahweh God formed man from the soil of the earth…” (2:4-7).; the 2d-millennium Akk creation poem Enuma Elish begins “When on high the heavens had not been named, firm ground below had not been called by name,… then it was that the gods were found within them.”
Emphasis added.
Now, I can immediately see a couple of problems with Clifford’s position. To begin with, if Hebrew speakers in the 3rd century BC translated Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God…,” apparently the Hebrew
can be so translated. It sounds all to much like Clifford is ignoring the most obvious data available to him (how ancient Hebrew speakers clearly understood the verse) and using obscure historical exegesis on Hebrew syntax available instead. I also object to Clifford’s idea because even he admits that the focus of Genesis 1 is on God, and a “when” translation doesn’t at all convey the obvious weight the original text placed on 'Yahweh God," no matter how the first word technically ought to be rendered.
Still, is Clifford technically right? Can anyone comment on this particular controversy? Finally, it would appear that even if Clifford is entirely right, the NAB is still terrible, as it includes both “In the beginning” and “when,” making both the mistake that Clifford criticizes
and the mistake that Neuhaus makes!
God bless.
