Genesis 8

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

Something's lost in translation. Verse 1 in Young's Literal Translation says:

 "And God remembereth Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle which [are] with him in the ark, and God causeth a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subside."

The NRSV says: "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;"

Young's seem to indicate that cattle are worth mentioning, and they're specially mentioned previously in Genesis. Maybe this is more accurately rendered "domestic animals" as the NRSV says.

But how does "every living thing" become "all the wild animals?"

In any case, both versions say that God (it doesn't say Jehovah God/LORD God) caused the waters to subside.

In verse 14, both versions said the "earth" became dry. 

Because the surface of the planet Earth is mostly water, this is another reminder that "earth" in Genesis (at least until now) does not mean the planet. Not in Chapter 1, not in Chapter 8, and nowhere in between.

In verse 20 Noah builds an altar to Jehovah/The LORD, and makes burnt offerings of "clean" animals. I'm guessing "clean" means "edible" even though in Chapter 1 God intends humans and animals alike to eat plants.

From Chapter 6 on it seems that "God," and Jehovah/The LORD are one and the same, as both express regret on the evilness of humanity, and both express intention to wipe most of them out.

But, how did God/The LORD speak to Adam, Noah, and others? I would think that God had to have been within them the whole time. As if God was conscience, or intuition, or some aspect of their consciousness.

In Young's version,  Verse 21 says "Jehovah saith unto His heart, `I continue not to disesteem any more the ground because of man, though the imagination of the heart of man [is] evil from his youth; and I continue not to smite any more all living, as I have done.'"

The NRSV, however, says, "the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.'"

So the imagination imagination or inclination is “evil” from youth. Not from birth.

It sounds like in verse 21 God realizes that Noah's descendents, once they reach a certain age (I always associate “youth” with adolescence in contrast to childhood), they can't be stopped from "eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil" and that corruption will remain. 

When you find that things aren't working out and you wipe your slate clean, that's probably a good thing to do. But it doesn't guarantee the new beginning will be better in every way, but you can be more forgiving about the situation than you were before.

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)