A Note About Our Notes - Original Bible Project

From the Editor's Desk:
A Note About Our Notes

By Dr. James D. Tabor, Ph.D.
Chief Editor, Original Bible Translation

Textural Notes

As you all know, the Original Bible has a number of unique features, one of which is the textual notes it will contain. You saw a sample of those notes in the previous issue of the Chronicle. One of the problems I began to face was just how extensive I should make those notes, and just precisely what they should contain. Our Board had determined early on that the notes would be non-theological. In other words, we did not want to offer the reader our own (or my own!) theological interpretations of the areas of Biblical studies about which there is much discussion-and controversy. We wanted to produce notes that would offer information only, primarily of an historical, linguistic, and geographical nature. That is still our policy. However, as I have worked through the Five Books of Moses over the past year I have found in so many cases there is a fine line between "information" ("just the facts please") and "interpretation." There are countless places in Scripture where understanding the original meaning is difficult or largely unresolved. Should we list all these views in our notes? That can become cumbersome, and if fully carried out one ends up with more of a "commentary" than a basic translation.

The Original Bible is first and foremost a translation, with the books of the Bible finally placed in their original, manuscript order. However, even when one sticks to the linguistic, historical, and the geographical, often rather lengthy and full notes are required to cover adequately certain points. These problems have led me to make a general decision in this regard.
I have determined that during our initial five-year production (1 992-1 997), 1 will restrict notes to a minimum and limit them to questions of language and clear translation issues. In other words, my task is to produce an accurate translation, and any notes that translation contains should be limited to information regarding of the proper rendering of modern the text into English. This is a shift from what I had done while translating the book of Genesis (which was running about 100 manuscript pages, with some pages containing up to a half-page of notes). But in order to keep the project on schedule, many notes I would like to put in, and which many readers would find helpful, would simply take too much time. However, what we will probably decide to do, once our initial translation is ready in 1997, is to bring out a later Study Edition of the Original Bible, which will contain many of those more extensive notes. Even these will be as non-theological and non-interpretive as possible. However, they will cover many useful points beyond matters of strict translation. Many of you know of the NIV Study Bible, published by Zondervan, or the new HarperCollins Study Bible that is just now out through the Society of Biblical Literature. These might serve as good models of the type of thing I have in mind.

Sample Types of Notes

Let me offer you some illustrations of the different types of textual notes one might produce and what I have in mind for both the Original Bible translation and a possible Original Study Bible (or Commentary) which we could publish at a later date. First, a few examples of the type of strictly linguistic, translation-oriented type of notes which will appear in the Original Bible:

TEXT: And the earth was' desolate and waste² ; and darkness [was] over the face of the deep; and the Spirit of ELOHIM4 was hovering over5 [the] face of the waters (Genesis 1:2)

NOTES: 1Or "became. ²Hebrew phrase is tohu and bohu. The same phrase is used in Jer 4:23 describing a scene of destruction and desolation. See also Deut 32:1 0 which speaks of a "howling waste (tohu) of a wilderness." In combination with (bohu) the meaning is intensified, (see Isa 34:1 1). 3Hebrew tehom, referring to the primeval ocean, or the depths of the sea (cf. Psa 106:9; Exo 15:6). The phrase is ruach 'elohim which can also be translated as "a wind from God," or "a mighty wind" (taking 'elohim) as an adjective). The basic meaning of ruach is an unseen force, thus it can refer to the Spirit, spirits, mind, or wind, see Gen 8:1; Ex 14:21. 5The Hebrew verb rachaph means "to flutter," like a bird over her nest, see Deut 32:1 1.

You can see that all of these notes deal directly with understanding the possible meanings in English of the key Hebrew terms in this verse. None of them offer evaluative interpretations. For example, the first note might easily contain a full comment on the idea of the "gap theory," which holds that the earth became waste and void through some cataclysm, based on Isa 45:18 and other passages, as well as related cosmological theories. But this would really go beyond the strictly linguistic evidence and clearly move into the kind of evaluation and theological interpretation which I think I should avoid in our initial text edition. These notes simply inform the reader of the original language behind the English translation, and explain translation options.

Now, in contrast, a commentary style note, which would be appropriate for a Study Bible or Commentary edition of the Original Bible, might look like:

TEXT: And ELOHIM made two of the great lights; the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night and the stars1. (Genesis 1:16)

NOTE1: There is no verb here stating that "He made the stars also," The phrase fits well with what immediately precedes: that the domain of the moon is the starry night sky. This is clearly the understanding of later Biblical texts: that the sun was to rule by day with "the moon and the stars to rule by night" (see Spa 136:7-9@ Jeer 31:35). This verse deals with the function of these heavenly bodies, from the human viewpoint. Accordingly, the verse does not imply that all the myriad galaxies of our vast universe ("the stars") were created on the fourth day, after the Sun and Moon, as is often claimed. the creation account is thoroughly geocentric, with no emphasis beyond life on this planet.

You can see that this type of note, though still not speculatively theological, really goes beyond the strictly linguistic explanation into interpretation and evaluation, suggesting a particular understanding of the verse in context. I continue to believe that such notes can be quite helpful, however for our initial translation, I have decided to avoid this more lengthy kind of note. The former type of note will appear at the bottom of each page and will not take up too much space.

What About Those White Spaces?

In the sample text we produced, the notes contained a comment about the paragraph divisions of the Hebrew Bible which I called "white spaces." They appear in the Hebrew manuscripts as actual gaps or breaks in the text. I explained that these are of two kinds: "open" and "closed." The open divisions, called petuchot in Hebrew, begin a new line of text, much like our English paragraph spaces. The closed divisions, called setumot, are a literal break or gap in the text. These very visual divisions occur in all the books of the Hebrew Bible except for the Psalms.

They are quite ancient, and even appear in the copies of Scripture found near the Dead Sea at Qumran (for example, the Great Isaiah Scroll). All modern English translations ignore these important textual divisions. Instead, English Bibles are simply broken into modern sections and paragraphs by the "logical" assumptions of the modern translators. The problem with this is much like the problem Ernest Martin has pointed out regarding the order of the books of the Bible. Western "logic" and reasoning does not necessarily reflect the original, more semitic, or Hebraic thought patterns of Biblical writers. What we might see as tidy and logical often breaks up and entirely misses what the original text contains. For example, in Hebrew thought a "paragraph" might be several pages, or it might be one line. It is the idea and emphasis that counts. In English we tend to break our writing into logical, fairly uniform, segments of thought. The ancient Hebrew writers had an entirely different understanding of textual division.

These ancient divisions of the original Hebrew text are endlessly fascinating, especially the setumot which appear like little gaps on the page, clearly setting off certain verses and sections for emphasis. I call these "white spaces." They often mark abrupt shifts or transitions in thought. In the Prophets these are of particular interest because they often signal that the prophecy is "jumping ahead" many years. These divisions served as a way of highlighting certain ideas and emphases.

For example Isaiah 10:20-23 is set off by these "white spaces." The general context of Chapter 1 0 had to do with the 8th century B.C. and the coming Assyrian invasion of northern Israel. But suddenly verses 20-23 jump ahead to a time far beyond, and give future hope to the people. Isaiah 8:16-18 is similarly set off. It likewise breaks the reader out of the 8th century B.C. and takes one far into the future, to the time of Jesus of Nazareth (see Isaiah 9:1). As far as I know the only English translation which currently reflects the original divisions of the Hebrew Bible is the Koren Jerusalem Bible (not to be confused with the Doubleday Co. Jerusalem Bible which is Roman Catholic).

This Bible is produced in Israel, but sold by Jewish bookstores in the United States. It contains a fairly literal translation of the Hebrew, with a facing page Hebrew-English text. All the manuscript divisions of the text are intact. Our Original Bible will be the first popular, mass-produced English version in 'history to reflect these all important textual divisions. I predict that our readers will learn many fascinating things from their attention to these original divisions in the text. We will have the Five Books of Moses, or Torah (Pentateuch) available for you to review sometime in the late Fall of 1993. Keep in mind that this is only a preliminary edition, which represents my work alone, prior to passing the text on to our committee of scholarly consultants. We want all of you to be in on the ground floor in this regard. I expect to receive many letters from our supporters and readers with reactions, questions, and suggestions regarding this. I will welcome this input and in that way we can all have a part in truly making this the Bible of the Next Century! Stay with us, the rewards will be great.

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