Hebrew Bible Exegesis

The translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible , have led to many versions of stories that we thought we knew, especially the book of Genesis and the first fall story . Hebrew words such as adam, and other significant words in Hebrew language will be the main focus on in this paper. These words can have very different meanings according to the exegetes and also of a person's belief system that is translating them. Thorough critical analysis of postexilic writings will cast doubt into believers of their faith that indeed, what they have been taught about the stories of the Bible are just one interpretation. These are only interpretations between Hebrew words translated into Greek, and the end product being the English version of the bible.

The interpretation of the Adam-and-Eve story that I've grown up with is what many Christians believe today. The story begins with God creating Adam from dirt, making Eve from Adam's rib, the two living in the Garden of Eden, Eve being tempted by the serpent to eat apple from the tree of knowledge, eating the apple, and being expelled from Eden. This version comes from the King James Bible. Popular belief is that the King James version is as close to the Hebrew version as possible. While researching the first fall account, I had noticed that not only are the English versions inconsistent with each other but inconsistent with the Hebrew Bible, which I would believe to be a more accurate version of what the original authors and intended the Bible to reenact stories and philosophize. Armed with the knowledge that the Bible is not written to be concentric like today's modern writing, I will attempt to critically analyze as thoroughly as possible a neophyte can the many interpretations, interpolations, and extrapolations that can be made from these few verses of the Bible.

"And the woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. That from the fruit of the tree is in middle of the garden, Elohim said you shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest should die" (Genesis 3:2-3)- NRSV. In the revised standards of today's Bibles, it is obvious that the words used to originally translate the Bible are either considered archaic words, or words not used in today's society. Therefore, the use of the word woman instead of 'adam, isha, or groundling is evidence of either mistranslation or interpretation to make the Bible easier and more user-friendly to read.

The business of translation and exegesis of any text that were originally written from oral tradition of more than 2000 years old, and now what most scholars consider a dead language is proving difficult. A number of problems arise when translating the Hebrew Bible. According to Harry Orlinsky , a person who translates the Bible on his own will come to the understanding and appreciation of the many problems that beset the Septuagint translators (Orlinsky, 89). Understanding that the translations have their limitations is also problematic. Holy text, more specifically the Hebrew Bible were derived from oral traditions and in written on paper. These originals have long since been lost, and require our modern-day translators to interpret a copy, of a copy, of a copy. Thus, some of the major problematic themes of translating ancient text are now coming into view.

Many scholars believe that when the Biblical books were translated into Greek, they were translated by at least two men for one book. These two men worked on different parts of the book and the second translator began where the first ended. According to Orlinsky, exegetes of the Septuagint (LXX) believe that they are studying the work and temperament of one man (Orlinsky, 90). Now, I will begin to delve into how the early books of the Bible were translated. Beginning with Genesis, many Hebrew scholars believe that this book was written by Moses. Without surmising if Moses is even a real person, the critical analysis of the translation of Hebrew words alone will make my point.

Linguistically , Hebrew words tend to translate in more than one meaning in the English and Greek since our knowledge of the language used to alter the Bible is limited, since all translations can have some level of error. The first word of interest, 'adam , has different meanings in the Old Testament versus today, and has very different ideations when translated from Hebrew to Greek to English. To critically analyze the Hebrew word 'adam, we will look into the book of Genesis, Chapter 3:22. In most Biblical text of Genesis Chapter 3:22, 'adam means humankind or groundling. "YHWH Elohim said here, the groundling has become as one of us knowing good and bad"(3:22). In this passage, the use of the word groundling instead of man, human kind, or Adam-and-Eve, presupposes that the writers had knowledge not previously indicated in earlier versions of text. Thus, the later revisions of the Bible and its exegesis are post-exillic. When comparing Genesis 3:22 with the first fall account, it is noticed that the Hebrew words adam and adama8 throughout certain translations of these two passages can be interpolated as identical, but misinterpreted definitions for humankind, and pointing towards the male figure .

Ish and isha are another set of Hebrew words that can easily be misinterpreted because of the multiple meanings in Hebrew. Ish, which in one Hebrew definition means man, and isha, which means woman, most likely had meaning to the early exegetes of the Hebrew and Greek language, but is lost in translation to the English language. Therefore, the uncertainty of these two words is left up to individual interpretation