13. Problems from the beginning – the very beginning. The creation story translated directly from Hebrew Texts gives Genesis a whole new meaning.
The first verse of the King James Version of the bible reads, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. The original Hebrew does not contain the definite article the, and pluralizes heaven to heavens. It also includes when correctly translated into English the word had and thus the verse should read, “In a beginning God had created the heavens and the earth”. This translation contains several implications when applied to the verses which follow, since it clearly states that the earth and indeed the universe had been created at an earlier time. Whether the translators of the KJV deliberately altered the meaning or translated it thus out of a lack of knowledge of Hebrew is a matter of speculation.
The same cannot be said of the second verse of Genesis, which refers in the KJV to the earth being “without form and void” a reflection of Calvinist views of the earth being chaotic and shapeless. The Hebrew word translated as meaning without form is tohu, which does not mean what the KJV states it means, but rather refers to consequences, as in the consequences for sin. A word for word translation from Hebrew into English changes the verse to read, “And the earth had become waste and empty; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The basis of the mistranslation of the second verse was based largely on the mistranslation of the first verse of Genesis.