Genesis
(“The Beginning”)
Chapter I
(1) In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.
(2) Now, the earth was empty and void; darkness was upon the face of the Deep. [i]
And the Spirit of God was brought upon the waters; (3) and God spoke: “Let light be made.” [ii]
And light was made. (4) And God saw that light was good. And He drew apart the light from the darkness, (5) and He named the light “Day”; and the darkness “Night”.
And by dusk and dawn was the first day finished. [iii] [iv]
(6) And again God spoke: “Let a firmament be made amidst the waters, and divide the waters from the waters;” [v]
(7) And God did make the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament; and so it was done; (8) and God called the firmament “Heaven.”
And by dusk and dawn was the second day finished.
(9) But God spoke: “Let the waters which are under heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And so it was done.
(10) And God called the dry land “Earth;” and the gatherings of waters he called “Seas.” And God saw that it was good, (11) so He saith: “Let the earth bud forth the herb, growing green and bearing seed {after its kind and likeness}; and let there be the fruit-tree upon earth, bearing fruit whose seed is in itself, after its kind.” And so it was done. [vi] [vii]
(12) And the earth brought forth the green herb growing and scattering seed after its kind {and likeness}; and the tree bearing fruit, having each one its seed according to its {kind and} likeness. And God saw that it was good.
(13) And by dusk and dawn was the third day finished.
(14) And again God spoke: “Let there be luminaries made in the firmament of heaven, to set apart Day from Night; and to be for signs, and seasons, and days, and years: (15) so let them shine in heaven’s firmament, and illuminate the earth.” And so it was done.
(16) And God made two great luminaries: a greater light to rule over Day; and a lesser light to rule over Night, with the stars. (17) And He set them in the firmament of heaven, that they might shine upon the earth, (18) and rule over Day and Night; to set apart the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. [viii] [ix]
(19) And by dusk and dawn was the fourth day finished.
(20) Yet again, God spoke: “Let the waters produce the living soul that crawleth, and that flieth above the earth under heaven’s firmament.” [x] [xi]
(21) And God created the mighty sea monsters, and every soul that liveth and moveth, which the waters have produced in their kinds; and every flier according to its kind. And God saw that it was good; (22) and He blessed them saying: “Grow and be multiplied, and fill the waters of the sea; and let the birds be multiplied over the earth.” [xii] [xiii] [xiv]
(23) And by dusk and dawn was the fifth day finished.
(24) And again God spoke: “Let the earth produce the living soul in its kind: cattle and reptiles and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And so it was done.
(25) And God made the beasts of earth after their kinds, and the cattle; and every reptile of the earth in its kind. And God saw that it was good; (26) and He saith: “Let Us make Man to Our image and likeness, that they may rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fliers of heaven, and the beasts, and all of the earth; and over every reptile that crawleth on the earth.”
(27) And God created Man to His image; to the image of God He created them. The male and the female: God created them (28) and blessed them. And God saith to them: “Grow, and be multiplied, and fill the earth, and subdue it; ye have lordship over the fishes of the sea; and the fliers of heaven; and every one of the breathing souls which move upon the earth.” [xv] [xvi]
(29) And God spoke: “Behold, I have given you every herb scattering seed upon earth, and all of the trees that have in themselves the seeding of their kind; that they may be food for you, (30) and for the whole of the breathing souls of earth: to each bird of heaven; and to all things that move on the earth, in which also is the living soul; that they may have to eat.” And so it was done. [xvii]
(31) And the Lord saw the whole of what He had made: and it was very, very good. And by dusk and dawn was the sixth day finished.
Notes
(i) “the Deep”: Latin abyssus, Greek abyssos “abyss;” literally, “without bottom.” The sense seems to be that of an infinite ocean, so I have maintained the traditional rendering, only capitalising it to show that “abyssus” is the original.
(ii) ferebatur: “it was brought, moved, carried or created.” The sense is, not that the Spirit was just floating around above the water, but that God focused His Spirit on the waters, in preparation of affecting them.
(iii) “first day”: dies unus in Latin, which is properly “one day.” However the following numbers are ordinals, and it makes more sense. On the other hand, it could be seen as “Day 1.”
(iv) “by dusk and dawn”: Literally, by means of evening and morning; the sense would be that God finished the work represented by the day, which is stylistically closed with this formula. Note that it cannot be a “literal day” as there is no Sun yet to mark morning/dawn and evening/dusk – it is just stylistic.
(v) “firmament”: Or “foundation.” This refers to the ancient belief that the universe was a sphere, with the round Earth in the centre and concentric layers around it, each holding a planet (which included the Moon and Sun); the outermost layer was the firmament, the “shell” of the universe. It is not clear what is here meant by water “outside the firmament;” perhaps, as water here represents Chaos, the raw stuff of matter, it represents the “outer void,” the primal, abyssal ocean, with Creation conceived as an island of order set apart by God
(vi) The braces {} represent words present in the Greek not present in Jerome’s Latin. I do not promise to always include the Greek, as I consult the Greek texts only when I am unsure of the sense of the Vulgate.
(vii) “kind and likeness”: Jerome switches between genus – “race, kind, kindred, family” – and species – “appearance, type” – seemingly at random, and I have adhered more to the Greek text, giving “kind” for genos/genus and “likeness” for the Greek “homoiotes”.
(viii) “a greater light” Jerome uses “luminary” throughout, but I felt it read better this way.
(ix) “He set them in the firmament”: ponere “to set, place, fix.” Recall that the firmament is solid. God is being pictured as attaching the Sun, Moon and stars to the “ceiling” of heaven like light fixtures.
(x) “living soul”: anima vivens
(xi) “that creepeth”: reptilis. I have rather freely translated this as “creeping” etc. and as “reptile” as I felt suitable.
(xii) “mighty sea monsters”: cete grandia. I recall this translated as “great whales,” and while not wrong I don’t think it renders justice to the meaning. Large sea creatures would be a lot more awesome to Bronze Age sailors in a fragile galley, and I wanted to capture that.
(xiii) “fliers”: for volatilis. Jerome uses this, volucris, and avis; and I don’t know what difference he saw in them. So for “volatilis” I use “flier” and for the other two “bird.”
(xiv) “grow”: for crescite. St. Irenaeus interprets this as “grow up,” i.e. “become mature and then multiply;” and I choose to give a rendering that could support that.
(xv) “have lordship”: dominamini. The Latin word refers back to domus, “home.” Since the Latin descendants “dominate” and “dominion” have negative implications, I judged it better to stick to an English term that implies a mutual bond between the human and the animal, reflecting the humans’ position as master and mistress of the “house” of creation.
(xvi) “breathing soul”: animans Translating this was tricky. Literally it is “breathing,” or “having a soul,” but used as a noun. I settled on “breathing soul” as showing the connexion between breath, natural life, and the soul.
(xvii) “scattering seed”: adferentam, to carry to or about; “bringing forth” would not be wrong, but the Greek has “sowing seed,” so “scattering” seemed more appropriate.