GENESIS 1-2:
The first five books of the Bible are the Jewish Torah, and the Bible refers to them collectively as ‘the Law’. Many other books in the Bible attribute the authorship of these five books to Moses. Genesis is the foundational book of the whole Bible. When we were in our first Bible translation project among the Orya tribe in Papua, Indonesia, I witnessed how getting a little detail of the foundation wrong (such as, how the first sin happened) can wreck the whole building that is being constructed. This book of Genesis tells us what God wants us to know about the beginning of our world, the beginning of sin, mankind’s rebellion against God, and who God and Satan are.
NET Footnotes for special mention:
Gen. 1:14 footnote for signs: The Hebrews word for ‘seasons’ is often used for religious celebrations in the OT. Some translations make that explicit. It is interesting to me that right from the beginning (if this is a correct implication), God was planning for man to worship Him.
2:8 See the note on the meaning of Eden.
2:17 you shall surely die.
2:18 There is a hugely important footnote on the meaning of ‘companion’. The translation of ‘companion’ for the position of the man’s wife seems to me much better than the traditional translation of ‘helpmeet/helper’. But I am not so sure that I like the other main word in that phrase: ‘corresponds to him’. I would like to suggest that some of you look at this, and let’s make a thread in the Digging Deeper Facebook group that has Genesis 2:18 in the text, so we can be searched for.
2:24 The last footnote is interesting on the translation of “unites with his wife, and they become a new family.” I prefer the NLT on this verse.
NET Translation notes:
Gen. 1:5 …[Evening came, marking the end of the first day, and then the morning of a new day dawned. //There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day.]
[Similarly in verse 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31.]
2:5 Now [there was a time when] no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
2:19 "The LORD God [had] formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name."
Gen. 2:24 [NLT This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.//NET That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family.]
JOB 1:
Job was probably penned first, before all the other books of the OT, so it makes good sense to start our daily poetry readings here. Job probably lived sometime around the time of the patriarch Abraham. Amazingly for such an early book, we find established religious practices and beliefs, excellent poetry, well-developed mythology, and very sophisticated philosophy. One would expect an early book to end with a neat answer that sums up the author’s opinion. Or one would expect an early author to create a debate where the hero is totally right and the other speakers are clearly wrong. Instead, all the human speakers in the book of Job mix truth and error. And it is a mark of inspiration that in the end, the book of Job leaves us still searching for some answers.
NET Footnotes to note:
Job 1:6 There is a footnote about ‘the sons of God’. These would include those spirit beings I just mentioned.
NET Translation notes:
Job. 1:20 Then Job got up and tore his robe [to show his sorrow]. He shaved his head, and then he threw himself down with his face to the ground.
21 [NLT96 “I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be stripped of everything when I die [and return to the earth]. //NET He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there.] …
MARK 1a:
I will give introductory information about Mark’s Gospel in the next episode.
NET Translation notes:
*Mrk. 1:1 [The following is the Good News about Christ Jesus, God’s Son.//The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.]
[In my little tweaks to any translation I read in these podcasts, I note these tweaks with brackets. I always will put the way I modified the text first in the bracket, and after two slash marks, give the text found in the NET.
The order in Greek here is ‘Jesus Christ’, and sometimes the Greek puts the order the other way around. I will consistently read ‘Christ Jesus’. Here is the reason I do this: Although it has become common for us to say ‘Jesus Christ’ (like in the Greek), that is backwards according to the rules of English grammar. ‘Christ’ is a title. And in English, titles (such as president, doctor, or ambassador) always come first. The reason why I point this out is this: I have found people who think that ‘Christ’ is Jesus’ last name. The title ‘Christ’ (from Greek) means exactly the same thing as Messiah (from Hebrew). Both mean ‘anointed one’.]
2 [The story of his coming begins just like the Prophet Yesayah foretold. Isaiah wrote God's promise to His Son,//As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,] …
[You will notice that I read many Bible names in a strange way. I read them with a more phonetic pronunciation— which in fact, is more like how the Indonesian language and other languages pronounce them. This allows me to be more consistent in my pronunciation, and it also happens to be more like the Hebrew and Greek pronunciations. English pronunciations for some names is quite far from the source language pronunciations. An example from today is the name Isaiah, which I pronounce as ‘Yesayah’.]
3 [He will raise his voice and shout// the voice of one shouting] in the wilderness,
‘ Prepare the way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.’
4 [After many years, the messenger that God promised came to the wilderness. His name was John. He preached to the people who came to him, “Stop sinning, so that God will forgive you! If you are sincere about following the Lord, come and let me baptize* you.”//In the wilderness John the baptizer began preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.]
[Verse 4 is probably the hardest verse in this Gospel to translate. It is a famous Bible translation example. The literal form given in the NET could easily give the impression that our forgiveness happens because of being baptized. John was telling the people to repent (meaning to turn away from sinning), and it was that repentance that would bring God’s forgiveness. The baptism was a sign that the people would do, in effect saying, “Please wash me of my sins. I am serious about following the Lord.”
Baptize is a word that is borrowed directly from the Greek language. It means to dip or put something into water for a moment. Before John the Baptist began his ministry, there were already some Jewish groups who performed baptism as a ritual cleansing symbolizing their desire for God to cleanse them from sin. For we Christians, baptism has the same meaning, but is given a new and deeper meaning.
First, baptism is a sign the we have decided to follow Jesus for as long as we live. Because Jesus has already cleansed us from sin, baptism also shows that we will continue to live free from sin and according to the will of God. And the deeper meaning of baptism is that in a spiritual sense, we have been buried with Jesus and already have been brought back to life with Jesus. It means that we now live a new life. See Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:26-28; Col. 2:12-13. Mark 7:4 shows that ‘baptism’ (translated as ‘washing’) was probably not always done by immersion— at least for the objects listed.]
6 [JOT John’s lifestyle marked him as a prophet. He wore rough clothes made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he often ate locusts and wild honey.//John wore a garment made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.]
7 He proclaimed, “One more powerful than I am is coming after me; I am not worthy [to act like his servant, bending and untying//to bend down and untie the strap of his sandals.]
14 Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the [Good News from//gospel of] God."
17 [JOT Then Jesus said to them, “Come and follow Me. Instead of netting fish, I’ll teach you to net and lead people.”//NET Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people.”
22 The people there were amazed by his teaching, because he taught them like one who [has//had] authority, not like the experts in the law.
27 [The people there//They] were all amazed so that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
The Scriptures quoted in the NE series podcasts are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.org copyright ©1996-2016 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
To find complete information about the Daily Bible Reading Podcasts, see dailybiblereading.info.
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