Genesis 1:1–2:3

By Rev. J. Scott Lindsay

Pastor of South Baton Rouge Presbyterian Church (PCA),
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

誠之譯

Imagine that you one day pick up a book on the history of baseball, and after settling into your favorite chair with your favorite latte, tea, or some other drink, you then open your book to page 1 and begin reading. After a few minutes, you flip a page, and then another, and then another, only to discover that at the top of the next new page, in bold letters, it says CHAPTER ONE. And then the opening line reads, "This is the story of how baseball began."
想象有一天你拾起一本有關棒球歷史的書，布置好你最喜歡的椅子，和最喜歡的香濃咖啡或其他的飲料，然後打開第一頁，開始閱讀。經過幾分鐘，你翻開一頁又一頁，只發現你翻到的下一頁的頁頂，用黑體字寫着：“第一章”，然後第一行字寫着：“棒球的故事是這麼開始的”。

And at that you pause. You flip back through what you have already read and ask yourself, "Wait a minute. If this says it is chapter one, if this page is acting like it is the beginning — what were all these previous pages about, which were also saying a lot of introductory kinds of things about baseball? I didn't see anything that said ‘Preface,’ or ‘Introduction,’ or anything like that.” And so you wonder how the pages you just read relate to the ones you are about to read.
看到這裡，你停了下來。你翻回去前面你讀過的，然後問你自己，“且慢，如果這裡說這是第一章，如果這頁說這是起頭──那麼前面這幾頁是作什麼的？它們也講了很多介紹棒球的東西啊！我沒有看到哪裡有說‘前言’，或‘簡介’，或任何相似的字眼。”然後，你會懷疑你剛剛讀過的那幾頁與你下面將要讀的有什麼關係。

That admittedly hypothetical experience is not that far removed from what happens when a person sits down to start reading through the book of Genesis. You begin reading in the opening chapter, a section that talks about all kinds of introductory things, and then in chapter 2 verse 4, you come across words that say, "This is the account of the heavens and earth when they were created."
這個假設的經驗與一個人開始坐下來閱讀創世記並沒有太大的差別。你剛讀完開頭的章節，談到各種介紹性質的事情，然後到第二章第四節，你看到下列的字眼：“創造天地的來歷，在耶和華 神造天地的日子，乃是這樣。”

And immediately, upon reading that, you have to ask yourself, "What have I been reading? If chapter 2 is the account of the creation of the heavens and earth, what is chapter 1?” Well, in much the same way that a preface functions in most books, so too does Genesis 1:1-2:3 function as a kind of "preface" or, as Bible scholars like to say, "prologue" to the rest of Genesis.
一旦看到這裡，你必須問你自己：“我剛才讀的都是些什麼？如果第二章是天地創造的紀載，那麼，第一章是什麼？”正如很多書籍的序言的功能一樣，創世記1：1到2：3也有類似的作用，聖經學者喜歡說它是創世記其他部分的“開場白”（prologue）。

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I was younger, in high school and college, and I was required to read certain books, I would almost never read things like prefaces and forwards and introductions. Instead, I’d skip straight to the first chapter. For me, the crucial aspect of reading a book was to read only what was required, and nothing more. And that meant reading the main pages and skipping all the other bits and pieces.
雖然，我不認識你。但是當我年輕的時候，在高中或大學，我被要求讀一些書籍。我幾乎從來不讀像前言或序言一類的東西，我會直接跳到第一章。對我來說，讀一本書最緊要的是只讀必須讀的部份，不多不少。意思就是說，只閱讀主要的部份，跳過其他的細節。

However, over the years, I have discovered that this approach to book reading was probably making things a lot more difficult for me than they needed to be. Because I can tell you now, after reading my fair share of books, that often the most helpful thing I have done in reading a particular book is to read the introduction or forward. This is because, more often than not, in these opening sections the author gives the reader a certain framework or perspective on the rest of the book — or at least a helpful insider’s tip on how to read the rest of the book. And often these things prove to be quite useful in making sense of the flow and argument, and how one chapter relates to the next, etc.
然而，經過這麼多年，我發現這種方法可能會使閱讀更加困難。因為我現在在讀了不少書之後可以告訴你，通常最能幫助我閱讀一本書的，是它的前言或序言。這是因為在這些開頭的段落，作者會給讀者這本書其餘部分的某種架構──或者至少是一些閱讀其餘部分的一些秘訣。通常這些介紹會相當有幫助，會幫助我們理解情節和論證，和每一章之間的關係等等。

Well, while the parallels are not exact, the Genesis prologue bears some of the same characteristics as a preface, and serves some of the same purposes. It provides us with a true perspective and a helpful framework for understanding the rest of the Genesis account, and indeed the rest of the Bible. And so it is that we will be concentrating upon the opening section of the book of Genesis, specifically Genesis 1:1–2:3.
嗯，當然，這樣的對比並不準確。創世記的開場白包含一些作為序言的特徵，或有相同的目的。它提供我們真正的觀點和有幫助的架構，來理解創世記中其他的段落，事實上包括聖經其他的部分。基於此，我們會專注於創世記這段開頭的章節，特別是創世記1：1-2：3。

Now, as I’ve just said, one way of understanding this section is to see it as a kind of preface or prologue to the rest of Genesis. Another way to see this section is to view it from the perspective of an Artist who, before he paints, has to stretch and prepare a canvas upon which his art will be displayed. In a similar fashion, in these opening words, we see a de????ion of God doing just that: preparing the canvas upon which he will paint a picture called "redemption," and through which he will demonstrate his glory and goodness and love.
好，如同我剛才說的，理解這個段落的一個方法是把它當作創世記的序言或開場白。另外一個方法是用一個藝術家的角度來看。在他繪畫之前，必須張開將來要展示的畫布。類似的方式，在這些開頭的話語，我們看到上帝的一段敘述，他在作的正是：“準備畫布，要在這個畫布上畫一幅稱為‘救贖’的畫，透過救贖，他要展現他的榮耀、良善和愛”。

One final metaphor may help: think of this opening section as perhaps the opening act in a great drama in which the scenery is laid out, the stage is set up, the main characters are introduced and take their places, and some basic facts are given. These details form the foundation for the story that God is about to unfold, which is the story of the world and its inhabitants in relation to their Creator.
最後一個象徵可能也有幫助：把這個開頭的段落視為一出偉大戲劇開頭的場景。在這個場景中，布景被安排好了，舞台被架設起來，主要角色被介紹、安放在適當的位置，一些基本的事實也給了出來。這些細節形成這個故事的基礎，上帝即將要展開的，是有關此世界和其居民，與他們的創造者之間的關係的故事。

All of these images — a preface, a prepared canvas, the opening scene and setting for a great drama — all of these provide some useful ways for thinking about and approaching these very important words from the Creator to the human beings who are the crown of his creation.
所有的這些景象──前言，一張準備好的畫布，一出偉大戲劇開頭的場景和布置──都提供一些有益的方式，幫助我們思想和接觸這些造物主向人類說的非常重要的話語，而人類是他在造物中的冠冕。

Now, as you are reading through this prologue, in English, and without any background info about Mesopotamian Culture, or Canaanite religions, etc., some of the important subtleties of this passage will not be apparent to you. For example, something that has been noted by a Jewish scholar named Cassuto is the way that the number seven, or perhaps we should say the concept of seven, figures into the Hebrew structure and content of this passage. Seven is important because it is the Hebrew number symbolizing completeness and perfection. So, by way of illustration, Cassuto notes that:
當你用中文閱讀這段開場白，如果你沒有任何有關美索不達米亞文化或迦南宗教等等的背景資料，這個段落中一些很重要的精妙之處，對你來說就不會很明顯。例如，一個名為卡斯托（Cassuto）的猶太學者所注意到的一些事情是，數字“七”，或者我們應該說七的“概念” ，把希伯來文化結構和內容圖像式地帶入這個段落中。七的重要性是因為這是希伯來文代表完全和完美的數字。如此，透過實例解說， 卡斯托注意到：

1. In Hebrew the passage contains seven paragraphs.
2. Certain words appear with great frequency, like “God,” “earth” and “heaven,” but the number of each one is a multiple of seven.
3. Certain phrases appear seven times throughout the passage, including the phrase "it was good," concluding with the qualified, "it was very good."
4. There are seven references to "light" in the fourth Hebrew paragraph, seven references to water in second and third paragraphs.
5. The first sentence in verse 1 has seven words in Hebrew. Similarly, the last/seventh paragraph consists of three sentences of seven words each, and in the middle of each of these seven-word sentences is the expression "the seventh day."

1. 在希伯來文中，這個段落包含七個小分段。
2. 一些字出現的頻率很高，如“上帝”、“地”和“天”，但是這些字出現的次數都是七的倍數。
3. 一些片語在整個段落中出現七次，包括“神看着是好的”，和合格的結論的“一切所造的都甚好”。
4. 在第四段中，提到七次“光”，在第二和第三段中提到七次“水”。
5. 第一節的第一個句子有七個希伯來字。同樣地，最後╱第七個段落包括三個句子，每個句子由七個字組成，在這些由七個字組成的句子中，中間的字都是“第七日”。

And there are many more of these sorts of things in the passage. So what does this tell us? Well, it's not saying that there is anything magical or deeply mysterious here about the number seven. But as Cassuto points out, the overwhelming presence of this "seven-based" structural element in the passage cannot possibly be a coincidence. It points to very deliberate structure, and indicate that we are looking at a highly stylized piece of literature. The symbolism attached to the number seven (perfection and completeness), and the overwhelming presence of that symbol within this passage, shows that one of the strong purposes of this section is to underscore the perfection and completeness of all that the Creator God has done. Further, this kind of structure and pattern lends itself to another purpose, which we'll see in a moment. But first, let us consider a couple other aspects of this passage.
在這個段落中還有更多這類的東西。那麼，這告訴我們什麼呢？這不是說關於七這個數字，有什麼魔術或特別神秘。但是，如同卡斯托指出的，這段經文很明顯的“七”的結構元素，不可能只是湊巧。它指出一個非常蓄意的結構，表明我們所閱讀的是一個高度格式化的文學作品。七這個數字所代表的（完美和完全），以及這段經文所明顯出現的這個記號，顯示這個段落其中一個很強烈的目的是為了強調造物主上帝所完成的一切都是完美和完全的。其次，這種結構和模式也有其他目的，是我們待會要看到的，要讓我們考慮這段經文中其他的觀點。

A second element that may not be as evident to the reader is the manner in which the account seems quite deliberately to address all the main figures/elements associated with the religious beliefs of the pagan nations surrounding the people of Israel. Why is this important?
讀者會注意到的第二個明顯的元素，是這個紀錄的手法似乎故意要提到圍繞着以色列百姓的異教國家，他們的宗教信仰的一些主要的角色╱元素。這為什麼很重要？

Well, imagine, for example, that a man wants to take his son camping, but his son has never been camping before. When he introduces the idea to his son, he is surprised to discover that, instead of being excited about the prospect of going camping, his son becomes nervous and worried. And so the father talks to him about it and discovers, after some discussion, the source of his son’s nervousness. Apparently, the boy has been watching a great deal of The Crocodile Hunter and similar shows, and his active imagination has him convinced that if he ventures out into the woods, he may become the victim of the sorts of nasty beasts he has seen on the TV show each week, such as snakes, bears, and stinging bugs.
嗯，想象一下，例如，一個男人想帶他的兒子出去露營，但是他的兒子從來沒有露營過。當他把這個想法告訴他的兒子時，他驚訝地發現，他的兒子不是很興奮，反而變得很緊張和憂慮。所以，父親對他提到這個，經過一些討論也發現他的兒子所以緊張的原因。很顯然地，這個男孩看了很多“鱷魚獵人”和類似的節目，而他積極的想象使他相信他在森林中，可能成為一些他在每個禮拜的電視節目中看到的可怕的怪獸，如蛇、熊和會螫人的蟲子的犧牲品。

And so the father, aware of his son's concerns and doubts, proceeds to tell him the story of how one time he actually caught and killed a snake, or the story of how on another occasion he went on a camping trip and scared away a ferocious bear, or about the special spray that he has that keeps stinging bugs away. In short, the father demonstrates to his son that he/they are superior to anything that the boy might be worried about, and so the boy's fears are alleviated and he begins to get excited about the trip.
所以這個父親覺察到他的兒子所擔心的，他告訴兒子，他曾經有一次如何真的抓到、並且殺了一條蛇，或者是另外一次他在一次露營中嚇走了一頭兇猛的熊，或者關於他有一種特殊噴灑液，可以趕走螫人的蟲子。簡單地說，父親向他的兒子顯示，他╱他們比這個男孩所擔心的任何事都要高明，所以男孩的恐懼被去除了，他也開始對這趟旅行感到興奮。

In a similar fashion, the prologue to Genesis systematically presents the Creator God in a similar light, but in an even more dramatic fashion. That is, the Genesis prologue does not show God as being superior over against a pantheon of lesser gods, it shows him, in actual fact, as the only God. Further, it shows this one and only God over against all those beings/forces which the pagans all around considered to be gods, but which the prologue reveals quite clearly to be creatures made by the one and only God. They have no power over God, and are completely under the authority and rule of the Creator.
按照這個類似的方式，創世記的開場白，系統性地呈現了造物主上帝類似的提示，但是以一個更戲劇化的方式。也就是說，創世記開場白並沒有顯示上帝只比此神的諸神高明，而是顯示，在真正的事實上，祂是唯一的神。再者，它也顯示這個獨一的上帝，反對圍繞着希伯來人的異教徒認為是神的一切存在╱力量。這個開場白所相當清楚揭示的，是這些所謂的神也是獨一上帝所造的。他們對神是沒有能力的，也完全伏在造物主的權柄和統治之下。

And so, when you look at Canaanite, Babylonian, Mesopotamian and other pagan religious systems, you find such divinities as the sun, the moon, the stars, the oceans, sea creatures, light, darkness, various beasts and birds, and even Chaos. In short, you find all the elements which appear in the creation account, and which God is clearly sovereign over.
因此，如果你看看迦南，巴比倫，美索不達米亞和其他異教的宗教系統，你會發現像太陽、月亮、星星、海洋、海中生物、光、暗、各種走獸和飛鳥，甚至混沌（Chaos）這些神祗。簡而言之，你發現出現在創世記紀錄中的這些元素，上帝清楚地掌管着它們。

This may explain, for example, why Moses does not call the sun and moon by their names, but simply refers to them as "greater lights" and "lesser lights." He wants so much to show the superiority of God and the corresponding nothingness of these pagan deities, that he refuses even to use their names. In a related fashion, this is probably why verse 21 speaks of the unnamed “great sea creatures,” which played such a prominent role in pagan religion.
這可以解釋，例如，為何摩西沒有按日和月的名字稱呼它們，而是簡單地指它們為“大光”和“小光”。他想要證明上帝的優越性，來對比異教神祗的虛無，因此他甚至拒絕使用它們的名字。相關的方式，這個可能是第21節，提到海中沒有名字的“大魚”，它在外邦宗教中扮演很重要的角色。

And again, why would this be important? You have to keep in mind the context, and in particular the people who first received these written accounts. Who were they? They were the people of God who stood poised on the edge of the Promised Land. Moses was urging them to trust God and to enter the Land in faith, and not to fear the peoples before them or their so-called “gods.” For those people at that time, receiving this creation account would have reminded them again of the strength and power of their God, and of the nothingness of those around them.
同時，再一次，為什麼這個很重要？你需要記得當時的處境，特別是那批第一次接受到這些寫下來的記載的百姓。他們是誰？他們是上帝的子民，猶豫不決地站在應許之地的邊緣。摩西正催促他們要相信上帝，用信心進入那地，不必懼怕在他們前面的人，或他們所謂的“神”。對當時的百姓，接受了這個創世的記載，會再次提醒他們，他們的上帝的力量和權能，以及在他們周圍的其他的神的虛無。

A third characteristic of this opening prologue is the highly structured and highly repetitive nature of the whole thing. For example, there is the sequence of days. Just the presence of a sequence — any sequence, whether it is “A – B – C” or “1 – 2 – 3,” makes a thing more memorable and impacting. Here you have a sequence of a week — a creation week — that gives a memorable shape to the account.
這段開場白的第三個特質是高度結構化和整件事高度重複的本質。例如，有“日子”的順序。正如其他的順序──任何順序，無論它是“A-B-C”，或者是“1-2-3”，會使事情比較容易記，也更有影響力。這裡你有一個一周的次序──一個創造的星期──為這段記載提供一個可以記憶的形狀。

Then there is the repetition of phrases like "and God said," "morning and evening,” “the [ordinal] day,” etc. And of course, there is the phrase, as we have already seen, "and God saw that it was good." These appear with great regularity.
然後，有重複的片語，如“神說”，“有晚上，有早晨”，“第（）天”等等。當然，也有這個片語，我們已經看過的，是“神看着是好的”。這些都很有規律地出現。

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