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A Study on the Korean Translation of Gen 5:1-3 and its Function

KyeSang Ha 1

1삼육대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Genesis 5:1-3 is, for the most part, essentially an echo of Genesis 1:26-28. As if never percieving it, however, the Korean versions of the Bible undesirably render Genesis 5:1-3, and there is no consistency in the translations. So this paper first aims to correct the undesirable renderings in the Korean versions, to give consistency to the translations, and also to correct the renderings of Genesis 1:26a, 27 in the process of this research. In light of the Hebrew text in the BHS (Biblia hebraica stuttgartensia), I proceeded with this study specifically by paying attention to the translation of ~l,c,. (“image”) and tWmדְּ (“likeness”), בְּ (“in”) and כְּ (“after, according to”), and hf'[' (“make”) and ar'B' (“create”), and also to the consistency of their respective translations. The second goal of this study is to perceive the function of Genesis 5:1-3 in consideration of its continuity and discontinuity with Genesis 1:26a, 27. I proceeded with this research from a synchronic/literary perspective, with Genesis 1:26a, 27 and 5:1-3 as the texts in their final form, and a detailed exegesis of the texts was excluded. As the result of this research, I pointed out up to eight kinds of unsatisfactory renderings in Genesis 1:26a, 27 and 5:1-3 occurring in six Korean versions of the Bible, which are related to the translation of ~l,c,. and tWmדְּ, בְּ and כְּ, and hf'[' and ar'B', to the consistency in translations, and to the literary aspects of parallelism and chiasm. As for the understanding of the function of Genesis 5:1-3, both perceiving its close relationship with Genesis 1:26a, 27 and understanding the nature of the relationship are needed, as is clearly shown in the exquisite structures made by ~l,c,. and tWmדְּ, by בְּ and כְּ coupled with ~l,c,. and tWmדְּ, and by hf'[' and ar'B'. The chiastic structure that ~l,c,. and tWmדְּ in Genesis 1:26a, 27 and 5:1, 3 make, however, hints at the latter’s continuity and discontinuity with the former. The discontinuity is that the image of God is almost lost through the Fall, and the continuity is that the trace of the image still remains in humans, and the basis for the discontinuity lies in Genesis 5:3 and the following verses of Genesis 5. Not only God’s creating mankind male and female, but also His blessing them, points to the basic theme of Genesis 5 as procreation, because the calling of Adam as “their name” (5:2) connotes the role of Adam to beget “in his likeness, according to his image” and to call “his name Seth” (5:3). Adam’s activities of procreation and naming are in the same vein with God’s activities of making mankind “in the likeness of God” when He created them (5:1b-2). In spite of this continuity, discontinuity also appears in Genesis 5:3, which is already hinted at in that Genesis 5:1b-2 seems to delimit itself as an independent pericope by the chiastic correspondence of its beginning to its end. As the name “Seth” itself in Genesis 5:3 hints at death because of his being named in relation to Abel’s death by Cain, the discontinuity is the ‘death of mankind created in the image of God’ as the consequence of Adam’s Fall. The discontinuity begins to be made clear in the record of Genesis 5 that “Adam ... died” (5:4-5) and is made very clear in the death of his son Seth (5:8) and of all his succeeding descendants. Last but not least is the significance of Genesis 5, which is revealed in the following broader context of Genesis—more specifically in the structural and thematic correspondence of the Genesis record of Noah with that of Abraham, and the similarity of Genesis 5:32 to 11:26. Just as Noah is the remnant (7:23b) who opens the history of the ‘New World,’ having come from the corrupt ‘Old World,’ so Abraham is the remnant who opens the history of the new people Israel (cf. 12:1-5), having come from the rebellious nations. Especially Genesis 5:32 which is connected through Shem with the chronogenealogy of Genesis 11:10-26, links the antediluvian history to the postdiluvian history, and ultimately to Abraham (cf. 11:26-12:5), and thus provides the basis on which the history of the new people Israel can be unfolded. Therefore, the chronogenealogy of Genesis 5 is a foundation for the conclusion that the theme of Genesis is the genesis of Israel, an instrument of God in His economy of redemption, to restore the imago Dei to mankind.

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