Genesis, A Royal Epic. Loren R. Fisher
is told in order to meet all of the requirements for such a story. The burial at Machpelah is important, and the journey to the threshing floor of Atad is also important. It is the first part of the funeral ritual. It lasted for seven days (see 1 Sam 31:13). After these seven days the party went on to Machpelah. It would be impossible to deal with the historical situation behind this story. We do not know the route nor the place. But, from what we do know of funerals and rituals, these two parts form a complete story.
48. See Exod 13:19 and Josh 24:32.
49. On this subject see Miller, “The Mrzh Text”; and Dahood, “Additional Notes on the Mrzh Text.”
50. This is the text used for this translation of Genesis.
51. Braudel, The Mediterranean, vol. 1, 14. And more recently, Gilmore, ed., Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean; and Horden and Purcell, The Corrupting Sea: A Study of the Mediterranean.
52. If Genesis 28 is separated into the J and E sources and if “Yahweh” in 28:21b is seen as an addition, it is possible to see one God in the story, but that is not the way it stands in its present form. Also, for more examples of “gods,” see Gen 20:13, 17, 18; and 31:53.
53. There are so many things that one could say about this translation, and most of them will be mentioned in the notes. For example, most scholars translate the Hebrew waw conversive as a conjunction, and they run a lot of short sentences together with “and,” “then,” “but since,” and other interpretive words. I consider this to be possible, but it is misleading. This waw is a tense indicator, and in this translation it performs that function. Look at the difference between this translation and others in Gen 38:1–9. The other translations destroyed this fast moving narrative with its staccato statements. See Gordon, UT, §12.9, pp. 110 and 111.
54. Throughout the translation all additions to the text are put in brackets.
55. I have also used blocks of prose in the Joseph story, but I have done this to show that the Joseph story has been worked and reworked and is a refined story if we compare it to the earlier epic cycles. In chapters 18 and 39 in my novel, The Jerusalem Academy, I show how this material was edited by at least three persons. It is different from the earlier cycles, and it does not follow the Egyptian tradition of first person autobiographies but tells the story in the third person.
56. S1:G1–2 = Segment 1: Genesis §1 and 2.
Part I
Genesis 1:1—11:26
1:1 When Elohim first began to form1 the heavens and the earth,
2 The earth was devastation and desolation,2
Darkness was over [the] deep,3
The wind of Elohim was storming over the waters,4
3 Elohim said:
“Let there be light.”
There was light.
4 Elohim saw that the light was good.
Elohim divided between the light and between the darkness.
5 Elohim called the light day.
The darkness he called night.
There was evening.
There was morning:
Day one.5
6 Elohim said:
“Let there be a vault in the midst of the waters.
Let there be a division between waters and waters.”
7 Elohim made the vault.
He divided between the waters that were under the vault,
and between the waters that were above the vault.
So it was.6
8 Elohim called the vault heaven.
There was evening.
There was morning:
A second day.7
9 Elohim said:
“Let the waters under the heavens be pooled into one place.
Let the dry land appear.”
So it was.
10 Elohim called the dry land earth.
The pools8 of waters he called seas.
Elohim saw that it was good.
11 Elohim said:
“Let the earth produce vegetation
(plants that scatter seed, [and] fruit trees that bear fruit
of their kind in which is their seed)9 upon the earth.”
So it was.
12 The earth brought forth vegetation
(plants that scatter seed of their kind, and trees
that bear fruit in which is their seed of their kind).
Elohim saw that it was good.
13 There was evening.
There was morning:
A third day.
14 Elohim said:
“Let there be lights in the vault of the heavens
to divide between the day and between the night;
they will be for signs and seasons and for days and years;
15 they will be for lights in the vault of the heavens to give
light upon the earth.”
So it was.
16 Elohim made the two great lights,
the greater light to rule the day
and the lesser light to rule the night,
and the stars.
17 Elohim placed them in the vault of the heavens,
to give light upon the earth,
18 to rule in the day and in the night,
and to divide between the light and between the darkness.
Elohim saw that it was good.
19 There was evening.
There was morning:
A fourth day.
20 Elohim said:
“Let the waters swarm with swarms of living beings.
Let birds fly about—above the earth
and under the vault of the heavens.”
21 Elohim formed the great sea monsters,
and all the living beings—
the moving ones who swarmed in the waters—with their kind,
and all the birds of wing with their kind.
Elohim saw that it was good.
22 Elohim blessed them saying: