At the Start...Genesis Made New

By Anonymous

Book Overview

A groundbreaking and startling new translation of the Book of Genesis evokes the earthy, rough, and primitive ambience of the Hebrew original, showing how Adam is neither man nor woman but... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385471807
• ISBN13: 9780385471800
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 237 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful poetic work

I stumbled across this translation from a recent radio show broadcast, which included an interview with the author, Mary Phil Korsak, in which she read a short excerpt from this work. I was immediately taken with its incredible lyrical beauty. In the interview, Ms. Korsak speaks of translating the Hebrew text over a nine year period, word for word; that is, one English word for every one Hebrew word. As a result, we are presented with less of an English-styled poetic narrative, but a more distinct and much more eloquent narrative poem with the rhythms and linguistic stylings, and, in my opinion, much more deeply personal and emotional experience, of the original Hebrew texts and oral traditions. This translation, more than any other Biblical translation I have found, is not just for adherents or devotees of the Abrahamic religions who look for truth in these pages, but for ALL lovers of poetry who long to experience pure beauty in written or spoken word, regardless of religious affiliation. The only regret would be that there is not a complete translation of the Bible (or Tanak), done in the same manner, by this wonderful author, to look forward to. I cannot recommend this work highly enough.

Best Genesis Translation in Print

Notwithstanding the rave and undeserved reviews behind the GENESIS translations of others, e.g. Stephen Mitchell, or Robert Alter, there is one version that stands above the pack...and that is the one by Mary Phil Korsak. This is the first time that anyone has actually tried to do a literal translation so that we can hear Genesis as it was told "round the desert campfire" thousands of years ago. When the Biblical author calls God "Elohim" we hear that. When the author calls God Yahwe, we hear that too. I will not do an analysis of the stories of Genesis without first consulting this outstanding work because it gives me a handle how the Biblical Israelites thought. Therefore, when Noah brings his wife to the ark, we hear it in the original patriarchal language..."You shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your woman, your sons' women with you, of all that lives, of all flesh." Mary Phil Korsak rejects the idea that Eve was merely a rib of Adam but instead translates Eve as Adam's side. "He took one of its sides and closed up the flesh in its place. YHWH Elohim built the side he had taken from the grounding into woman." Therefore, man does not exist without woman, and woman does not exist before man...they are equal in the eyes of the Lord. This translation sounds differently from the King James or others because of its effort to be literal. At least, today, we have a translation that serves this function. Outstanding job.