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Composition

創作

Title and textual witnesses

標題和文本證據

Genesis takes its Hebrew title from the first word of the first sentence, Bereshit, meaning "In the beginning [of]"; in the Greek Septuagint it was called Genesis, from the phrase "the generations of heaven and earth". There are four major textual witnesses to the book: the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and fragments of Genesis found at Qumran. The Qumran group provides the oldest manuscripts but covers only a small proportion of the book; in general, the Masoretic Text is well preserved and reliable, but there are many individual instances where the other versions preserve a superior reading.

希伯來版本的標題是從它的第一個句子的第一個字Bereshit而來，意思是「一切(的)開始」。在希臘的七十士譯本中，它被稱為Genesis，來自於「天地的世代」這一詞語。這本書有四個主要的文本證據：馬索拉經文、撒馬利亞五經、七十士譯本，以及在昆蘭發現的創世紀的殘頁。昆蘭的殘頁提供的是最古老的手稿，但卻只涵蓋了書中的一小部分。整體而言，馬索拉經文的保存最為完好且內容可靠，但在許多個別的情況之下，其他版本的保留更易閱讀。

Origins

起源

For much of the 20th century most scholars agreed that the five books of the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—came from four sources, the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source, each telling the same basic story, and joined together by various editors. Since the 1970s there has been a revolution in scholarship: the Elohist source is now widely regarded as no more than a variation on the Yahwist, while the Priestly source is increasingly seen not as a document but as a body of revisions and expansions to the Yahwist (or "non-Priestly") material. (The Deuteronomistic source does not appear in Genesis.)

普遍在20世紀時期，大多數的學者認為五經，即創世紀、出埃及記、利未記、民數記和申命記，是從耶和華文獻、伊羅興文獻、申命記文獻和祭司文獻這四個來源而來。每個來源都講著一個相同的基礎故事，而由不同的編輯者將它們組合起來。自1970年代以來，學術界出現了一場變革。現在普遍認為伊羅興文獻只不過是一種對耶和華文獻的改動，而祭司文獻則越來越不被視為文獻，而是對耶和華文獻(或「非祭司」)的修訂和擴充。（而申命記文獻則沒有出現在創世紀之中。）

Examples of repeated and duplicate stories are used to identify the separate sources. In Genesis these include three different accounts of a Patriarch claiming that his wife was his sister, the two creation stories, and the two versions of Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert.

多次重複與複製的故事代表著不同來源的例子。在創世記中，這些包括三個不同的族長聲稱他的妻子是他的姊妹、兩個創世的故事，以及對於亞伯拉罕將夏甲和以實瑪利送入沙漠的故事有兩個版本。

This leaves the question of when these works were created. Scholars in the first half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that the Yahwist was produced in the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, 10th century BC, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (the author was even identified as Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist was written either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after.

這卻留下了一個問題，即這些作品是什麼時候創作的。20世紀上半葉的學者們得出的結論是，耶和華文獻是在君主制時期產生的，特別是在所羅門時期、西元前10世紀，而祭司文獻則是在西元前5世紀中葉（作者甚至被指認為是以斯拉），但是最近的想法是，耶和華文獻是寫於西元前6世紀巴比倫之囚之前或期間，而祭司文獻的最終板是創作於巴比倫之囚期間或不久之後。

As for why the book was created, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial is "Persian imperial authorisation". This proposes that the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire, after their conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. The two powerful groups making up the community—the priestly families who controlled the Temple and who traced their origin to Moses and the wilderness wanderings, and the major landowning families who made up the "elders" and who traced their own origins to Abraham, who had "given" them the land—were in conflict over many issues, and each had its own "history of origins", but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.

至於為什麼要創作這本書，有一個雖然存在爭議，但也引起相當大興趣的理論是「波斯帝國的授權」。這個理論提出當波斯的阿契美尼德帝國在西元前 539 年征服巴比倫後，同意在帝國內給予耶路撒冷比較大的地方自治權，但要求地方政府制定一部被整個族群接受的單一法典。構成這個族群的兩個強大團體為: 控制聖殿的祭司家族(他們將其起源追溯到摩西與在曠野漂流的時期)，以及擁有大多土地的家族(他們捏造了所謂的「長老」並將他們的起源追溯到亞伯拉罕，說是亞伯拉罕「給了」他們土地。這種說法在許多問題上也造成了衝突，而每個家族都有它自己的「起源史」)。但為了能合作製作出單一文本，波斯人以大大地增加地方自治權為承諾，為此提供強大的動力。

Genre

類別

Genesis is perhaps best seen as an example of a creation myth, a type of literature telling of the first appearance of humans, the stories of ancestors and heroes, and the origins of culture, cities and so forth. The most notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not distinguish between myth, legend, and facts. Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the Pontifical Biblical Institute calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated. Ska also points out the purpose behind such antiquarian histories: antiquity is needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in early Persian Palestine), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel itself.

創世紀或許最應被視為一個創世神話的例子，它是一種描述人類初現的文學，祖先與英雄的故事，以及文化、城市等的起源。 最著名的例子出現在西元前6世紀時希臘歷史學家的著作中，他們的目的是將他們當時著名的家族與遙遠而英勇的過去聯繫起來，這樣一來，就能讓他們無法與神話、傳說和事實區分開來。宗座聖經協會的Jean-Louis Ska教授提倡古文物歷史學家的基本規則「保存法則」：舊的一切都是有價值的，沒有任何東西該被消除。Ska還指出了這種古文物歷史背後的目的：古文物能向各國（早期波斯巴勒斯坦猶太人的鄰居）證明以色列傳統的價值，並調和與團結以色列本身的各方派系。

Themes

主題

Promises to the ancestors

對祖先的承諾

In 1978 David Clines published his influential The Theme of the Pentateuch – influential because he was one of the first to take up the question of the theme of the entire five books. Clines' conclusion was that the overall theme is "the partial fulfillment – which implies also the partial nonfulfillment – of the promise to or blessing of the Patriarchs". (By calling the fulfillment "partial" Clines was drawing attention to the fact that at the end of Deuteronomy the people are still outside Canaan).

大衛‧克萊斯在1978年出版了他頗具影響力的《摩西五經的主題》，會具有影響力是因為他是第一個問出這整套五經主題的人之一。克萊斯的結論是，五經的總體主題是「部分的實現(這也代表部分的不實現)對族長的承諾或祝福」。（藉由稱實現為「部分的」，克萊斯試圖讓人注意到一個事實，即在申命記的結尾，人們仍然身處在迦南之外。）

The patriarchs, or ancestors, are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their wives (Joseph is normally excluded). Since the name YHWH had not been revealed to them, they worshipped El in his various manifestations. (It is, however, worth noting that in the Jahwist source the patriarchs refer to deity by the name YHWH, for example in Genesis 15.) Through the patriarchs God announces the election of Israel, meaning that he has chosen Israel to be his special people and committed himself to their future. God tells the patriarchs that he will be faithful to their descendants (i.e. to Israel), and Israel is expected to have faith in God and his promise. ("Faith" in the context of Genesis and the Hebrew Bible means agreement to the promissory relationship, not a body of belief).

這些族長或祖先是亞伯拉罕、以撒和雅各，以及他們的妻子（約瑟通常被排除在外）。 由於YHWH這個名字並沒有透露給他們知道，所以他們是崇拜主(El)的各種顯現方式。（然而，值得注意的是，在耶和華文獻中，族長們是用YHWH稱呼上帝，例如在創世紀第15章中。）上帝通過族長們來宣布以色列的選舉，這代表他選擇以色列作為他的特殊子民，並承諾他們的未來。上帝告訴族長們，祂將忠誠支持他們的後代（即以色列），並期望以色列對上帝和祂的應許有信心。 （在創世記和希伯來聖經的文本中，「信心」表示應許關係的同意，而不是一種信仰）。

The promise itself has three parts: offspring, blessings, and land. The fulfilment of the promise to each patriarch depends on having a male heir, and the story is constantly complicated by the fact that each prospective mother – Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel – is barren. The ancestors, however, retain their faith in God and God in each case gives a son – in Jacob's case, twelve sons, the foundation of the chosen Israelites. All three promises are more richly fulfilled in each succeeding generation, until through Joseph "all the world" is saved from famine, and by bringing the children of Israel down to Egypt he becomes the means through which the promise can be fulfilled.

應許本身有三個部分：後代、祝福和土地。對每個族長應許的履行取決於是否擁有一位男性繼承人，但是這點在每個故事中常常因為這些母親(莎拉、麗百加和蕾潔)都不孕而複雜化。然而，當祖先們保有對上帝的信心，在每個故事之下，上帝都會給他們一個兒子；在雅各的情況是有十二個兒子，也是天選的以色列人的基礎。在接下來的每一代中，這三個應許都被更加完滿的履行，直到通過約瑟，將「全世界」從飢荒中拯救出來，並且藉由將以色列的孩子帶到埃及，他成為上帝履行應許的方法。

God's chosen people

上帝所選之人

Scholars generally agree that the theme of divine promise unites the patriarchal cycles, but many would dispute the efficacy of trying to examine Genesis' theology by pursuing a single overarching theme, instead citing as more productive the analysis of the Abraham cycle, the Jacob cycle, and the Joseph cycle, and the Yahwist and Priestly sources. The problem lies in finding a way to unite the patriarchal theme of divine promise to the stories of Genesis 1–11 (the primeval history) with their theme of God's forgiveness in the face of man's evil nature. One solution is to see the patriarchal stories as resulting from God's decision not to remain alienated from mankind: God creates the world and mankind, mankind rebels, and God "elects" (chooses) Abraham.

學者們普遍認為，上帝的應許這個主題統合了族長時期的循環，但是許多人質疑這種試圖藉由追求單一個大主題來檢驗創世紀神學的功效，相反地，應該更加引用和分析亞伯拉罕、雅各和約瑟的故事，以及耶和華文獻和祭司文獻。問題在於如何找到一種方法將上帝所應許的族長這個主題與創世記第1-11章（太古史）的故事結合起來，以及與它們關於在面對人類邪惡本性時，上帝的寬恕這個主題的結合。一種解決方案是將族長故事視為上帝決定不與人類疏遠的結果：上帝創造了世界和人類、人類背叛上帝、上帝「挑選」（選擇）亞伯拉罕。

To this basic plot (which comes from the Yahwist) the Priestly source has added a series of covenants dividing history into stages, each with its own distinctive "sign". The first covenant is between God and all living creatures, and is marked by the sign of the rainbow; the second is with the descendants of Abraham (Ishmaelites and others as well as Israelites), and its sign is circumcision; and the last, which doesn't appear until the book of Exodus, is with Israel alone, and its sign is Sabbath. Each covenant is mediated by a great leader (Noah, Abraham, Moses), and at each stage God progressively reveals himself by his name (Elohim with Noah, El Shaddai with Abraham, Yahweh with Moses).

對於這種基本的情節（來自耶和華文獻），祭司文獻中增加了一系列的約定，將歷史分為幾個階段，每個階段都有自己獨特的「標誌」。第一約是上帝與所有生物之約，並以彩虹為標誌;第二約是與亞伯拉罕的後裔（以實瑪利人、其他人以及以色列人），並以割禮為標誌;最後一約是直到出埃及記才出現，而且只與以色列立約，並以安息日為標誌。每一個約都由一位偉大的領袖（挪亞、亞伯拉罕和摩西）從中調解，而且每個階段上帝都以他的名字逐漸顯露自己（與挪亞是用以羅欣、與亞伯拉罕是用伊勒沙代、與摩西是用耶和華）。