The KJV, ILB, NKJV, and RSV read something like this:
line 1: I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
line 2: in sorrow you will bring forth children.
Other (generally newer) translations (NIV, ESV, JPS, NASB) read something like this:
line 1: I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth;
line 2: in pain you will bring forth children.
The question for translators is really how to interpret the Hebrew conjunction ve- ("and") in the phrase itsbonek veheronek (line 1: "thy sorrow and thy conception" KJV). Perhaps the translators of newer versions have been influenced by Keil and Delitzsch, who in their commentary on the Hebrew of this verse say:
As the increase of conceptions, regarded as the fulfillment of the blessing to
'be fruitful and multiply' (1:28) could be no punishment, [heronek] must be
understood as in apposition to ... thy sorrow (i.e., the sorrows peculiar to a
woman's life), and indeed (or more especially) thy pregnancy (i.e., the
sorrows attendant upon that condition).
In other words, ignore the ve-! Many translators think the two nouns in our phrase are a hendiadys (two coordinate terms joined by a conjunction to express what in English would be expressed by a adjective and a noun). Carol Meyers discusses at length whether this phrase is a hendiadys in Discovering Eve, pages 100-109, and concludes that it is not. Nor, she points out, did the translators of the Septuagint.
The word heron also more properly refers to conception than to childbearing or childbirth. It means "to become pregnant," that is, "to conceive." As Carol Meyers says, it is "more associated with the initiation of pregnancy than with the duration or conclusion.... It does not refer to the sexual act itself but indicates the physiological condition that was the desired result of intercourse in Israelite society" (Discovering Eve, 102). We associate pain with labor, but not with conception. Maybe that also influenced translators!
All translators are also interpreters. Here, I think we miss connections if we ignore the ve- (pun intended!). Genesis 3:16-19 is full of parallels evident in the Hebrew that we miss in English translation. (We'll get into those weeds another time.) The curse on the woman of increased conception connects to the curse on the ground of bringing forth weeds and thorns. But modern translations don't let us see that both the woman and the ground will experience changed fertility as a result of the fall.
I don't know if it would be helpful or not, but with a bit of encouragement you could probably persuade a graphic artist to assist you putting the actual Hebrew in an "Into the Weeds" page.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'.
A request: could you please spell out the various Bible translations you referred to? I can just go look at your desk, but most people reading your post won't be able to. What are ILB and JPS?
ReplyDelete