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Genesis 3:5
New English Translation

5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open[a] and you will be like God, knowing[b] good and evil.”[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 3:5 tn Or “you will have understanding.” This obviously refers to the acquisition of the “knowledge of good and evil,” as the next statement makes clear.
  2. Genesis 3:5 tn Or “like divine beings who know.” It is unclear how the plural participle translated “knowing” is functioning. On the one hand, יֹדְעֵי (yodeʿe) could be taken as a substantival participle functioning as a predicative adjective in the sentence. In this case one might translate: “You will be, like God himself, knowers of good and evil.” On the other hand, it could be taken as an attributive adjective modifying אֱלֹהִים (ʾelohim). In this case אֱלֹהִים has to be taken as a numerical plural referring to “gods,” meaning “divine or heavenly beings,” because if the one true God were the intended referent, a singular form of the participle would appear as a modifier. Following this line of interpretation, one could translate, “You will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” The following context may support this translation, for in 3:22 God says to an unidentified group, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” It is possible that God is addressing his heavenly court (see the note on the word “make” in 1:26), the members of which can be called “gods” or “divine/heavenly beings” from the ancient Israelite perspective (cf. KJV, NAB, JPS). (We know some of these beings as messengers or “angels.”) An examination of parallel constructions shows that a predicative understanding (“you will be, like God himself, knowers of good and evil,”) is possible (see Gen 27:23, where “hairy” is predicative, complementing the verb “to be”). Other evidence suggests that the participle is attributive, modifying “divine/heavenly beings” (see Ps 31:12; Isa 1:30; 13:14; 16:2; 29:5; 58:11; Jer 14:9; 20:9; 23:9; 31:12; 48:41; 49:22; Hos 7:11; Amos 4:11). In all of these texts, where a comparative clause and accompanying adjective/participle follow a copulative (“to be”) verb, the adjective/participle is attributive after the noun in the comparative clause. The translation of “God,” though, is supported by how אֱלֹהִים (ʾelohim) is used in the surrounding context where it always refers to the true God and many translations take it this way (cf. NIV, TNIV, RSV, NRSV, ESV, HCSB, NLT, NASB, REB, and NKJV). In this interpretation the plural participle refers to Adam and Eve.
  3. Genesis 3:5 sn You will be like God, knowing good and evil. The serpent raises doubts about the integrity of God. He implies that the only reason for the prohibition was that God was protecting the divine domain. If the man and woman were to eat, they would enter into that domain. The temptation is to overstep divinely established boundaries. (See D. E. Gowan, When Man Becomes God [PTMS], 25.)
Genesis 3:5 in all English translations
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Genesis 11:1-9
New English Translation

The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel

11 The whole earth[a] had a common language and a common vocabulary.[b] 2 When the people[c] moved eastward,[d] they found a plain in Shinar[e] and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another,[f] “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”[g] (They had brick instead of stone and tar[h] instead of mortar.)[i] 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens[j] so that[k] we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise[l] we will be scattered[m] across the face of the entire earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people[n] had started[o] building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language[p] they have begun to do this, then[q] nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.[r] 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse[s] their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”[t]

8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building[u] the city. 9 That is why its name was called[v] Babel[w]—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 11:1 sn The whole earth. Here “earth” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the people who lived in the earth. Genesis 11 begins with everyone speaking a common language, but chap. 10 has the nations arranged by languages. It is part of the narrative art of Genesis to give the explanation of the event after the narration of the event. On this passage see A. P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9, ” BSac 138 (1981): 119-38.
  2. Genesis 11:1 tn Heb “one lip and one [set of] words.” The term “lip” is a metonymy of cause, putting the instrument for the intended effect. They had one language. The term “words” refers to the content of their speech. They had the same vocabulary.
  3. Genesis 11:2 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  4. Genesis 11:2 tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”
  5. Genesis 11:2 tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”sn Shinar is the region of Babylonia.
  6. Genesis 11:3 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
  7. Genesis 11:3 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbenah levenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrefah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).
  8. Genesis 11:3 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
  9. Genesis 11:3 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
  10. Genesis 11:4 tn A translation of “heavens” for שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) fits this context because the Babylonian ziggurats had temples at the top, suggesting they reached to the heavens, the dwelling place of the gods.
  11. Genesis 11:4 tn The form וְנַעֲשֶׂה (venaʿaseh, from the verb עָשָׁה [ʿasah], “do, make”) could be either the imperfect or the cohortative with a vav (ו) conjunction (“and let us make…”). Coming after the previous cohortative, this form expresses purpose.
  12. Genesis 11:4 tn The Hebrew particle פֶּן (pen) expresses a negative purpose; it means “that we be not scattered.”
  13. Genesis 11:4 sn The Hebrew verb פּוּץ (puts, “scatter”) is a key term in this passage. The focal point of the account is the dispersion (“scattering”) of the nations rather than the Tower of Babel. But the passage also forms a polemic against Babylon, the pride of the east and a cosmopolitan center with a huge ziggurat. To the Hebrews it was a monument to the judgment of God on pride.
  14. Genesis 11:5 tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.
  15. Genesis 11:5 tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.
  16. Genesis 11:6 tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”
  17. Genesis 11:6 tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.”
  18. Genesis 11:6 tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”
  19. Genesis 11:7 tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the Lord our God said to us…. And the Lord went down and we went down with him. And we saw the city and the tower which the sons of men built.” On the chiastic structure of the story, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:235.
  20. Genesis 11:7 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
  21. Genesis 11:8 tn The infinitive construct לִבְנֹת (livnot, “building”) here serves as the object of the verb “they ceased, stopped,” answering the question of what they stopped doing.
  22. Genesis 11:9 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.
  23. Genesis 11:9 sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).
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Acts 12:20-23
New English Translation

20 Now Herod[a] was having an angry quarrel[b] with the people of Tyre[c] and Sidon.[d] So they joined together[e] and presented themselves before him. And after convincing[f] Blastus, the king’s personal assistant,[g] to help them,[h] they asked for peace,[i] because their country’s food supply was provided by the king’s country. 21 On a day determined in advance, Herod[j] put on his royal robes,[k] sat down on the judgment seat,[l] and made a speech[m] to them. 22 But the crowd[n] began to shout,[o] “The voice of a god,[p] and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord[q] struck[r] Herod[s] down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.[t]

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Footnotes

  1. Acts 12:20 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.sn Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great).
  2. Acts 12:20 tn Or “was extremely angry.” L&N 33.453 gives the meaning “be angry and quarrel, quarrel angrily” here. However, in L&N 88.180 the alternative “to be violently angry, to be furious” is given. The term is used only once in the NT (BDAG 461 s.v. θυμομαχέω).
  3. Acts 12:20 sn Tyre was a city and seaport on the coast of Phoenicia.
  4. Acts 12:20 sn Sidon was an ancient Phoenician royal city on the coast between Berytus (Beirut) and Tyre (BDAG 923 s.v. Σιδών).
  5. Acts 12:20 tn Or “with one accord.”
  6. Acts 12:20 tn Or “persuading.”
  7. Acts 12:20 tn On the term translated “personal assistant” BDAG 554 s.v. κοιτῶν states, “used as part of a title: ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος the one in charge of the bed-chamber, the chamberlain.” This individual was not just a domestic servant or butler, but a highly respected person who had considerable responsibility for the king’s living quarters and personal affairs. The English word “chamberlain” corresponds very closely to this meaning but is not in common use today. The term “personal assistant,” while it might convey more business associations than management of personal affairs, nevertheless communicates the concept well in contemporary English.
  8. Acts 12:20 tn The words “to help them” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.
  9. Acts 12:20 tn Or “for a reconciliation.” There were grave political risks in having Herod angry at them. The detail shows the ruler’s power.
  10. Acts 12:21 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.sn Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great).
  11. Acts 12:21 tn Or “apparel.” On Herod’s robes see Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.344), summarized in the note at the end of v. 23.
  12. Acts 12:21 tn Although BDAG 175 s.v. βῆμα 3 gives the meaning “speaker’s platform” for this verse, and a number of modern translations use similar terms (“rostrum,” NASB; “platform,” NRSV), since the bema was a standard feature in Greco-Roman cities of the time, there is no need for an alternative translation here.sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bēma) was a raised platform mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly or making pronouncements, often on judicial matters. The judgment seat was a familiar item in Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora, the public square or marketplace in the center of a city.
  13. Acts 12:21 tn Or “delivered a public address.”
  14. Acts 12:22 tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.
  15. Acts 12:22 tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epephōnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.
  16. Acts 12:22 sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.
  17. Acts 12:23 tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.
  18. Acts 12:23 sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:38; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.
  19. Acts 12:23 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  20. Acts 12:23 sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).
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