BACK TO THE BEGINNING
This year, Parashat Bereshit, Genesis, which contains the account of the creation of the world, left us with only one day to study it—this past Shabbat—so before saying goodbye to Bereshit until next year, I want to share with you a brief reflection on something new we can learn from this Parasha. About ten years ago, I published my book “Awesome Creation”, where I explained the story of the world’s creation based on a faithful reading of the Hebrew Bible. I showed that when this literal reading (peshat) is ignored—voluntarily or involuntarily—many critical aspects of Emuná (Jewish faith) are affected, and the Tora can be discredited, reducing it to the level of fables or, God forbid, a irrelevant text. Today, I will mention an example of a topic I have not yet published. This example, I believe, deserves the first prize for ignorance of biblical Hebrew and its unexpected consequences.
THE FIRST ANIMALS
The initial chapter of Bereshit (Genesis) mentions the creation of the first animals that appeared on our planet on the fifth day. The Hebrew text says: וַיִּבְרָ֣א אֱלֹקים אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֙ם֙ הַגְּדֹלִ֔ים וְאֵ֣ת כָּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ הַֽחַיָּ֗ה הָֽרֹמֶשֶׂת֙
“And God created the taninim gedolim and all [other] living creatures….”
What were the taninim gedolim?
Let’s begin with the first word. Tanin (singular of taninim) appears about 15 times in the Tanakh and describes a group of animals, including crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and vipers. In other words, in biblical Hebrew, tanin means “reptile.” The next word, gedolim, plural of gadol, does not necessarily mean “large” in size. Depending on the context, it can also mean “terrible,” “fearsome,” or “powerful.” In my book, I mention several examples of this connotation, such as when God punishes Pharaoh for taking Abraham’s wife. It says nega’im gedolim (Genesis 12:17), translated as “terrible” plagues or diseases. In our context, the best translation of the word gedolim, which expresses both size and the fear these animals inspired, could be “imposing or giant.”
Therefore, taninim gedolim should be translated as “great/giant reptiles,” but inexplicably, this translation almost doesn’t exist!
THE CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORANCE
Let’s look, for example, at a classic non-Jewish translation, the New American Standard Bible from 1995
”God created the great sea monsters and every living creature”
Why translate taninim as “sea monsters,” two words that don’t appear in the original Hebrew text?
First, let’s clarify that in biblical Hebrew, the word “monster” does not exist (Note 1), simply because the Tora does not believe in monsters, despite the fact that ALL ancient civilizations believed in monsters and mentioned them regularly in their creation myths (see, for example, here: Tiamat). That’s is the reason why a translation that renders taninim as “monsters” instead of “reptiles” should be considered tendentious and even offensive, as it—voluntarily or involuntarily—equates the Tora with pagan mythological legends.
So, how should the expression taninim gedolim be translated?
IN GREEK AND HEBREW
Richard Owen (1804–1892) was a renowned British scientist and paleontologist known for his work in classifying fossil remains of prehistoric animals. In 1842, he coined the term dinosaur to describe a group of huge extinct reptiles. This term, dinosaur, is a combination of two words of Greek origin: deinos, which means gigantic, powerful, imposing, or fearsome (similar semantic field of gedolim) , and saurus, which means lizard or reptile. Thus, the term dinosaur means “the gigantic reptiles” of ancient times, the exact words that the Tora uses to describe the first creatures created by God on the fifth day!
MONSTERS OR MONSTROSITIES?
The word “monsters” found its way in the Bibles’s translations possibly from non-Jewish commentaries written before Owen classified these fossils as “dinosaurs.” Pagan cultures assumed that those giant fossils that appeared everywhere in the world, belonged to monsters or dragons, imaginary beings worthy of pagan mythology. This would explain why the word “monster” was used in the Middle Ages. But to translate taninim gedolim as “sea monsters” in the 20th or 21st century (Note 2) is unforgivable because it forces a mythological reading of the Tora and takes away its incredible historical credibility.
The translation of taninim gedolim as “dinosaurs”—or at least as “great reptiles”—should be the most literal translation, and a testimony that the Tora was the FIRST and ONLY ancient book that records the existence of these prehistoric creatures—the first animals created by God on earth—without legends or fictions worthy of Harry Potter.
Note 1: The word mifletzet, used in modern Hebrew for “monster,” describes a totem of pagan peoples, like pesilim, see Jeremiah 50:38.
Note 2: The word “sea” also does not appear in the text, which, by the way, does NOT describe only animals that inhabit the sea!
