c. 1996 Religion News Service
(RNS)-A comparison of some popular passages in the King James version and Schocken version of the Bible:
Genesis 1:3-5
The King James Version:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
The Schocken Bible:
God said: Let there be light! And there was light.
God saw the light: that it was good.
God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light: Day! and the darkness he called: Night!
There was setting, there was dawning: one day.
Genesis 2:15-17
The King James Version:
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The Schocken Bible:
YHWH, God, took the human and set him in the garden of Eden,
to work it and to watch it.
YHWH, God commanded concerning the human, saying:
From every (other) tree of the garden you may eat, yes, eat,
but from the Tree of Knowing of Good and Evil-
you are not to eat from it,
for on the day that you eat from it, you must die, yes, die.
Exodus 3:2-3
The King James Version:
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt.
The Schocken Bible:
And YHWH’s messenger was seen by him
in the flame of a fire in the midst of a bush.
He saw:
here, the bush is burning with fire,
and the bush is not consumed!
Moshe said:
Now let me turn aside
that I may see this great sight-
why the bush does not burn up!
Deuteronomy 27:16
The King James Version:
Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
The Schocken Bible:
Damned be
he that insults his father or his mother!
And all the people are to say: Amen!
END
