You can read hundreds of English Language Bible translations along with thousands of books offering explanations of what those translations might mean.
Genesis Rejuvenated does something those books do not; it provides translation tools that people like you and me can use to read the Bible for ourselves.
Reading the Word, word for word can be an enlightening experience.
You expect the Bible to say something like, “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth,” and tell a story about a super-powered Being (who looks like a male human) creating everything from nothing with nothing but the power of His words.
But a more faithful translation starts like this, “In principles, the powers-that-be conceive the heavens and the earth,” and goes on to tell the story of all of nature's powers and elements agreeing to organize the world according to plans that promote the common good with each doing the thing it does best to execute the common plan.
Reading things you did not expect to see in the world’s most widely read book can be a bit unsettling. But much of what you read is consistent with our modern, measured understanding of geological and evolutionary science – which is quite enlightening.
And, for people who see God as the collective wisdom of all things – finding a similar spiritual vision in the world’s most significant book can be quite uplifting.
People like you and me can use The Freeware Bible database to read and understand the first chapter of the Bible. The database shows you the Bible’s first 1,600 words exactly as they appear in the oldest complete manuscript of the Aramaic-Hebrew Bible that has survived into modern times. For each word, The Freeware Bible presents all of its likely meanings along with annotations that put the word in textual and historical context.
By The BookThe translation data comes right from traditional translations and their annotations, from articles and books by respected Biblical scholars, and from other concordances (Bible dictionaries). I can not promise that the database is perfectly accurate and all-inclusive. But I can say it comes from reputable sources and that I did my best to be objective in deciding what to include and exclude, so that you can come to your own understanding of the original ideas.
The first step in the translation process is to read the ancient scripture one word at a time and try to figure out which modern words best represent the ancient ones. For example, the first six letters of the Bible can mean any or all of the following: ‘in beginning’, ‘to begin’, ‘to start’, ‘when begin’, ‘in principles’, ‘in mind’, ‘to think’ and/or ‘on high’. You want to stay true to the ancient ideas, but you find yourself choosing your own words.
Then as you string together your words, you find that the ancient language is so different from ours that your verbatim translation is difficult to follow. Mine goes like this: ‘in principles conceive powers-that-be unto the heaven and unto the earth.” You want to replicate the ancient narrative, but your mind finds itself composing modern prose, e.g. ‘The powers that be conceive the universe according to principles.’
And then, as you string together your sentences, you find that you are losing both the rhythm of the ancient verse and the beauty of its metaphors. So, finally, you see the best way to convey the sound and sense of the ancient poem is to compose a modern one.
Genesis RejuvenatedThe Genesis Rejuvenated website and book revolves around new verse called Rejuvenation. I believe that Rejuvenation conveys ideas that were clearly expressed in the ancient scripture, but uniformly obscured in traditional translations. I would not have written and published Rejuvenation without also researching and publishing The Freeware Bible. (And I would not have bothered to fully research and publish the database had I not been inspired to compose the verse).
While The Freeware Bible database represents my best efforts to objectively present data about what the Bible says, Rejuvenation expresses my personal and subjective opinion of what the Bible means. I think I got it right, but as the saying goes, ‘don’t believe everything you think’. So I thought it would be appropriate to annotate the verse with explanations of its key words and commentaries on its main points.
A User-Generated BibleI am not a clergyman, or theologian or Biblical scholar. You may know more about the Bible than I do. You may also be inspired to compose your own verse and write your own commentaries. I hope so, the Bible’s great prophets were not professionals – they were people who felt the spirit move within them and had the courage to say what needed saying and to live by their words.
If you are interested, The Freeware Bible project is designed to help. This is just a work in progress. So far, we’ve posted the translation data and contributed it into the public domain.
Now we are creating a forum for people who would like to write and read new Bible verse.
In the long run, we hope to compile, organize and publish a wide range of Bible verse by people who have been inspired to write and contribute to our collective work.