It's interesting to see the subtle twist that the SDA Clear Word Bible puts to this passage. First of all let's look closely at verse 2.
The KJV states emphatically that "God ended his work .. and he rested" -- something a person does when they are all finished. They don't go back to resume where they left off. They are done. There is no evening and morning mentioned for this day. God's creative effort was done, not to be resumed on the eighth day.
The NIV likewise follows closely with "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work."
Notice how the SDA Clear Word Bible waters down the finality of this act in order to lend support to its notion that the repeating seventh-day Sabbath was instituted at this time -- a proposition that is not supported by Scripture. It states, "Then on the seventh day of creation week, God stopped to enjoy what He had made and to rest in the beauty of it all." Why can it, like the KJV and NIV state emphatically in this verse, if it is to remain faithful to the original manuscripts, that God "ended", or "finished", the work that he had been doing? Do you see the difference? If I tell you that I "stopped" to do something else that implies that after a certain period of time I will resume where I was at when I stopped. There is not the since of finality in the word "stopped". Of course, to shift the focus to a repeating Sabbath rather than the fact that God's creative work was "ended" or "finished", Adventism finds the word "stopped" to be much more palatable.
When you are watching a movie and it ends, or is finished, would you just explain this by saying that it "stopped". The obvious implication is that after some period of intermission it will continue where it left off at. If we are running, and then we tell someone latter that we "ended" or "finished" our run, that has a disntictly different meaning from telling someone that we "stopped". The implication of the later phrasing is that after some period of time we started again. When we make a birthday caked for someone and we are "ended" or "finished" that is what we say -- not that we "stopped" making their cake!
Verse 3 also demonstrates the unwarranted liberties of the SDA Clear Word Bible in adding phrasing that is totally absent in the original manuscripts. The KJV and NIV are clear that, upon "ending" or "finishing" God's creative work, he "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it", or as the NIV says, "blessed the seventh day and made it holy." No where in the original manuscripts does this verse say anything about "set it apart as a day of spiritual refreshment and joy." Spiritual refreshement? For who? God? God is Spirit! (John 4:24). He is the source of all things spiritual. He does not need a day of "spiritual refreshment"! God is holy, and He can make anything He wants to holy, with or without man's involvement. No where in this verse do the original manuscripts say anything about man being involved in "ending" or "finishing" God's creative work. God was done. He was the one who had done the work. He is the Creator. Not Adam and Eve! And He did not go back to work on the eighth day either. This was not a repeatable "rest" for God, and there is nothing in Scripture to even imply that it should be interpreted any differently for Adam and Eve. Furthermore, in a sinless state what would they need "spiritual refreshment" from? And what would God need "spiritual refreshment" from? This addition makes no sense -- that is unless one is trying to promote the teaching of Ellen White without the reader knowing it!
I have no idea where the SDA Clear Word Bible's verse 5 came from. It doesn't have any relationship to the Scriptural verse 5. It is kind of just stuck there.
Examining these verses' it appears that once again the SDA Clear Word Bible has plagiarized Ellen White without giving her credit. |
Genesis 2:1-7 (King James Version)
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
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Genesis 2:1-7 (New International Version)
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens
5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground,
6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- the LORD God formed the man The Hebrew for man (adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground (adamah) it is also the name Adam (see Gen. 2:20). from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. |
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Genesis 2:1-7 (SDA Clear Word Bible)
1 So the earth with its atmosphere was finished, and everything worked together in harmony.
2 Then on the seventh day of creation week, God stopped to enjoy what He had made and to rest in the beauty of it all.
3 So he blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a day of spiritual refreshment and joy.
4 In brief, this is the story of creation when God made the earth and the sky.
5 Only after man was expelled from the garden and told to work the soil were cultivated plants and herbs grown.
6 At first God watered the earth by streams which came up from the ground.
7 When God created man, He used clay to mold his body, then through man's nose He blew life into the clay, and the clay became a living being.
Texts credited to Clear Word are from The Clear Word, copyright © 1994, 2000, 2003, 2004 by Review and Herald Publishing Association. All rights reserved. |
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