><<In the New American Standard Bible a footnote to Genesis 1:24 says that the
>word translated "their" is literally "its" (two instances). If you put
>"its" into the text instead of "their" you get
>
>Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after its kind:
>cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after its kind"; and it
>was so.
>
>It looks to me as though the antecedent of "its" is the earth. If this is
>correct it's saying that all the life forms created in Gen 1:24 are of the
>same kind as the earth. If this is a reasonable interpretation, one might
>ask "what is the earth's kind?" The answer might be something like: made
>of matter.>>
>
Jim wrote
>I'm not sure. In v. 24a, we have "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the
>living creature after his kind..." Isn't the antecedent "creature" here?
>
>In 24b, wouldn't it be the same thing, both by context and by grammar?
>
>Denis, maybe you could help on this one.
>
While we wait for Denis, I looked up Gen 1:24 in Young's Literal Translation:
And God saith, `Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its
kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast
of the earth after its kind:' and it is so.
Here it's not clear whether the earth or the creature is the antecedent of
"its," although I'll concede that normal convnetion would suggest that it's
"creature." (However, there may be reasons for not applying "normal
convention". But really, I hope Denis responds.
Bill Hamilton
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX) | whamilto@mich.com (home email)