[asa] Gen 2, NASB vs. NIV -- Which came first, animals or man?

Here is another interesting translation question.

In the NIV, Gen. 2:18-19 reads:

*18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make
a helper suitable for him." *

* 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the
field and all the birds of the air.*
In the NASB, however, the text reads as follows:

*Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone;
(S<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen.%202&version=49#cen-NASB-49S>
)I will make him a helper
[a<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen.%202&version=49#fen-NASB-49a>
]suitable for him." *

* 19(T<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen.%202&version=49#cen-NASB-50T>
)Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every
bird of the sky, and
(U<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen.%202&version=49#cen-NASB-50U>
)brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the
man called a living creature, that was its name.*

This difference in translation is crucial if one wants to read Gen. 2
literally and harmonize it with Gen.1, because the NASB translation implies
that the man was created before the animals -- that the animals were created
specifically in response to man's need for a helper. The NIV, in contrast,
uses the past perfect to indicate that the creation of the animals already
was complete.

My general understanding is that the NASB is a more direct translation than
the NIV (and in my sorry efforts to learn Greek, trying to translate small
parts of the Gospel of John, I've found that to be the case in spades). If
the NASB is correct, that would seem to suggest that these really are
different versions of the story, which probably suggests something about
genre and interpretation.

**

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Received on Wed Jan 30 11:27:57 2008