Tricky and Hairy Passages

By Troy Manning

During the first part of December, a group of us at Bibles International conducted a Creole OT workshop upon many chapters in the book of Genesis, words of Scripture that are ultimately the only words that can calm troubled souls. In our June 2010 workshop, we decided that repercussions from the national elections in Haiti could disturb our December workshop if it were scheduled in Haiti. Therefore, we thought it better to fly the translator, Pastor Daniel Telfort, up to Grand Rapids. Though we conducted the workshop in peace here in Grand Rapids, we were still affected to some degree as Brother Telfort had difficulty returning to his home country after the workshop because of flights cancellations. He was concerned about this, not only because he wanted to get back home and because he needed to complete courses he is teaching at two different seminaries, but primarily because he is getting married on December 27.

The workshop took place on November 28-December 10. Brother Telfort had the help of four consultants this time: Dr. Hantz Bernard, Dr. Troy Manning, Dr. Hye Ree Park, and Alex Wheeler. Since the latter three consultants are in the mentoring process, the workshop proceeded slowly. Having many sets of eyes to view the text, it went through a rigorous process and is turning out to be an excellent translation.

In this workshop, we evaluated Brother Telfort’s translation of Genesis 21-37. Though Esau was “the hairy man,” it’s the passages on Jacob that proved to be the most hairy, particularly in his dealings with Laban in Genesis 30. Both men were quite tricky, and they almost threw us off as we tried to understand exactly what they were saying and doing. Our translation methodology guides us both to preserve what God has given in the inspired text and to make sure there are no contradictions in our translation. With this in view, we had to ask ourselves numerous questions about the last portion of Genesis 30.

What’s going on when Jacob gives a proposal in verses 32 and 33, Laban agrees to the proposal in verse 34, and then Laban seems to do the very opposite in verse 35? We concluded that as Laban spoke one way, he had intentions of doing just the opposite, just as he did when he gave Leah to Jacob when he had earlier agreed to give Rachel first.

What exactly is Jacob doing when he peels strips in tree branches and puts them in the watering troughs where the sheep and goats come to drink? Is he trying to induce them to “be in heat”, as the French versions understand it, or is he wanting to control the types of offspring they had, as the English versions take it? Clearly, he wanted to do the latter, but is the Hebrew focusing on the first idea or the second? We decided that the latter idea was what the Hebrew was expressing. Jacob seemed to think that he could control the mating process, though the Lord would later (in chapter 31) help him to understand that He was the One who ultimately brought things to pass in Jacob’s favor.

Verse 40 presented us with more complications. How do we understand the phrases “the flock of Laban” and “Laban’s flock”? A few verses earlier (v. 36) we were told that Laban put three day’s distance between himself and Jacob. So how could Jacob make his flocks face the animals in Laban’s flock? We decided that these expressions refer to the animals that Jacob would not be able to keep—i.e., the homogenous-looking animals.

We spent an entire morning wrestling with this passage, but in the end, as did Jacob, we prevailed. How thankful we were when we came to passages like chapter 36, which simply describes the generations of Esau! Though it deals with the descendants of a very hairy man, they ended up going much more smoothly than the passages on Jacob, the “smoother” man.

The next workshop on this translation will be in June, 2011. If the translator completes all the verses that he is scheduled to do, we will have much material to cover, so the workshop is going to be three weeks long. Counting the passages that Brother Telfort has already translated that we haven’t been able to check yet, he will have ready over 100 chapters. The most we’ve checked in our workshops on this translation is 28 chapters, so both the translator and the consultants need grace as we prepare for this major workshop.

Brother Telfort needs our prayers as he gets married on December 27 and as he tries to keep up a rigorous translation pace. We hope to reprint the Creole New Testament along with Psalms and Proverbs in the next couple of years. We consultants would appreciate your prayers as we give Pastor Telfort the necessary support to accomplish such a high goal.