Genesis 8 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 4 Similar 3 Different 8 Divergent 2 Disparate 5
Disparate in this chapter: 8:4, 8:5, 8:7, 8:17, 8:21
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
The Waters Recede
8:1 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:1 God remembered Noah and every wild animal and all the livestock with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
Greek · Saints priority
8:1 God remembered Noah and all the wild animals, livestock, birds, and creeping things with him in the ark. God brought a wind upon the earth, and the water subsided.
G expressly adds birds and creeping things to the remembered creatures. Wind is the contextual sense of both ruach and pneuma here.
8:2 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:2 The springs of the deep and the windows of the heavens were stopped, and the rain from the heavens was restrained.
Greek · Saints priority
8:2 The springs of the abyss and the floodgates of heaven were covered over, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
G uses covered over and floodgates where H uses stopped and windows. Both end the inflow of water.
8:3 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:3 The waters continually receded from the earth, and after one hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.
Greek · Saints priority
8:3 The water receded as it went from the earth; after one hundred and fifty days the water was receding and decreasing.
The duration and recession agree; each language expresses the continuing process differently.
8:4 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:4 The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Greek · Saints priority
8:4 The ark settled in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
H gives day 17 and G day 27, continuing the flood-date distinction of 7:11. Both name mountains in the plural.
8:5 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:5 The waters continued to decrease until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
Greek · Saints priority
8:5 The water continued to decrease until the tenth month. In the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
RH places the visible mountaintops in month 11, directly verified in its official main text. The earlier NETS comparison could not be reopened in this review. H has month 10. The draft’s second Greek tenth is corrected; the first tenth remains.
The Raven and The Dove
8:6 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:6 After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made,
Greek · Saints priority
8:6 After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made,
Both explicitly name a window here, irrespective of the disputed construction terminology at 6:16.
8:7 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:7 and sent out the raven. It went out and back until the waters dried from the earth.
Greek · Saints priority
8:7 and sent out the raven to see whether the water had subsided. It went out and did not return until the water dried from the earth.
H describes going out and returning; G states nonreturn and adds the reconnaissance purpose. Neither assigns the bird a moral motive, and until does not necessarily assert a later return.
8:8 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:8 He sent out the dove from him to see whether the waters had abated from the face of the ground.
Greek · Saints priority
8:8 He sent out the dove after it to see whether the water had subsided from the face of the earth.
H says from him; G says after it, linking the dove’s mission to the raven’s.
8:9 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:9 The dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot and returned to him in the ark, for water covered the face of all the earth. He stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it to himself into the ark.
Greek · Saints priority
8:9 The dove found no rest for its feet and returned to him in the ark, for water was over the whole face of all the earth. He stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it to himself into the ark.
H’s sole of the foot becomes G’s feet; both include Noah’s complete action, previously abbreviated in the literal cells.
8:10 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:10 He waited another seven days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
Greek · Saints priority
8:10 He waited another seven days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
Both give the same waiting interval and renewed release.
8:11 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:11 The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its beak. Noah knew that the waters had abated from the earth.
Greek · Saints priority
8:11 The dove returned to him toward evening, with an olive leaf, a dry piece, in its beak. Noah knew that the water had subsided from the earth.
H describes a plucked leaf; G adds karphos, a dry stalk, twig, or piece of vegetation, in an awkward apposition. The botanical phrasing remains qualified rather than expanded into a theory of reconstruction or sustenance.
8:12 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:12 He waited another seven days and sent out the dove; it did not return to him again.
Greek · Saints priority
8:12 He waited another seven days and again sent out the dove; it did not return to him anymore.
G explicitly repeats again before sending; both describe the final nonreturn.
The Exit from the Ark
8:13 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters dried from the earth. Noah removed the ark’s covering and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Greek · Saints priority
8:13 In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water had left the earth. Noah uncovered the roof of the ark that he had made, and saw that the water had left the face of the earth.
G specifies Noah’s life, names the roof, and adds that he made the ark. H states the ground’s dryness; G states the water’s departure.
8:14 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Greek · Saints priority
8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Both give month 2, day 27 here, although preceding flood dates differ.
8:15 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:15 God spoke to Noah, saying,
Greek · Saints priority
8:15 The Lord God spoke to Noah, saying,
G has Lord God where H has God.
8:16 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:16 “Go out from the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
Greek · Saints priority
8:16 “Go out from the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
Both place Noah’s wife before the sons in this command.
8:17 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh with you—birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth—so that they may swarm upon the earth, be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.â€
Greek · Saints priority
8:17 Bring out with you all the wild animals with you, all flesh from birds to livestock, and every creeping thing moving upon the earth; and increase and multiply upon the earth.â€
H speaks about the animals’ swarming and fruitfulness in the third person. G ends with plural imperatives addressed directly to the hearers. G also lacks the separate swarm command.
8:18 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:18 Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.
Greek · Saints priority
8:18 Noah went out, with his wife, his sons, and his sons’ wives with him.
G places Noah’s wife before the sons; H reverses those two positions. Neither ordering changes the family’s membership.
8:19 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:19 Every wild animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything moving upon the earth went out from the ark according to their families.
Greek · Saints priority
8:19 All the wild animals, all the livestock, every bird, and every creeping thing moving upon the earth went out from the ark according to their kinds.
G explicitly lists livestock where H repeats movement language, and uses kinds for H’s families.
God’s Promise to Noah
8:20 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:20 Noah built an altar to YHWH, took from every clean animal and every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings upon the altar.
Greek · Saints priority
8:20 Noah built an altar to God, took from all the clean livestock and all the clean birds, and offered whole burnt offerings upon the altar.
H has YHWH and G God. Both describe offerings entirely consumed; G’s word makes that whole-offering sense explicit.
8:21 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:21 YHWH smelled the pleasing aroma, and YHWH said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike every living thing as I have done.
Greek · Saints priority
8:21 The Lord God smelled a fragrant aroma, and the Lord God said after reflecting, “I will never again curse the earth because of human works, for the human mind is intently set upon evil from youth; therefore I will never again strike all living flesh as I have done.
H’s speech in the heart becomes G’s reflection; humankind becomes human works; inclination becomes an intent mind. Both retain the promise despite enduring evil. G’s therefore makes the inference explicit.
8:22 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
8:22 As long as all the days of the earth endure, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.â€
Greek · Saints priority
8:22 All the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring shall not cease by day or by night.â€
G names spring where H names winter. Greek day and night are accusatives, read adverbially here; H includes them among the paired subjects. Replacing both seasonal pairs with wet and dry would hide the difference.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.