Texts in Conversation
Genesis ends the creation story by declaring everything “very good,” language with many possible interpretations. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos translates it as “firmly established,” emphasizing order rather than moral quality.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:31
Hebrew Bible
29 Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has living breath in it—I give every green plant for food.” It was so. 31 God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Onkelos Genesis 1:31
Targum
27 And the Lord created Adam in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 And the Lord blessed them, and said to them, “Spread out and multiply, and fill the earth, and have power over it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And the Lord said, “Look, I have given you every plant on all the earth that produces seed, and every tree whose fruit produces seed. It shall be yours for food. 30 And to every wild animal of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to every crawling creature on the earth in which is the breath of life, I have given every green plant to eat.” And it was so. 31 And the Lord saw all that He had made, and saw that it was firmly established. And it was evening, and it was morning, the sixth day.
Date: 50–500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Onkelos explains the biblical 'very good.' The created world was not simply pleasing: it was firmly established. Nachmanides reads more into the Targum than is warranted when he interprets the targumic words to mean that despite the fact that evil would exist, the world was so ordered that even evil would be necessary for the preservation of the 'good,' and that even death and the evil inclination would provide benefits. Sforno suggests that Scripture's 'very good' signifies that the end result of creation far exceeds the results of each part of it, which were only described as 'good.' Maimonides tells us that God did not create evil; evil is a human creation. 'Very good,' according to Maimonides, means the creation fitted its purpose and would never change or cease being, for the laws of nature were permanently fixed ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Genesis: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 9.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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If something is firmly established it indicates stability and order and looks very good.
If something is firmly established it indicates stability and order and looks very good.