Genesis 2:2
Hebrew Bible
1 The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them. 2 By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
LXX Genesis 2:2
Septuagint
1 And the sky and the earth were finished, and all their arrangement. 2 And on the sixth day God finished his works that he had made, and he left off on the seventh day from all his works that he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it he left off from all his works that God had begun to make.
Date: 3rd Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Genesis Rabbah 10:9
Aggadah
Rabbinic
Rabbi asked R. Ishmael b. R. Jose: ‘Have you heard from your father the actual meaning of 'and on the seventh day God finished'?’ Said he to him: ‘It is like a man striking the hammer on the anvil, raising it by day and bringing it down after nightfall.’” ... The Rabbis said: Imagine a king who made a ring: what did it lack? A signet. Similarly, what did the world lack? The Sabbath. And this is one of the texts they changed for king Ptolemy, making it read: ‘And He finished on the sixth day? and rested on the seventh.’ King Ptolemy? asked the elders in Rome: ‘In how many days did the Holy One, blessed be He, create the world?’ ‘In six days,’ they replied. ‘And since then Gehenna has been burning for the wicked,’ exclaimed he; ‘woe to the world for the judgments it must render!’
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Texts in Conversation
Genesis 2:2 in the Hebrew Bible says God finished his work "on the seventh day," potentially implying that he may have worked on the Sabbath and violated it. The Septuagint, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Peshitta versions of Genesis 2:2 change their text to say "on the sixth day," to avoid that implication. Genesis Rabbah, in turn, offers creative explanations for the tension while acknowledging how these other versions changed the text.
Notes and References
"... An interesting exegetical example concerns Genesis 2:2, where the Hebrew reads, "On the seventh day God ended his work." In contrast the Greek version (and the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Peshitta, and the Genesis Midrash) reads, "On the sixth day God ended his work." The Hebrew expression could be construed to mean that God actually did some work on the seventh day before he rested, Because of the importance of this passage for Sabbath-keeping, this point apparently was argued and settled among Jewish exegetes, so texts subsequent to that exegetical discussion were reworded to avoid suggesting that God created anything on the seventh day. The cessation of work on the sixth day is meant to indicate that God may have worked right up to the last moment before the seventh day, but ceased his work as soon as the seventh day had begun.^^ This is an example where the Greek translator apparently chose not to follow the Hebrew text, but to make his translation consistent with the traditional exegesis of the law ..."
* 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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