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Sefaria / Sefaria-Export

Structured Jewish texts and metadata exported from Sefaria's database.
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Difference between Sefaria app and Sefaria-Export #5

Open obihill opened 6 years ago

obihill commented 6 years ago

Hello,

I use the Sefaria app and I noticed that there are differences in the text there and this one.

For example, in the app, Genesis 2:10 it says:

"A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches."

But, from the merged.json [and merged.txt], it says:

"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads."

Can you kindly explain why this is so? What can be done to normalize this?

Sliicy commented 1 year ago

Hi @obihill, I looked at both the merged.json and merged.txt for Genesis 2:10 and they both use the word 'branches', just like in the Sefaria app and website. I do see though in other translations the word 'head' being used, like in The Complete Tanach.

My guess as to the difference is due to literal translation versus explanatory translation. The literal translation for רָאשִׁים is heads. But to say that a river has 4 heads would sound odd. So the translation will often require supplementary information for it to make sense to the average English reader.

Why did the Torah use the word for 'heads'? There are many different reasons which is beyond the scope of this comment, but if you dive deeper into the commentary, they give explanations for various word-usage, nuances, based on the principle that every word and letter in the Torah is purposeful and important.

I hope this help!