REINTERPRETING ‘āḇaḏ AND šāmar IN GENESIS 2:15: IMPLICATIONS FOR ASANTE-TWI BIBLE TRANSLATION

Abstract

The Asante-Twi Bible’s translation of ‘āḇaḏ, and šāmar, can be misleading and a source of motivation for environmental degradation among Asante communities in Ghana. Incidentally, Ghana faces serious environmental crisis where many of her water bodies and forest cover are being destroyed due to illegal mining activities. If a misinterpretation arises out of such a translation of the biblical text, it could be considered as a stimulus for ecological misbehaviour. Was it the case of unavailability of suitable clauses in the receptor language or a choice of translational approach by the local translators? This study employed a historical-critical method and an exegetical approach, where Genesis 2:15 was contextually, textually and morphosyntactically analysed and its translations in the Asante-Twi Bible assessed. Having scrutinized ancient texts such as the Masoretic Text, Septuagint and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and their parallel with Asante-Twi Bible regarding the text, it is argued in this paper that the Hebrew phrase, ‘āḇaḏ, and šāmar, could be suitably translated as ɔnyɔ mu adwuma na ɔnhwɛ so yie, “he should cultivate and keep it well,” in the Asante-Twi. It is believed that this would advance mother-tongue theologizing regarding Christian environmental discourse among Asante-Twi readers. This study has contributed to the field of Mother-tongue Biblical Hermeneutics, Bible Translation Studies, Old Testament Exegesis, Biblical Studies and Linguistics.