Honorary "rare" construct denoting God (“create”)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, tsuku-rare-ru (造られる) or “create” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Genesis 1:25

Verse 25 expresses the execution of the command given in verse 24.

And God made the beasts of the earth: although named last in the previous verse this category is now first. According to their kinds, meaning “all kinds,” is repeated for each of the three categories of land animals in verse 25. Good News Translation and some other versions summarize the information in verse 25 to “And God made them all….” Others like Bible en français courant mention the three groups of animals: “Thus God made the different kinds of wild animals, domestic animals, and the small animals.”

And God saw that it was good: see Gen 1.4 and verse 10.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .