The Narrow Path Ministries

Is "good" (pertaining to God`s reaction to what He had created, as repeatedly affirmed in Genesis 1) a "terrible translation" and a gross understatement?
Not all Ted talks are edifying to the spirit (though often to the flesh!) so I was surprised to hear this speaker refer, out of the blue, to the English translation of the Hebrew word "good" as being such.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXu7dDSflf8 at 14.00

What is the best English translation of "tov", do you think?

The Online Bible Hebrew Lexicon gives the following meanings of the Hebrew word:

1) good, pleasant, agreeable
1a) pleasant, agreeable (to the senses)
1b) pleasant (to the higher nature)
1c) good, excellent (of its kind)
1d) good, rich, valuable in estimation
1e) good, appropriate, becoming
1f) better (comparative)
1g) glad, happy, prosperous (of man’s sensuous nature)
1h) good understanding (of man’s intellectual nature)
1i) good, kind, benign
1j) good, right (ethical)

2) a good thing, benefit, welfare
2a) welfare, prosperity, happiness
2b) good things (collective)
2c) good, benefit
2d) moral good

3) welfare, benefit, good things
3a) welfare, prosperity, happiness
3b) good things (collective)
3c) bounty

I searched the Old Testament for all occurences of the word, and found that words such as the above were used in the translation of the Hebrew word in every instance.

Also, the word was translated into Greek by the Septugint translators (about 300 B.C.) as "καλος," a Greek word that is translated in the New Testament by the NKJV 82 times as "good," 7 times as "better", and twice as "honorable."

thanks Paidion.

In other words perhaps the speaker was getting a little carried away in the interests of a good story (?)

Hi Paidion and Ian,

Yes I agree. I'm very thankful we have a reliable ancient greek text (LXX) to cross reference the Hebrew. Could you imagine the rabbit-holes we would be chasing concerning errant interpretations of the hebrew. The LXX is a blessing indeed, to simply weed out every so-called mystified hebrew thought .

God Bless.