So two summers ago when journalist Bill Moyers asked him to take part in a television series about Genesis, Mitchell decided to tackle the first book of the Bible himself.
“The stories are there. They transcend the worst butcher. But there’s a way a good translation can put you on the level with the original,” said the 53-year-old scholar and poet who lives in Sonoma.
He spent three months translating the text and another two months writing an introduction. “Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Biblical Stories” was published this month — just in time for Moyers’ 10-part PBS special, which starts Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Mitchell discovered a text he describes as “bare-bones, highly dignified, but absolutely simple.” In terms of language, Genesis has few adjectives or adverbs.
“It’s like rocks and rivers,” he said earlier this month.
His previous efforts include translations of the Book of Job, the Psalms, the fundamental text of Taoism known as the Tao Te Ching and the works of such poets as Germany’s Rainer Maria Rilke and Israel’s Yehuda Amichai. He has also written “The Gospel According to Jesus.”
Mitchell reconstructed Genesis using the original Hebrew as well as the ancient Greek translation called the Septuagint and a number of modern versions such as the Revised English Bible.
He also relied on a textual breakdown accepted by most modern biblical scholars. This method divides the Bible into strands written by authors collectively referred to as the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Priestly writer and the Redactor.
During translation, Mitchell discovered an overarching theme in post-Eden Genesis that stems from one parent favoring a particular son. Genesis begins with peace, he said, followed by this discord that repeats itself from generation to generation.
Mitchell found a resolution of this conflict in the story of Joseph and his brothers, which closes the Book of Genesis. Joseph is the only character who undergoes true transformation, Mitchell asserted. Joseph forgives his brothers with his whole heart, thus ending the book as it began — with harmony.
To an untrained eye, the differences among translations might seem inherently subtle. But Mitchell contends that his work rises above the others, and offers several examples to illustrate his point that other translations tend to falsify emotions or overdramatize.
The 1989 Revised English Bible, for example, offers this version of Joseph’s reunion with his brothers in Egypt (Genesis 43:29-31):
“When Joseph looked around, he saw his own mother’s son, his brother Benjamin, and asked, `Is this your youngest brother, of whom you told me?’ and to Benjamin he said, `May God be gracious to you, my son.’ Joseph, suddenly overcome by his feelings for his brother, was almost in tears, and he went into the inner room and wept. Then, having bathed his face, he came out and, with his feelings now under control, he ordered the meal to be served.”
This is Mitchell’s version of the same verses:
“And Joseph looked at his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, and said, `This must be your younger brother, whom you said you would bring to me.’ And he said, `May God be gracious to you, my son.’ And he hurried out: his heart was overwhelmed with love for his brother, and he could no longer hold back his tears. And he went to his room and wept.
“Then he washed his face, and composed himself, and came out and said, `Serve the meal.'”
Mitchell’s dedication to translation began three decades ago.
Raised with a Reform Jewish education that was “very shallow and didn’t mean much to me,” the Brooklyn native said his religious passion was first sparked in his early 20s. A failed love affair during graduate school at Yale led him to bond with a text that “deeply addressed suffering,” the Book of Job.
He spent years seeking to answer the question of why suffering exists. He spent 10 months living in Jerusalem in 1969 and 1970, seeking out rabbis.
“I always saw in their eyes that they didn’t know,” he said.
In 1973, he finally met a Zen master who helped him find his spiritual path. Despite 23 years immersed in Buddhist practice, Mitchell said he never left Judaism.
In fact, he hopes to soon join forces with Jewish-Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein to teach rabbis about the benefits of meditation.
“Buddhist meditation practice is so nonreligious, it’s not threatening,” he said.
Mitchell has no immediate plans to translate other biblical texts. But his current projects include a fictional work about meetings with the archangel Gabriel and a book of poems based on Genesis called “In the Beginning.”