'A diverse voice, a diverse noise': the book of Genesis in early modern England

我的研究探索圣经和文学文化之间的交叉点在早期现代英国。特别是，我的项目集中在1605年至1667年之间的《创世纪》的英文版本上，这段时间以约书亚·西尔维斯特的《神圣周》和约翰·弥尔顿的《失乐园》的出版为界。在这一时期，《创世纪》为本土文学提供了一个独特的测试。当翻译关注其多价语言时，富有想象力的翻译将文本变成了英语诗歌，学术评论揭示了其无与伦比的神学意义。然而，评论家很少在这一时期考察《创世纪》。研究方法倾向于探索圣经和主要文学作品之间的关系，或者将其翻译纳入大型圣经项目中-从科弗代尔到国王詹姆斯圣经。相比之下，我的研究探索了早期现代作家使用圣经材料的各种方式。《创世纪》被翻译，被修改，被阐释，被训诫，被剪切，又被粘在一起。我的工作集中在这本圣经书上，以恢复对圣经文本在这些不同形式之间转换的方式的更密切的感觉。它将表明圣经不是由一系列稳定的圣经书卷组成的，而是一个产生其独特意义的互动网络。

My research explores the intersections between biblical and literary cultures in early modern England. In particular, my project focuses on the book of Genesis as it appeared in English between 1605 and 1667 - a period demarcated by the publication of Josuah Sylvester's 'Devine Weekes' on one side and John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' on the other.During this period, the book of Genesis provided a singular test to vernacular literature. While translations attended to its multivalent language, imaginative renderings turned the text into English verse, and scholarly commentaries unpacked its unparalleled theological significance. Yet critics have rarely examined Genesis in this period. Approaches have tended either to explore the relationship between scripture and major literary works, or to subsume its translation within large-scale biblical projects - from Coverdale to the King James Bible. By contrast, my study explores the variety of ways in which early modern writers engaged with biblical material. Genesis was translated, versified, expounded, sermonised, cut up and pasted back together. My work focuses on this single biblical book to recover a closer sense of the ways in which scriptural texts shifted between these various forms. It will show that scripture was not comprised of a stable series of biblical books, but a network of engagements that generated its singular significance.