FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION

Transcription

1 Volume 8 - Study 1 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION APPROACHES TO TRANSLATION There are several approaches to the rendering and translation of the Holy Scriptures. Below can be seen the various types of translation: Word for word Interlinears Literal translations Optimal Equivalence translations Dynamic Equivalence translations Paraphrased versions WORD FOR WORD INTERLINEARS Alfred Marshal s Interlinear Greek. This has no alongside translation Brown and Comfort Interlinear. This is based on the UBS 4 th edition, Nestle-Aland 26 th edition. The Greek is more accurate and the English is easier to follow than KIT or Marshall Kingdom Interlinear Translation Greek (KIT). This is based on the Westcott and Hort Greek text with the New World Translation Committee s word choices under the Greek. It is excellent if one ignores the NWT alongside it. The Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson. The first modern interlinear and with a literal translation alongside it. LITERAL TRANSLATIONS The Emphasized Bible (1902) by J.B. Rotherham. This is very literal and therefore hard to read. It has the Name Yahweh throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Young s Literal Translation. This is very accurate but uses dated English and is based on the Greek text of the KJ. It uses the name Jehovah throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It is in the process of being updated. New American Standard Updated (NASU) This is the most literal of the common modern bibles. It uses Sheol/Hades rather than hell. Unfortunately Gehenna and Tartarus are translated as hell. English Standard Version (ESV). This is a 21 st century bible. It is a little less literal than NASB. It uses sheol but is inconsistent in its use of Hades/hell and fails to transliterate Gehenna. New American Bible (NAB). This is the modern American Catholic Bible. It is a little less literal than the ESV but transliterates Gehenna and Tartarus. It is less Trinitarian in its approach, but there are a few minor twists toward Catholic doctrine. New Revised Standard Bible (NRSV). This has been superseded by the ESV. However, it was better in several areas, as with greater consistency in the transliterating of Gehenna. King James Version (KJV). This is fairly literal but based on the very dated Received Text and which was based on less ancient manuscripts, and so has many more words than the Wescott & Hort master text. New King James Version (NKJV). This modern language version contains of the faults to be found in the KJV. Wycliffe s Bible (1384) by John Wycliffe. This was the first translation of the Bible into English. 1

2 Geneva Bible ( ). This was based on the work of William Wittingham and associates. Tyndale s New Testament (1534). This was the first printed English translation. It is available today with conversion into modern lettering. OPTIMAL EQUIVALENCE TRANSLATIONS These are also called Literal-Idiomatic Translations and so are part way between the literal and the dynamic equivalence translations. This should give the best in understanding to the modern reader. The International Standard Version of the New Testament (2003). This is a very good version, but still contextually incorrectly renders certain verses in a Trinitarian direction. The Kingdom New Testament (2011) by N.T Wright. This too is an excellent translation. It correctly renders the Greek word aionios as age to come or similar. It also recognizes the Messiah s parousia as referring to his royal coming. DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCE TRANSLATIONS These are thought for thought translations rather than word for word. It is the real way to translate but can be subject to translator abuse. The New Testament by William Barclay (1968/69). This version is particularly good in rendering the verb tenses to show continuing action New Jerusalem Bible (NJB). This Catholic version is based on the original French version and is an excellent dynamic equivalence translation. It uses the name Yahweh throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It recognizes the semantic range of the Greek words and translates appropriately. Unfortunately has Catholic layout of chapters/verses in the Hebrew Scriptures. New International Version (NIV). This is currently the most popular version after the KJV. It also recognizes the semantic range of the Greek words and translates appropriately. However, it does shuffles phrases and terms in the Trinitarian direction and so is the most Trinitarian version. Revised English Bible (REB). This replaced the New English Bible. It is dynamic equivalence but with some paraphrasing. Overall this is a very good version and leans away from Trinitarianism to some extent. The NET Bible (also called the New English Translation). This is an excellent version with copious footnotes. PARAPHRASED BIBLES. Many of these take substantial liberties with the text and so cannot be recommended. However, there are some renderings which are very accurate: The New Living Translation, The Bible in Living English Byington, The Good News Translation, The Contemporary English Translation, The Living Bible, The Message (The worst), GOD S NAME IN THE BIBLE The divine name, the tetragrammaton (YHWH) appears almost 7000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It may be read as Iehouah or Yehowah or Yahoua (and other variations) but which is mostly read as Yahweh, Yahveh, or Jehovah (incorrectly). So either Yahweh, or Yahveh, should be the rendering so that the name would properly appear in any modern version of the Old Testament, as it does in the New Jerusalem Bible and Rotherham s Emphasized Bible. However, this name in any form does not and never did occur in the New Testament documents. The conspiracy theory which states that the divine name was removed from the original copies cannot be true for the following reasons: 2

3 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION 1. The very randomness of production, geographical dispersion, and preservation of the copies of the inspired Christian Scriptures means that the chances of all of these copies being replaced with copies without the divine name, according to the conspiracy theory, are so remote as to be nil. 2. For there to have been such an intention by apostate Christians to eradicate the Name, it would require the co-operation of all the faithful Christians. 3. Christians were never party to wilful destruction of manuscripts. These were so precious to them that they did their best to preserve them as is evident in the more than 5,000 copies in the original Greek that are available today. 4. It would have been impossible to gather all existing manuscripts containing the Name so as to consign them to destruction at a single time. 5. If, over a period of time, such destruction and/or replacement had been accomplished there would have been a mix of manuscripts with some using the Name and others using the word kyrios. Then newer copies would also have been made from the ones containing the Name so that it would never go out of circulation. So, for the above reasons, the divine name should never be rendered in the N.T as a substitute for the Greek word kyrios (Lord) in those documents. BASIC POINTS OF GRAMMAR IN THE GREEK N.T THE VERB TENSES The present tense predominantly concerns continuing action e.g. Luke 7:22: The blind are seeing, the lame are walking, lepers are being cleansed, the deaf are hearing, the dead are being raised, the poor are having the good news proclaimed to them. The present progressive tense is recognized in Charles B. William s NT, Kenneth Wuest s NT, William Barclay s NT, The International Standard Version and several other translations. Examples of its usage are: Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking keep on knocking (Matt. 7:7). Stop judging others, and you won t be judged; stop condemning (Luke 6:37). So let s keep celebrating the festival with the yeast-free bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8). The imperfect tense predominantly concerns durative past action. The perfect tense predominantly concerns completed action. The aorist tense predominantly concerns punctiliar action i.e. as referring to a once only and never to be repeated event of the past. NOTE ON ISSUES WITH PREPOSITIONS The prepositions in the Greek NT text are notoriously difficult to render accurately. This is because there are many nuances as well as great uncertainty regarding the exact meanings in many places. Many translators have taken the usual range of possible meanings and used them throughout (e.g. the Greek word eis is usually rendered: in, to, into, among, etc). Other translators, such as William Barclay and Edgar Goodspeed, have been a little more adventurous in trying to express these many prepositions more meaningfully in English. As well as giving the usual renderings for these prepositions, other terms may be used, as for example for the word eis, so that it is also rendered: with respect to, uniting with, and throughout, in relevant places. These are in keeping with the lexicons and the renderings given by the various linguistic scholars of NT Greek. 3

4 SIGNIFICANT WORDS AND PHRASES 1) Brought into existence/was fathered by. The aorist participle of the causative Greek word gennao is generally rendered in older versions as begotten and in modern versions born. However, the basic meaning of the word in this form is brought into existence or was fathered by, which renderings present the meaning more accurately and hopefully as more understandable than the usual renderings. The occurrences related to when Jesus came into existence are in Matt. 1:16, 20; Luke 1:35; John 1:13, 18:37; Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:3; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 1:5; and 1John 5:18. 2) Uniquely fathered/uniquely brought into existence by a father. Associated with the above is the Greek term monogenees, rendered only-begotten or only in most translations, However, the rendering only does not bring out the full meaning in respect of Jesus, and only-begotten is a dated expression. This is better rendered as: uniquely fathered or uniquely brought into existence by a father. The occurrences relating to Jesus are: John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9. This rendering also applies to Isaac in Hebrews 11:17. 3) Of the age to come. The Greek word aionios is usually rendered as eternal life or everlasting life. However, it is taken by scholars to refer to the future with the meaning of pertaining to the age and hence our rendering of of the age to come. (See the following leading biblical linguists: Barratt. Gospel According to John, p.26, 179; Vincent Taylor, Commentary on Mark, p. 426; Nigel Turner, Christian Words, pp455 ff and The Kingdom New Testament by N.T. Wright for all the occurrences of aionios). Furthermore, in Greek there are three words for life : Bios. The period or duration of life, manner of life, or livelihood. Psyche. This has a range of meanings, but refers often to life generally or natural life as in John 12:25 where there would otherwise be confusion with perfect life (zoe) of the future. Zoe. This is used in two senses, depending on the context. In the minority of instances the contexts indicate life in the sense of vitality and with reference to life s period or duration. It is presented in the KGV as life (with quotation marks) to distinguish it from the occurrences of bios or psyche. However, in the majority of instances, zoe means perfect life or similar, as referring to the future immortal life to be granted each Christian. So based on these two factors concerning aionios and zoe, the phrase zoe aionios is best rendered, perfect life of the age to come or perfect life of the future age rather than everlasting life or eternal life. 4) The Greek preposition en has various meanings according to the grammatical structure of the text. Most translations render en consistently as in. However, this leaves the text somewhat unclear in many instances. The Greek-English Lexicons shows the various meanings for the many different texts as being: among, because of, through, within, as well as in according to the grammatical structure of the text. For clarity the phrase usually rendered in Christ may be best rendered as: in intimate relationship with Christ, or in or through union with Christ (Note also the New Testaments by Charles B. Williams, Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Good News Translation, The Complete Jewish Bible, and the International Standard Version). 5) Dismiss in Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Mark 10:10-12; and Luke 16:18 rather than divorce : But I say to you that everyone who dismisses his wife, except for sexual immorality, is setting her up for committing adultery, and whoever marries a dismissed (for any reason) woman commits adultery. Whoever dismisses his wife (for any reason) and marries another; commits adultery against her. 12 And if she dismisses her husband (for any reason) and marries another, she commits adultery. 4

5 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION Everyone who dismisses his wife (for any reason) and marries someone else commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman dismissed (for any reason) from her husband commits adultery. These four passages concern how the Pharisees attempted to draw Jesus into the any reason (Matt. 19:3) debate between the schools of Shammai and Hillel. Clearly sexual misconduct (Matt. 5:32; 19:9; Deut. 24:1-2) and failure to provide materially and emotionally (Ex. 21:10-11; Eph.5:25-31) were grounds for divorce. These factors indicate that Jesus spoke of invalid divorce in the above texts. 6) Coming as king/royal arrival. The basic meaning of the Greek word parousia is coming to be present and refers to the arrival of someone i.e. the process of their arriving. However, it takes on extra connotation when the reference is to dignitaries, nobility, or royalty who visit. Therefore, this is best rendered, coming as king or royal arrival or similar when the reference is Christ s return (note the rendering royal appearing/arrival. in N.T. Wright s NT), as well as in the case of the appearance of the man of lawlessness. 7) In exchange for/in place of/instead of/as a substitute for. Traditionally the Greek words anti (anti) and hyper (uper) are rendered for, on behalf of, or for the sake of in relation to the atonement as being merely representative. However, the Greek scholars Nigel Turner, R.E. Davies, B.K. Waltke, and Daniel B. Wallace all show that in the Koine Greek of the 1 st century the word anti had the notion of substitution with the metaphorical meanings of: in exchange for, instead of; and that in relation to the atonement, the argument that anti ever bore the mere sense of representation (i.e. = hyper) has a surprisingly slim basis. With reference to hyper A.T Robertson s early studies of secular documents of the 1 st century revealed that hyper carries the idea of substitution. Later Daniel B. Wallace discovered 78 examples showing that, the evidence is overwhelming in favour of treating uper as bearing a substitutionary force in the NT era. So in reference to the atonement hyper may embrace both these meanings, and express how Christ died at once for our sakes and in our stead; while anti would only have expressed the last of these Please see Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Daniel B. Wallace pp and ) Status as His children. (Gk huiosthesia) This phrase is beter than the usual word adoption. This is because the Greek word is rendered sonship in the UBS Interlinear in its 5 occurrences: Romans 8:15, 23; 9:4; Galatians 4:5; and Ephesians 1:5. Also the International Dictionary of New Testament Words shows that huiosthesia gives Christians the full rights of sons. Nevertheless, the word adoption is not incorrect as such, but can be wrongly interpreted as if Christians do not have full rights as sons and daughters of God. NOTABLE VARIATIONS IN RENDERINGS COMPARED TO SOME OF THE STANDARD VERSIONS The following explanations of grammatical points formed the basis for many of the rendering of the relevant verses in the Kingdom of God Version of the New Testament. MATTHEW 13:35 I will announce what has been hidden from the founding of the world [the world of mankind not planet Earth. Therefore, the founding of the world is a reference to God s redemption plan after the first humans sinned (Gen. 3:15) and is close to the time of Abel s murder (Luke 11:50, 51)]. 5

6 Among a number of commentaries, Trench s Synonyms of the NT shows that the Greek word Kosmos refers to an order or arrangement and in particular to the the sum total of persons living in the world i.e. the world of mankind rather than the pagan Greek meaning of the entire material universe. The phrase founding of the world is also found in: (Matt. 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:24; Eph. 1:4; Heb. 4:3, 9:26; 1Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8 and 17:8). LUKE 16:22, 23 The rich man also died and was buried 23 in Hades. And having lifted up his eyes, he, being in severe pain, saw Abraham far away This punctuation issue in English concerns where one places the full-stop, there being no punctuation in the Greek uncial manuscripts. The usual rendering is: The rich man was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented he lifted up his eyes The literal word for word is: also the rich man and he was buried and in Hades having lifted up the eyes of him being in torments he sees Abraham from far away However, some texts, including the Latin Vulgate, join the words in Hades to was buried and begin a new sentence with Having lifted up his eyes. In harmony with the syntax and the rest of the Scriptures, as showing Hades as not being a place of torment, this rendering has some merit. LUKE 23:43 Jesus said to him, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise NWT I say unto thee this day: With me shalt thou be in paradise. Rotherham. This is a punctuation issue in English of where one places the comma. The usual rendering is: I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise and so giving the impression that Jesus would be in paradise on the day he died. Yet the Greek uncial manuscripts allow for any syntactically correct placement of punctuation marks. Furthermore, there are 170 occurrences in the Scriptures where the adverb today (or this day ) follows the verb it modifies in emphatic statements and so placing the punctuation after today e.g. wherefore I take you to witness this day, that I am clear from the blood of all men (Acts 20:26 Young s Literal Translation). As with Luke 23:43 this is an emphatic statement and so the Greek word semeron, used in Luke 23:43 does not concern any event that will happen later today but rather it emphasizes the fact that the criminal hanging next to Jesus will be with [him] in paradise. So in harmony with the rest of the Scriptures, which show that Jesus did not go to paradise on the day he died, this verse should be punctuated as above. JOHN 1:1, 2 WHAT DID LOGOS MEAN TO JOHN IN HIS GOSPEL? As with Philippians 2:6-11 and Colossians 1:15-20, the passages of John 1:1-5, 10-11, and 14 are poetic. The layout for all these passages can be seen in the New American Bible. John s concept of the logos did not come from Greek Platonic philosophy or from Philo (in Egypt) who applied Greek philosophy to explain the Hebrew Scriptures. Neither did John originate the concept himself, but rather his understanding came from the Hebrew Scriptures and their corresponding Aramaic Targums the Hebrew word being dabar (translated in the Greek of the Septuagint as logos) and the Aramaic being memra. Dabar occurs 1,440 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and logos over 300 times in the Christian Scriptures, all having a variety of meanings - none of which refers to a person; and so there is no legitimate reason for John 1:1 to refer to a person. As a number of leading theologians recognize: when a literary piece is poetic it is generally given to metaphorical interpretation, which in the case of John s prologue is the figurative language of personification, rather than hypostatization of (ascribing essence to) the word. 6

7 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION THE VARIETY OF MEANINGS OF LOGOS AS GIVEN IN LEXICONS A communication, expression of mind, utterance, statement, question, proclamation, instruction, message, revelation, the gospel, declaration, decree, plan, creative thought, purpose, promise, wisdom, or reason. COLWELL S RULE MISUNDERSTOOD WHEN APPLIED TO JOHN 1:1 Most translations render John 1:1 as and the Word (Gk logos) was God (Gk theos). By making the unwarranted assumption that Jesus was the word, the further assumption is made that Jesus was God this in spite of the fact that the phrase involves an anarthrous theos. To support this rendering translators appeal to a rule developed by E.C. Colwell in Colwell s rule states: Definite predicate nouns which precede the verb usually lack the article a predicate nominative which precedes the verb cannot be translated as an indefinite or a qualitative noun solely because of the absence of the article; if the context suggests that the predicate is definite, it should be translated as a definite noun However, in his Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (p. 257) Daniel B. Wallace states regarding translators that: They saw the benefit of the rule for affirming the deity of Christ in John 1:1. But what they thought Colwell was articulating was actually the converse of the rule, not the rule itself. That is they thought the rule was: An anarthrous predicate nominative that precedes the verb is usually definite. This is not the rule, nor can it be implied from the rule they read into the rule what is not there. Wallace goes on to show that Colwell had also contradicted himself in regard to the application of the rule. CLARIFICATION OF COLWELL S RULE AS QUALITATIVE FOR JOHN 1:1 Philip Harner found that 80% of anarthrous pre-predicate nominatives are qualitative and 20% are definite and none are exclusively indefinite. Since then Paul Dixon has shown that of the three semantic forces, namely, the definite, the indefinite, and the qualitative only one of these three is John s intended meaning. Don Hartley took this a stage further in his studies and concluded that qualitativeness is a valid semantic category apart from definiteness or indefiniteness. He noted that from the standpoint of pure analysis, theos in John 1:1c is most likely qualitative. From this we can see that the structures the word was God (definite) and the word was a god (indefinite) are likely to be incorrect. However, to say the word was divine as Moffatt does i.e. qualitative is problematic because John did not use the Greek word for divine. So the best structure seems to be as in the NEB and REB and what God was the Word was and so demonstrating the qualitative nature of logos. IN JOHN 1:1 and 2 PROS TON THEON DOES NOT MEAN WITH GOD The Greek word generally rendered as with is para and not pros. So one wonders why almost all translations of John 1:1 and 2 render them respectively as: the Word was with God and was in the beginning with God when, in fact, the word with is barely one of the lexical definitions. Such a practice would seem to be because of tradition. In contrast, for about 70 times, the LXX renders pros ton theon as to God. Also there are 18 further occurrences of pros ton theon in the Christians Scriptures, the great majority of which are translated as: to God, with reference to God, pertaining to God, relating to God, concerning God, or integral to God for John 1:1, 2. JOHN 1:3, 4 THE RENDERING IT RATHER THAN HE Everything came to be through it, and without it nothing came to be. What came into being by means of it was the perfect life, and the perfect life was the light of mankind. The Greek word auto can be translated as he or it. Both the context and the fact that logos nowhere refers to a person in the Scriptures (the logos becomes a human in John 1:14) indicates that the rendering should be it and not he. 7

8 The first time the rendering him was used in a translation from Greek manuscripts was in 1582 with the Douai/Rheims version by Roman Catholic priest Gregory Martin. OTHER VERSIONS GIVING SIMILAR RENDERINGS OF JOHN 1:1-3 There are some 39 English translations prior to and since the KJV which give a non-personal rendering of logos in John 1:1-3 as with the KGV. These translations are: Tyndale (1534), Coverdale (1535), Matthew s Bible (1537), The Great Bible (1539), Taverner s NT (1540), Whittingham (1557), The Geneva Bible (1560), Bishop s Bible (1568), and the Thomson NT (1607), LeClerc (1701), Wakefield (1791), Campbell (1826), B. Wilson s Diaglott (1864), Concordant (1926), William Temple (1939), the 1985 translation by the Jewish historian Hugh J Schonfield, The Unvarnished New Testament (1991), and the 1993 translation by Robert W. Funk. The German Elberfelder and Luther Bibles have Das Wort (Das being neuter and a capital letter being standard for all nouns in German) and the French Segond version has La parole (feminine) and in Russian it is slovo en bylo (neuter). MODERN ENGLISH RENDERINGS OF JOHN 1:1-3: In the beginning was the purpose, the purpose in the mind of God, the purpose which was God s own being (G. B. Caird, New Testament Theology). In the beginning there was the divine word and wisdom. The divine word and wisdom were there with God. It was there with God from the beginning. Everything came to be by means of it (Robert Funk). In the beginning was the Plan, God s Plan, divine!! Everything took shape through it, nothing without it!! It brought life and light for all, shining in the dark, never overcome!! It entered the world it had planned, yet the world refused to know!! God s own people refused!! But all who accepted, who trusted, could become God s children, not born in a woman s blood, not conceived by any man, but born of God!!... And the Plan became flesh... (David L. Edwards - a Trinitarian). JOHN 1:13 him 13 who was brought into existence, not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a husband s decision, but of God. In harmony with Matthew s and Luke s Gospel this rendering shows that John acknowledged Jesus coming into existence as God s direct Son through a virgin. The basis for this rendering is the 1920 German translation by Albrecht whose notes state: I am following here in John 1:13 an extremely old reading found in Irenaeus and Tertullian. The singular verb was begotten referring to Jesus, not to believers, prevailed in texts from the second to the fourth century in the West, and left important traces in the East also. John confesses expressly here his belief in the virginal begetting and birth of Jesus, which Matthew and Luke describe in much more detail. Similarly, the Jerusalem Bible renders the verse as: him who was born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or will of man but of God himself. The New Jerusalem Bible reverts to the old reading but has a footnote on this issue. JOHN 1:15, 30 The one coming after me has advanced in front of me, because he ranks ahead of me. Throughout the NT the Greek word protos invariably has the meaning of, first in the sense of rank. Yet most modern Bibles render protos in John 1:15, 30 as before in the sense of time, while others rearrange the syntax to say, for example: He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was ( existed NASB) before me (ESV). However, word for word from Marshall s Interlinear John 1:15, 30 read: The one after me coming before me has become, because first (Gk protos) of me he was. This is rendered literally as: The one coming after me has become before me, because he was first of me (my superior or chief). 8

9 9 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION So verses 15 and 30 evidently refer to Jesus superior ministry as beginning after John s ministry began, and so do not refer to Jesus as existing before the birth of John the Baptizer. The following versions render protos as being in the sense of rank and with the correct syntax: because he is first in regard of me (The Revised Version). for he was better than I (The Geneva Bible). He who after me was coming, before me hath advanced; because my chief he was (Rotherham). There is a man in my following who has taken precedence over me, because he is and always has been essentially my superior (C.H. Dodd). The one coming after me has now moved ahead of me, because he always was my superior (Anthony Buzzard). JOHN 3:11 also John, 6:46; 8:38; 14:7, 9; and 15:24 we speak about what we know and testify about what we ve seen by faith, These are instances of John s use of horao metaphorically with reference to seeing by faith. Jn. also thinks of seeing as the perception of a revelatory event. This is a spiritual act of seeing, the sight of faith The NIV Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words p.923. JOHN 6:27b because the Father, [even] God, has put His seal of approval on him. This rendering follows the syntax presented in the translations of the New Testament by J. B. Rotherham, James Moffatt, William Barclay, Kenneth Wuest, R. F. Weymouth, and J. N. Darby rather than the syntax presented in most versions which give: God the Father. ACTS 20:28b to shepherd the congregation of God which he purchased with the blood of his own [Son]. Many versions render this as: the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. However, many other versions recognize that a small but vital part of the Greek text is missing and that logically and theologically it must mean as the following versions present it: the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son (NRSV, NJB, CEB, CEV, GNT, NCV and the Lexham English Bible). Barclay renders this verse as the church of God, which he has bought for himself at the price of the blood of his own One. However, versions which render it as his own blood often have footnotes showing blood of his own Son. ROMANS 9:5 The patriarchs are theirs and from them came the Christ by natural ancestry. May God, who is over all, be blessed forever. Amen. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology states that: Rom. 9.5 is disputed. After Paul has expounded the position of Israel in salvation history and has emphasized as an especial advantage the fact that Christ according to the flesh, stems from this people, he adds a relative clause, which runs lit. who is over all God blessed for ever. Amen. Even so, Christ would not be equated absolutely with God, but only described as a being of divine nature, for the word theos has no article. But this ascription of majesty does not occur anywhere else in Paul. The much more probable explanation is that the statement is a doxology directed to God, stemming from Jewish tradition and adopted by Paul. Overwhelmed

10 by God s dealings with Israel, Paul concludes with an ascription of praise to God. The translation would then read: The one who is God over all be blessed for ever. Amen. Or alternatively, God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen. Under the heading God in, vol. 2, ed. Colin Brown, p. 80. An almost identical statement is made in 2 Corinthians 11:31 concerning praise to be received by the Father: The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever... Similar renderings of Romans 9:5 are to be found in the NAB, Moffatt, RSV, REB, and Barclay. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:29 Otherwise what will those who are getting baptized achieve? It s for the sake of [being] the dead if dead people aren t actually raised! So why are they baptized for their sake? Because the earliest Greek manuscripts had no punctuation marks, it was first proposed by Johann Salomon Semler in 1770 that the punctuating of this passage in the standard translations is less likely. His proposed punctuation gives the following word-for-word sentence structure: Otherwise what will they do the ones being baptized? On behalf of [Gk huper] the dead ones if actually dead persons are not raised! Why indeed are they baptized on behalf of them? Furthermore, the Greek word huper lexically also means for the sake of in this case, as in Kenneth Wuest s translation and which is the suggested rendering in The Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. These factors result in the above modern English literal rendering. COLOSSIANS 1:16 For because of him everything was created in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether rulers or authorities everything has been created through him and for him The literal reads as For in (Gk en) him However, this most likely has the causal meaning, because of according to Moulton and Milligan (A Grammar of New Testament, 1963, 3:253). This also fits the context that everything has been created through him and for him. Therefore Jesus could not have been the Genesis creator. TITUS 2:13 as we wait for the realization of our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ. and 2 PETER 1:1 To those who have equally obtained with us the privileges of faith through the right ways of our God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Most versions render these as: our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. They do so based on what they believe is their correct application of the Granville Sharp grammatical rule. Yet, the two verses appear word-for-word as: of the great God and of Saviour of us of Christ Jesus Titus 2:13. of the God of us and of Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Peter 1:1. EXAMPLES OF SAME GREEK GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE In 2 Thessalonians 1:12 it says:...according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Other examples are Acts 13:50, 15:22; Eph 5:5; 1 Tim. 5; 21, 6:13; and 2 Tim.4:1. TWO ENTITIES WITH A SINGLE FUNCTION Not all scholars recognize the GRANVILLE SHARP RULE as applicable to these verses. D. A. Carson research professor of NT at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School states: 10

11 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION The fallacy, of course, lies in relying upon the Granville Sharp rule where Sharp himself explicitly insists his rule does not operate. The error of the commentators is at least understandable, since so many of the standard grammars also get this point wrong only one article governs both nouns in expressions like the Epicureans and Stoics (Acts 17:18). Indeed, the only place where ton Pharisaion kai Saddoukaion is found outside Matthew is Acts 23:7; and in this context the doctrinal disparity between the two groups is presupposed. In each pair, the two nouns are linked together for the purpose in hand presumably they function together as representatives of the Sanhedrin. Exegetical Fallacies, p. 82. On the basis of the explanation by Carson it becomes clear that both of the above verses are linking God and Jesus together in their united function. The fact that they are separate individuals is presupposed and was well known to the readers of these letters and even shown in those letters. Otherwise it would be comparable to saying that the Epicureans and Stoics were a single group of philosophers united in their beliefs because Luke did not say the Epicureans and the Stoics. Yet these two disparate groups did function as a single group in their criticism of Paul s teaching. The same point can be made regarding the Pharisees and Sadducees. CONTEXT The immediate context given in verse 2 of 1 Peter 1, which speaks of: the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; and the wider context of the salutations at the beginning of most of the letters of the New Testament show a complete distinction between God and Jesus Christ. SIMILAR RENDERINGS IN OTHER VERSIONS...as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our saviour Jesus Christ (NAB, Moffatt, Rotherham, Philips, NWT, KJV). Through the righteousness of God and our saviour Jesus Christ (KJV, Weymouth, NWT, and Rotherham footnote). The Philips translation inserts a comma and reads: our God, and saviour Jesus Christ. However, the footnote for 2 Peter 1:1 in the NAB states: Could also be rendered Our God and the savior Jesus Christ. HEBREWS 1:8 But regarding the Son, (the people say) Your throne, O god, [endures] into the age of the ages, the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom. Traditionally this verse has been rendered as: But of the Son [he says], Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. However, in An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek p. 32 C. F. D. Moule explains that: (Heb. 1:8, which looks similar [to Luke 18:11 ho theos], may conceivably be a true Nominative, construed so as to mean Thy throne is God; but see commentators in loc.) So other translators have rendered it as: God is thy throne forever and ever, Moffatt God is thy throne Footnote to the RSV. God is your throne forever and ever, Smith and Goodspeed, Byington, NWT. Your throne is God for an age of ages, The Unvarnished New Testament. However, the text is a quotation from Psalm 45:6, 7 which is rendered in the RSV as: Your divine throne endures forever and ever; and in its footnote as: Your throne is a throne of God. Furthermore, the NAB renders it as: Your throne, O god, stands forever. So this is a reference to the king of Israel as being called god by his people. Also note that Jesus has the Almighty God as his God in Hebrews 1:9. Hebrews 1:8 is actually a quotation from the Psalms in the LXX and so the word for word from the 11

12 Greek NT is: Regards but the Son, The throne of you the god into the age of the age. Please notice that, unlike most translations, it does not say he says (also see REB, NAB and Rotherham) as if God is calling Jesus His God. Rather, based on the context of Psalm 45, it is the people of Israel who honour the king as god i.e. as God s representative because he sat in loco Dei on God s throne in Jerusalem. In the NIV notes the comment on Psalm 45 states: Possibly the king s throne is called God s throne because he is God s appointed regent. But it is also possible that the king himself is addressed as god. The Davidic king (the LORD s anointed, 2 Sam19.21), because of his special relationship with God, was called at his enthronement the son of God. In this psalm, which praises the king and especially extols his splendor and majesty (v. 3), it is not unthinkable that he was called god as a title of honor (cf. Isa 9.6) Clearly the Davidic king spoken of here as god is not literally the Almighty God but God s representative. So Jesus, in Hebrews, is being called god in this secondary and representational sense i.e. as God s representative king and therefore as being seen from the perspective of humans. This is also because, verse 3 says: He is the reflection of God s glory and so is, therefore, the ultimate representation of Almighty God. To view the Hebrews text without reference to its Hebrew background would result in ditheism i.e. two Gods Almighty. Acts 2:17; 2 Timothy 3:1; and James 5:3 the last days, (Gk eschatais hemerais) NOTE ON THE LAST DAYS and 2 Peter 3:3 and Hebrews 1:2 the end of the days (Gk eschaton ton hemeron and eschatou ton hemeron) The above Greek phrases are all based on the Septuagint s (LXX) translation of the Hebrew phrase achariyth hayyamin as being synonymous with it. However, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the LXX used this phrase in the context of prophecies with various unspecified times of future fulfilment, rather than meaning only the last days in the sense of one specified time of future fulfilment. The cause of this anomaly may be the inadequacy of the Greek to express the meaning of the Hebrew. The Greek adjective eschatos has both a spatial and a temporal usage, and yet: The temporal dimension is the least developed sense of eschatos. Gk. thought for example, has no developed eschatological understanding of time, i.e., one directed toward a future goal or end of the historical process. NIV Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words, p So it seems that the fault in this instance lies with the definition of the Greek term eschatos as being too limited, and until this becomes recognized all Greek-English Lexicons of the NT must continue to explain eschatais hemerais i.e. the last days - a superlative and so with reference to a specific time in contrast to the Hebrew original which lacked specificity. This then leads commentators to explain all occurrences of the phrase last days incorrectly as only a reference to the time (even if 2,000 years long) ending immediately prior to Jesus return. So in resolving this problem it is essential to understand the prophetic events in the NT which use the phrase eschatais hemerais in the light of fulfilment of events that have occurred or will occur in the days to come of the Hebrew Scriptures. These days to come are in future times from when the prophecy was written and so have the meaning: days or times of the fulfilment of a particular prophecy. 12

13 FACTORS IN BIBLE TRANSLATION RENDERING OF PARTICULAR VERSES IN VARIOUS VERSIONS John1:18: No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared Him. NKJ, Young s, Darby, Diaglott. ( Son in NEB, REB, NJB, Weymouth. the unique one Barclay) John 3:13: No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Geneva, NJK, Young's, Darby, ( whose home is in heaven Weymouth) John13:3: That he had come from God and was going to God. NKJ, NRS, Young's, Rotherham, Weymouth, NWT Luke 22:29: I make a covenant with you for a kingdom rather than I assign to you a kingdom. NWT I covenant unto you... NWT, Rotherham: Acts 13:48 Rotherham: as many as had become disposed for life age-abiding rather than appointed to. Rotherham 2 Corinthians 13:14: and the sharing in the holy spirit rather than fellowship of the 2 Thessalonians 2:2: through an inspired expression (Literal spirit ). Also 1 John 4:1. Hebrews 11:5: By faith Enoch was transferred rather than taken up which is sometimes mistranslated in the paraphrased Bibles as taken up to heaven. NWT, Rotherham: translated Acts 2:23: this man...delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. NAS, determined purpose NKJ Acts 13:33: He has raised up Jesus. NKJ, NAS, NAB, Young s. Rotherham, Weymouth (not resurrected as in NWT) Ephesians 2:6: and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. NAS and all literal translations. Philippians 2:7: but made himself nothing. ESV, REB, NIV. but made himself of no reputation. KJV, NKJ. the form of a servant having taken. Young s but sacrificed himself having taken the form of a slave. Lohmeyer 13

14 Colossians1:17: He is before (meaning above) all things. E.g. Greek pro panton as in 1 Pet 4:8, Jas 5:12 Colossians.1:18b: so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. NRSV, NWT, NAS, Young s, Rotherham, Darby Hebrews1:2b, 3: through whom he made the ages. He is the reflection of God s glory and bears the impress of God s own being. NJB through whom he hath made the ages. Who being an irradiated brightness of his glory and an exact representation of his very being. Rotherham Hebrews13:15: The fruit of the lips of those who confess his name. Darby, Rotherham, NIV 2 Peter.3:10: and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. ESV ( discovered Rotherham, found out NAB) Revelation.13:8: Whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. KJ, NKJ, Young s, Rotherham, NWT ( of the Lamb offered in sacrifice from the creation of the world. Weymouth) By Raymond C. Faircloth 14