Translate The Bible Properly!

by Mat 9 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Mat

  The trouble with English bible translations is none of them are correct! I know something is bound to be lost in any translation, but the bible has so much faith invested in it by religious groups that it is translated wrongly by all of them. What we need is a translation done by a team of atheists. Then maybe we will see what the real message was meant to be. Examples:

  1- God/god. The only reason why pagan gods are given a little g is religious prejudice. There is no precedent in Hebrew, so either translate El/Elohim consistently with a capital, or consistently with a small g. I wonder if such a translation would alter how we read it much.

  2-The serpent was wise! Translations usually call it cunning so as not to attribute wisdom to the devil, but this distorts the original message.

  3- Yahweh/Jehovah. We should all be familiar with this one, but replacing a word with something that means something else (LORD) is just wrong. Also, if the Hebrew letter 'yod' is a J in other names like Jerusalem, Jericho, Judah, etc and 'waw' is a V in David, then it should so be in god/God's name too. I think the modern scholarly method of preferring Yahweh is just to piss of the JW's. I'm sure they deserve it, but really, I think it's petty.

  Any other translation issues you can think of?
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  St George of England

  Yes, I like to read my English in English, NOT US english.

  George
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  J. Hofer

  even worse: when a english "translation" like the NWT is translated back into say german, or any other language instead of translating from the source language.
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  Amelia Ashton

  I found on the doors quite a few people didn't want "American" tracts or magazines, they wanted them in English English.

  One time it was actually a problem at the KH. Part of the WT study was how "Christians" don't participate in hazing and not one single person in the whole KH had a clue what hazing was.

  It is called an initiation rite over here.
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  ProdigalSon

  If we had accurate Hebrew in the Old Testament, Christian theology would be about ten times more untenable than it already is. The problem is, we don't even have English words or expressions that can accurately describe many of the thoughts being expressed in the Bible, in both Hebrew and Greek.

  For example, in Genesis 4:1, Eve originally said, "I have produced a man with Jehovah", not "with the aid of Jehovah". Big difference, as "Jehovah" now becomes something inside of, or a part of Cain.
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  transhuman68

  The Bible should never have been translated into English. End of story.

  Why would God want his message written down in a language that has no vowels?

  Some verses have a joke written into them- two words with different meanings but nearly identical spelling in the original language; we just don't get it.
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  Terry

  Genesis 4:1-16 (Young's Literal Translation)

  Genesis 4

  1 And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceiveth and beareth Cain, and saith, `I have gotten a man by Jehovah;'

  That rascal!
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  AK - Jeff

  The Hebrew portion of the Bible was written for those who spoke Hebrew. It should be left there. It was a Jewish book, written by mostly ignorant Jewish men, to be read by other ignorant Jewish men and women as they studied the Jewish laws and traditions of their time. Much the same [different language, but same ignorance of reality] can be said of the NT.

  Why I ever believed that I should adopt as my 'life guide' a book written thousands of years in the past, by men uneducated and believing in superstitious nonsense, while attributing everything unexplainable in their day to 'God' if it was considered good, and the 'Devil' if it was deemed bad, is beyond me. [My apologies for this run on sentence.]

  I don't think I can even find room to 'respect' such ignorance. I look back at my own ignorant reliance on such idiocy and nearly toss my cookies.

  Jeff
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  Mat

  Oh no. I don't agree in leaving it in Hebrew, but it could be translated more accurately.

  The reason for the God/god thing is that if we read the word 'god' consistently with a small g it would suggest that each god was not nessisarily the same one (as we do with a capital G) However, if we always read it with a capital G it would suggest the same level of majesty being attributed to even pagan gods.

  It would have a whole new spin on the bible. The god of Abraham would not nessisarily be the same one as the god of Jacob. See my point?
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  Band on the Run

  I disagree. There are many fine translations. Much depends upon your cup of tea. One can choose a more literal one. I hate modern usage but find the King James Version too dated. I like the NIV and New English. It is not as though there is one Bible such as when Catholics ruled or the Church of England. With the Internet available, you can plug in what you most desire and get it.