Errors in Bible translations...

[t3gah]

I remember finding out about these when I was reading my Tanakh. Anyway, the mistakes are in the King James Version bible. They mistakenly thought a term re'em meant 'single horn cow' which in medievel times they rendered as "unicorn" the mythical animal.

Numbers 23:22
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Numbers 24:8
God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce [them] through with his arrows.

Deuteronomy 33:17
His glory [is like] the firstling of his bullock, and his horns [are like] the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they [are] the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they [are] the thousands of Manasseh.

Job 39:9
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

Job 39:10
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

Psalms 22:21
Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psalms 29:6
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Psalms 92:10
But my horn shalt thou exalt like [the horn of] an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34:7
And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

 

[Valjean]

The Bibles full of questionable translation and copy errors.

Eg: The well known "Yam suph" translated as "red Sea." The King James' scholars were unfamiliar with suph. They knew "yam" was "sea", though, and the nearest one was the red sea, so that's what they wrote. The fact that no-one with any knowledge of regional geography would flee across a sandy desert toward an impassable sea apparently didn't bother them.

The only reasonable flight path out of Egypt would have been down the Nile and West around the Mediterranean, toward the rest of the civilized world. The Nile terminates in a sea of reeds (Cyperus papyrus) -- (Hbw: "Suph"). In some places the water rushes out at low tide making passage to the West possible. You have to be quick, though. If not, you -- or a persuing Egyptian army -- will become hopelessly enmired when the tide comes in.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

t3gah, is there a point lurking behind the laundry list? I doubt that anyone would deny the existence of translation and variation issues.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

As a side note, the ads are now getting very odd in this thread. "Meet Unicorn Singles!" one of them is saying. I'm slightly worried.

 

[Valjean]

Is it permissible to eat the Unicorn singles?

 

[t3gah]

The Bibles full of questionable translation and copy errors.

Eg: The well known "Yam suph" translated as "red Sea." The King James' scholars were unfamiliar with suph. They knew "yam" was "sea", though, and the nearest one was the red sea, so that's what they wrote. The fact that no-one with any knowledge of regional geography would flee across a sandy desert toward an impassable sea apparently didn't bother them.

The only reasonable flight path out of Egypt would have been down the Nile and West around the Mediterranean, toward the rest of the civilized world. The Nile terminates in a sea of reeds (Cyperus papyrus) -- (Hbw: "Suph"). In some places the water rushes out at low tide making passage to the West possible. You have to be quick, though. If not, you -- or a persuing Egyptian army -- will become hopelessly enmired when the tide comes in.

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

 

[t3gah]

t3gah, is there a point lurking behind the laundry list? I doubt that anyone would deny the existence of translation and variation issues.

Seyorni posted something I and probably lots of other people didn't know. My accounts are like that too. religiousforums.com doesn't really state the type of venue you have to have to start a discussion or generate interest in a topic ...

Learning is a process.

 

[Valjean]

The red sea mistranslation -- and dozens of others, have been well known to all biblical scholars for at least a century. When an error is found in a textbook it is corrected in the next edition. Why is this not the case in a book Christians maintain is a thousand times more crucial to the eternal salvation of mankind than Elements of Biology?

 

[Mister Emu]

As a side note, the ads are now getting very odd in this thread. "Meet Unicorn Singles!" one of them is saying. I'm slightly worried.

:biglaugh: I'm more worried about the person writing the ad, he/she says they have "Hot profiles"

 

[linwood]

Did you know that the New World Translation is Ridden with mistakes as well?

Did you know that the Watchtower refuses to even state who made the translation for them?

Odd huh?

 

[Scuba Pete]

God works through imperfect people for a reason... to demonstrate his real power.

Which brings to mind the story of the first printer salesman...

And it came to pass that Johan came to the Abby, with a printing press to sell.

The Friar in charge of scripture copying didst meet him, and soonly they were in rapt discussions.

"Forsooth, Dear Friar, this printing press will surely your endeavor quicken."

"Yea verily, but as thou doth see, we have a team of scribes busily copying the scriptures by hand. As they finish one, they proof read it as they copy the next."

"Alas, dear Friar, for as much as a Single Friar makes a single mistake, it will be reproduced on all subsequent editions in glaring error."

To whit the Goodly Friar appeared puzzeled and turning away from the salesman he declared "I shall return in a thrice!"

Verily the sales man watched as the Friar diasappeared through a door with a loud clank. And it was for each subsequent door, that the sound grewth fainter and fainter, until such time as the salesman couldst barely discern the clank. At which point there arose from the Bowels of the Abby a worrisome thumping sound.

Alarmed at what seemed an inordinate amount of time the Salesman, decided to go find the Friar. So he went through the first door and the thumping was louder. And louder still after he passed through the next door, and so the sound continued to grow as passed from room to room. And the rooms numbered 148.

At last he came upon the last door and therein was created an awful din of thumping. So it was with great trepidation that the salesman did enter the final portal and there did witness the Goodly Friar hitting himself in the head with a manuscript that appeared exceedingly old. In between each blow, the salesman could hear the Friar mutter.,,

It said CELEBRATE!!!

 

[linwood]

It said CELEBRATE!!!

:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

Thanks for the Christmas gift Doc.

I love it!!

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

A cautionary note. Assertions of mistranslation presumes (a) the identification of a vorlage, and (b) an understanding of idiom. So, for example, the DSS offers Hebrew variants that anticipate the Septuagint as well as proto-Masoretic text. Meanwhile, there is the Jonah 2:5 usage widely identified as seaweed or, more generally, aquatic plant.

 

[t3gah]

[font='trebuchet ms',verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif]“The NIV Complete Concordance” was published for the “New International Version.” The preface of that concordance notes that in the NIV, as in a number of other translations, “the proper name of God, ‘Yahweh,’ is translated ‘LORD,’” using all capital letters, and that the Hebrew word for lord, “Adonai,” is also translated “Lord,” but with lowercase letters after the initial capital. Occurrences of the two words are listed separately in the concordance.

If the translation is Yahweh and Adonai, one would ask, why change it to a variant of "lord"? Clearly these are mistakes in translations.
[/font]

 

[t3gah]

The 2003 Holman Christian Standard Bible translates Yahweh into GOD and LORD.

 

[t3gah]

[font='trebuchet ms',verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif]“The NIV Complete Concordance” was published for the “New International Version.” The preface of that concordance notes that in the NIV, as in a number of other translations, “the proper name of God, ‘Yahweh,’ is translated ‘LORD,’” using all capital letters, and that the Hebrew word for lord, “Adonai,” is also translated “Lord,” but with lowercase letters after the initial capital. Occurrences of the two words are listed separately in the concordance.

If the translation is Yahweh and Adonai, one would ask, why change it to a variant of "lord"? Clearly these are mistakes in translations.
[/font]

Executive Secretary, Edwin H. Palmer, of the New International Version Committee said "This is why we did not use Jehovah as a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. We put 2 1/4 million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate for example, Psalm 23 as ‘Yahweh is my shepherd’. Furthermore, we do not know if we should say Jahu or Yahweh or Jehovah. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful of others. But a Christian has to be also wise and practical. We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. It is far better to get two million to read it, that is how many have bought it to date, and to follow the King James, than to have two thousand buy it and have the correct translation of Yahweh. It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you."

 

[t3gah]

The Yam Suph "Red Sea" or "Sea of Reeds"?
(http://www.cresourcei.org/yamsuph.html)

 

[t3gah]

The Preface of An American Translation bible: "In this translation we have followed the orthodox Jewish tradition and substituted 'the Lord' for the name 'Yahweh.'"

 

[Scuba Pete]

So what can we learn from this?

a) God is too weak to get us a decent translation.

OR...

b) God is all powerful and works through WEAK things to show his power.

Is there anywhere in the NT that claims the infallibility of scriptures?

How about in the OT?

I have always assumed this, and realize that I can't think of ONE scripture to back this up.

 

[No*s]

That's a good point ND. I've had many a discussions over that very thing with some of the fundies...