Two Bibles

In a way, there are two bibles.

There is the bible we have all been taught at church.

Then there is the bible that few know about. It is very difficult to show this bible to people. It has the same English words on the page, but it does not read the same as people expect based on the Hebrew and Greek text.

In the early 1600s the translators of the King James Version had a decision to make. Should they translate a reasonably accurate representation of the Hebrew and Greek and risk censure or worse. They went with the safer solutions. Here are a few examples.

The church in England in that day taught a Sunday observance. To avoid any confusion with that the translators took the Greek phrase “mia ton Sabbaton” and translated it as “first day of the week”. The phrase actually means “first of Sabbaths”. First of Sabbaths actually had nothing to do with a weekly observance as it was a specific Sabbath in the spring of the year, but the church taught that the Sabbath was no longer to be observed.

Another example is the word nation. In the Hebrew and Greek the words are goy and ethnos. Translating these words correctly could cause concern with church doctrine. So in instances where the translators didn’t have any choice they used the word nation. After all they couldn’t suggest that Abraham’s offspring would become many Gentiles! Everywhere else they inserted the Latin word Gentile. The primary meaning of Gentile is nation. At one point in history it was used to mean a non-Roman. If you ever look at an old dictionary you will see that it meant non-Jew and non-Christian in 1931 for example. It has since been changed to mean only non-Jew. Even in recent times those who call themselves Jews have changed the meaning of goy to mean non-Jew. However, when the writers of the old and new testaments wrote goy and ethnos they meant only nation. You had to understand the context of the verse to know the who. In some cases in the new testament the context demands that the who is physical Israelites where the word Gentile is used.

Those are just two examples. One must decide if they are going to read the bible that supports comfortable church doctrine or read the bible that shows what God intended one to understand. There is quite a difference between them and it is worth the work to learn the truth.

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