Hot answers tagged translation
29
David Boswell is absolutely correct - animal names are consistently difficult to translate.
The word under inspection is reim (Hebrew: ראם). The word also comes up in Numbers 23:22:
God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. (NIV)
Here are some commentaries.
...It is difficult to say what kind of beast is intended by the
...
19
Short answer: no.
Long answer: While the Greek lacks the definite article on theos in the clause under discussion, that doesn't mean the English should be translated with an indefinite article. Greek and English do not enjoy a one-to-one relationship between their words. There are times in Greek when the article is present but not translated into English. ...
14
Among popular translations, New American Standard Bible is one of the most literal translations from the original languages, attemping to preserve as much as possible of the original sentance structure and word order.
From more literal to less literal popular translations include: NASB, ESV, KJV, NKJV, NRSV, NIV, NLT, CEV, The Message. (list order courtesy ...
13
I agree wholeheartedly with Jessica Brown's answer, but there's another dimension to accuracy: the text a translation is based on. Before the Tyndale Bible, English translations were made from the Latin translation (the Vulgate) and not directly from the Greek. For obvious reasons, these translations are automatically less accurate to the original texts ...
12
The lexicons referenced in Blundin's answer are trying to define the word ratsach throughout the whole of the OT. The differences between these different dictionaries and lexicons imply that the word doesn't have a single unambiguous translation but that it can mean different things in different contexts.
The OP asked what the word ratsach means in Exodus ...
12
The Hebrew says:
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה, לֹא-יָדוֹן רוּחִי בָאָדָם לְעֹלָם, בְּשַׁגַּם, הוּא בָשָׂר; וְהָיוּ יָמָיו, מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה.
My literal translation of the last clause:
His days will be one hundred and twenty years.
It doesn't explicitly say "no more than", but it also does not say—and history does not bear out—"exactly". ...
11
I am by no means a Greek scholar and I am not really giving an answer here, but rather a, possible, helpful clue that may help in finding the answer.
I looked at the LXX (that includes English translation) for Psalms 22:21 and have noticed that, it too, uses the term "unicorn".
The Greek word that is used in the LXX (Ps 22:21) is monokeros (μονόκερως). ...
11
Translation
From the Apostolic Bible:
Your first question is in regards to the translation. It seems that all three would be pretty valid translations. The original Greek for "the beginnings" here is arche:
Strings G746
1. beginning, origin
2. the person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader
3. that by ...
11
The Hebrew phrase in Psalms 118:25 from which the Greek Hosanna (ὡσαννά) derives is actually two words: הוֹשִׁ֨יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א (hoshi'ah na):
הוֹשִׁ֨יעָ֥ה (hôšîâ) is Hiphil imperative masculine singular fromישׁע` (ysh'), which means to help, save, rescue.
נָּ֑א (na) is a particle which indicates urgency or sincerity, and takes different meanings based on ...
11
According the the NET Bible translator note on the verse:
1 tn Heb “ a woman, a prophetess.” In Hebrew idiom the generic “woman” sometimes precedes the more specific designation. See GKC 437-38 §135.b.
Interestingly, since her husband, Lappidoth, is identified the text must reorient itself to point back to Deborah when talking about her leadership ...
10
The word "nephilim" as used in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33 is simply an anglocizing of the Hebrew word nephiyl. If it were to be translated it would be simply "the fallen".
this opens up a whole new hermeneutical question about how then should we interpret these people described both before the flood in Gen 6 as "the fallen" and then again after the flood when ...
10
There are several options for the etymology of Shaddai. My opinion is to take it from a word for "mountain."
I can't see how the wikisource gets to the translation it does. That certainly varies from the BHS. I think what they are doing is taking the et before shaddai as the mark of the accusative (thus making shaddai the direct object of the verb). ...
10
Wiktionary claims turtle is an old word for dove (thus the term turtledove), derived from the Latin onomatopoeia turtur. Thus, in the language of the day, turtle did indicate the bird. See also Dictionary.com.
10
I wrote a paper on James 2:14-26 a few years back.
Here's a link.
TRANSLATION
14: What (is) the benefit, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? That faith is not able to save them (is it)?
15: Suppose a brother or a sister is naked and lacking of daily bread,
16: and someone from you (pl.) says to them, “Go ...
9
I noticed that none of the current answers explicitly address the question of whether meek is a good English translation. Given the modern connotations of the word meek, it is not a good translation (though it may have been at one time), because in the modern usage it has a sense of craven pandering—the word, at least in my mind, has a derogatory ...
9
The Greek is πραεῖς, which has also been translated gentle.
According to this source, the word was used to describe a horse that had been broken-in among other similar usages.
9
The choices seem to be:
We correctly understand the text and it was a miracle. Two million or so people left Egypt and (mostly) died in the desert, where their bones were never found (looking would be a huge archeological task). If we can accept the miracles of the plagues, the crossing of the sea of reeds, the giving of torah, and sustaining everybody ...
9
It's odd to me that this isn't literal. The early portion of Genesis (1-11) is usually very literal. In my studies, Numbers is more literal than Gen 1-11 (so literal that I called it "Greek vocabulary on top of Hebrew syntax").
Uses in the Greek
The Greek word appears in the NT three times, all in Hebrews. (All scripture references are from the ...
9
In Hebrew the name Joshua is:
יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Yehoshua or יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua “the LORD is salvation.”
In Greek it is the transliteration of the Hebrew:
Ιησους (Iēsous, sounds like ee-ay-soos).
Therefore in the Greek New Testament Jesus and Joshua are both Iēsous.
Up until now the names are the same and even in the Latin Vulgate they remained the same. In ...
9
This is just to add to Mike's answer, not to replace it.
Joshua does not transliterate into Greek exactly. There are letters in Hebrew that are simply not there in Greek. The Greek of Luke 3:29, Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8 all have Ἰησοῦ/s for Joshua. Translators render it as Joshua instead of Jesus because that is the name readers will be familiar with. ...
8
Part 1 – The ambiguity
ולא יספו, ve'lo yasafu
“ve'lo” means: “and didn't/weren't”
The suffix “-u” means “they”
Without knowing the meaning of the word yasaf, we have “and they didn't/weren't ... [yasaf]”
The meaning of yasaf is ambiguous and can come from one of two Hebrew roots: אספ, asaf of יספ, yasaf. [Strongs H3254 and H622]
Asaf means “to ...
8
Yes, it is the common practice to translate from the original language into the some word in the destination language rather than leaving it as the source language. Words like this are notoriously difficult to translate because the interpreters have to pick some word in the destination language that will make sense to the readers of that language.
...
8
The King James Version uses "charity" throughout the "Love Passage":
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (KJV)
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the ...
8
I would take a look at the NRSV. Depending on which version you get (there is a Catholic NRSV as well) you will commonly find a "you all" or "all of you" instead of simply "you." Although rather than being a "word-for-word" or "thought-for-thought" translation, it is somewhere in between. It does a fairly good job of making grammatical distinctions where ...
8
Jon Ericson has already given a thorough interpretation, but just to answer the Hebrew query in your question:
וּדְבוֹרָה אִשָּׁה נְבִיאָה, אֵשֶׁת לַפִּידוֹת--הִיא שֹׁפְטָה אֶת-יִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּעֵת הַהִיא.
(From Mechon Mamre)
אִשָּׁה
(woman) is the feminine form of אִישׁ
(man). The other Hebrew words in this passage that are explicitly feminine are: ...
8
This answer is supplementary to Frank Luke's, and supports it.
When someone makes a claim about an ancient language's grammar, it always helps me to believe it and internalize it when I can see parallel usages that illustrate the truth of the claim. Thus, I am glad that Frank Luke offered several examples.
I have another which is perhaps even more to the ...
8
I believe the reason for that is because the author of Hebrews was quoting Psalm 8:6, which uses the plural pronoun, and the NIV 2011 translation committee likely was attempting to line the quote up with the original verse. However, the singular pronoun is used in the Greek for this passage in Hebrews 2:8. It appears that all of the pronouns are singular ...
8
I think it must be kept in mind that the Jewish day begins at dusk/sunset, which is the beginning of the evening. The day lasts until the next sunset. It could alternately be translated, "And evening coming, when the sun sank..." or "And evening having come, when the sun did set...."
I don't know whether this is a closing passage to the previous context ...
8
As Frank Luke points out, the Hebrew word "kinah" (קנאה) as in "El kanna" in Exodus 20:5 (אל קנא) in both in OT Hebrew and in modern, is both jealous and zealous at the same time, and can have either positive or negative moral value depending on the subtext.
The name "Cain" in the story of Creation apparently comes from the same root, meaning someone who ...
7
Given what the various dictionaries define I think "murder" is the more appropriate word, although there is some debate. So you can see for yourself I have posted some citations below.
From the Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains:
8357 רָצַח (rā∙ṣǎḥ): v.; ≡ Str 7523; TWOT 2208—LN 20.61–20.88 (qal)
murder, kill, i.e., take the life ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
