TRANSLATIONS*
John Stone
"Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever
conceived." -Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
Punctuation is the key to understanding the written
word. Without punctuation
marks, we may easily miss the meaning of what an author wanted to convey. Just read these simple ads. 1
· “For
· “Dog for
· “Tired of cleaning yourself?
Let me do it.”
· “Mixing bowl set designed to
please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating”.
· “Dinner Special:
I
especially like an English professor’s example on punctuation. On
the chalkboard he
wrote:
“A
woman without her man is nothing”
He then asked his students to punctuate it
correctly.
All of the males wrote:
“A woman, without her man, is nothing.”
While all the females in the class wrote:
”A
woman: without her, man is nothing.”
This is quite a dramatic difference in meaning, to
say the least. English is hard enough to understand WITH punctuation marks.
The
original Hebrew scriptures DID NOT use punctuation marks. The early scribes
knew what they wanted to say without punctuation marks, because they used a lot
of Hebrew adjectives and adverbs making the sentence understood by the
Hebrews. After all, Hebrew was their
language and they used their own quirks; their own mannerisms; and their own
peculiar trait in telling their stories.
For an outsider to translate Hebrew books, it would be extremely
difficult because they would have to not only know the language, but also the
Hebrew style (idiosyncrasies) of writing.
Scholars have found that few translators had that ability.
History
shows that the Hebrew bible was first translated into Aramaic, because the
Hebrews were exiled from their home lands and subsequently exposed to the
culture of the Babylonians. The Hebrew-Arabic bible was translated into Greek
and later into Latin ― the Vulgate Bible (which the Roman Catholics
followed) ― and then English last of all.
Starting
in 325 CE, the early Christian Church altered, and re-shaped the Hebrew bible.
In 397 CE, the church finally canonized the Christians writings into their New
Testament. It was easy for the church to alter the original Hebrew scriptures
and insert their own message ― selling Jesus, their version of god
incarnated ― into various verses. Over the years, each new Christian
bible translation and version changed the verses of both Old Testament 2 (Hebrew bible) and the New
Testament (Christian bible). Slowly it was done; a different word here and a
little different word there.
Today
there are nearly 250 complete translations of the Bible. And, according to the
Encyclopedia, 2 there are
1,130 Christian translations of parts of the bible. There are 73 versions for Catholics and some
Protestants, and 66 versions for the other Protestant denominations. The word “bible” literally means “books” in the Greek language. Jews like
to consider themselves "the "People of the Book," but in Islam,
the "People of the Book" are non-Muslim
peoples ― most notably Christians and Jews ― who, according to
the Qur'an 5:15, received scriptures which were revealed to them by their god
(Invisible Man in the Sky) before the time of Muhammad. Christians believe every word in their Christian bible ― many clergy go so far
as to maintain that it is inerrant and the actual word of their god. How scary!
How ignorant! Just three examples
are:
· “[The
Bible] is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its
author...” (The
· “We
reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine
revelation...”
(A Statement by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals; Cambridge Declaration, April 20, 1996)
· “We
believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly;” (The Articles Of Faith, found
in “The
These
religiholics are unaware that the Islam maintains a similar position regarding
Muslim scripture, the Qur'an. Islam maintains the Qur'an is the completion of the Hebrew and Christian
(only the four gospels) scriptures, and synthesizes them as their god's
(Allah/Invisible Man in the Sky) final and eternal message to humanity.
Beginning
with the early church fathers, bible editors and copyists, continuing to the
publication of today’s versions, all put their own interpretation, their own
“spin” of how each felt it should be
said; their own message; their own bias and their own altering. All of this
“playing around” with the scriptures often misleads the reader as to what his
version of the Invisible Man in the Sky
was trying to communicate.
The
innocent ― not deliberate alteration ― part of Christian bible
translation is like migrating a joke from Hebrew to French – or a French joke
to Chinese. The one telling the joke understands it, but it loses its punch
line to the listener. Something gets lost in the translation. For example, when
translating advertising slogans into other languages, problems often develop.
· When trying to translate,
Perdue Farms Inc.
founder, Frank Perdue’s slogan; “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” the Spanish
version said: “It takes an aroused man to
make a chicken affectionate.”
· When the Dairy Association
tried to take their “Got Milk?”
campaign into
· When Coors tried to sell beer
south of the border, their
· KFC’s “Finger-lickin’ Good” came out as: “Eat your fingers off!” in Chinese.
· Pepsi tried to translate “Come Alive With The Pepsi Generation”
directly into Chinese, but it came out as: “Pepsi
brings your ancestors back from the grave”.
According to the Jewish bible, their Invisible
Man in the Sky (God/Hashem), tried to preempt other holy scriptures, where
it says (Deuteronomy 4:2 and 13:1) that nothing may add
to or take away from Torah (the
1st five books of the Hebrew bible). However, Mormon's (Joseph Smith)
came along over 3,141 years later and proclaimed their new scriptures 'restore' the truth.
What
a ridiculous and idiotic mess, all of these writings of men, each professing to
be THE HOLY WORD of their particular brand of Invisible Man in the Sky. Folks, it is all imaginary; don't be
suckered into joining these games of delusion. Some insights of wisdom to
ponder:
"It ain’t the parts of the
Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do
understand."
-Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens, 1835-1910)
"You do not need the Bible
to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate." -Richard A. Weatherwax
"...[T]he Bible is a book
written by ignorance, at the instigation of fear. ... The inspiration of the
bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it." -Robert Ingersoll
(1833-1899)
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the
voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting
vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more
consistent that we called it the word of a demon that the Word of God. It is a
history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and for
my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
* DISCLAIMER:
Citation of Hebrew scripture and
sources in articles or analyses is not in any way an acceptance, approval or
validation of the Jewish religion, its works or scriptures. The Hebrew bible,
like the Christian New Testament, is fictitious; From a 6-day creation of the
universe; a cunning, walking, talking snake; big fish tales; world flood and an
"Invisible Man in the Sky" ― it is all fiction, a bold sham
perpetrated on mankind.
Footnotes:
1. ”Idiots
at Work: Chronicles of Workplace Stupidity,” by Leland Gregory, Andrews
McMeel Publishing (September 1, 2004)
2. World
Book Encyclopedia, p. 219
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