Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Bad Translations

Wonerfully and fearfully made? Ok why didn't the translators of the bible translate this correctly to begin with? In the original Hebrew, this "fearfully" meant "with great reverence and respect." So why didn't bad old King James when he was having his bible translated, put in the right word? Respectfully made. Then the verse would have read "I will praise you, for I am reverently and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works, and my soul knows very well." (Psalm 139:14) Translating the bible from Hebrew to English I 'm quiet sure was a daunting task. After all, Hebrew was written backwards from the way English is written, and so the translator has to keep that in mind. And I'm sure there are phrases in Hebrew that English can't possibly offer a proper likeness to the real meaning behind it. So substitutes were assigned. For instance, when you find the word "witch" in your English bible, you must note that when the Hebrew scribes wrote that word they used a word that meant "healer" or "to heal". Sometimes "witchcraft" was used to denote the "art of healing" and other times it was taken from a different word meaning "sorcery" or "to bend a person's will to your own." Now but that in your caldron and stir it! So all down through the centuries that people have been sitting in their church pews and listening without their own research to their preachers expound the pages of the bible, and sitting round in family circles reading aloud the scriptures, they have been feeding their minds full of nonsense! Unless you know Hebrew yourself you are bound to build your beliefs upon what your parents and clergy have believed and if they believed that a word "fearfully" meant with "fear" then one would believe in something quiet confusing. Because "wonderfully" and "fearfully" just doesn't balance out. On the other hand if people start to question the authority of their chosen religion and their chosen "holy book" they will start to dig out these descrepencies on their own. It took me years of living in confusion before I decided to regect what was fed to me all my life and look at this for myself. And so I came to the conclusion that the bible that we ended up with is just a bunch of mis-information about the the history of a people who lived and loved and hated and misbehaved pretty much the same way all mankind has done ever since we came to be in this world. Their examples are just examples and some of their stories may be fable. I'll neve know that for sure now will I. So next tme you are reading a passage that confuses you and starts your head spinning round, just remember that there are whole books left out of this "book" because the church leaders at the time didn't want the people to be enlightened, else they couldn't be controled as easily and that the translators just sometimes put a word in at random because they coudn't think of one that would totally match the real meaning of the passage they were translating. That might explain the reasoning behind substituing a word like "fearfully" for the more correct one of "reverently." But it's just my own experience with it, my own journey. I just think before you take anybody's word for what you should be believing even mine, you should use the power of your own mind and think for yourself.