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Brooke Lester on Genesis 1:1
Long weekends have slowed down my blogging a bit over the last couple of weeks. But, I’m going to get a couple of posts out today (I hope). First, I wanted to point my readers to a helpful post by Brooke Lester on Genesis 1:1. He deals with one of the important translation issues that…
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Psalm 96:5 – Word Play
Today’s responsorial Psalm is Psalm 96. In verse 5, there is a word play between the words translated “gods of the peoples” and the word translated “idols” (or “worthless idols” or “worthless” dependent on which translation you are reading). I wanted to see if you can hear it. Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of…
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1 Samuel 5 – Hemorrhoids & the Wrath of God
I have been reading each morning recently from the Old Testament in the NJPS. And, it seems like each day I’ve been noticing things I’ve not seen before. And, today is certainly no exception. I suppose when I have read through 1 Samuel before, I probably read from the NASB or ESV. And, I believe…
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"Prostitute," "Harlot," "Whore" – Does it Make a Difference?
I’m sorry to disappoint you after that provocative title, but this is a translation issue. I was reading Judges again this morning in the NJPS. I read Judges 16.1, which is translated as follows: “Once Samson went to Gaza; there he met a whore and slept with her.” I thought to myself that I was…
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"Judges" or "Chieftans"?
This morning as I was reading in the Book of Judges in the New Jewish Publication Society (=NJPS) version of the Tanakh, I came across the word traditionally translated as “judges.” The NJPS renders the word as “chieftans.” I have also seen it rendered as “leaders/rulers.” I think the NJPS and those that render it…
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Psalm 85.11 – Translation Comparison
Psalm 85.11 (English verse 10) is the kind of verse in comparing parallel translations that could drive a sane man crazy. Five different translations and three different renderings of the word hesed and three different renderings of the verb tenses. Parallel Comparison of Psalm 85.11 Here are the parallel translations in BibleWorks: Notice that the…
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Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison
The Responsorial Psalm for today is Psalm 1 as you might have gathered from my previous post. In reading through Psalm 1 in the New American Bible (=NAB), I felt like it obscured the progression to be found in verse 1, so I took a look at the verse in parallels. It turns out that…
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Isaiah 41 – An Interesting Translation Issue
I was reading the lectionary passage this morning from Isaiah 41 and came across an interesting translation issue in verse 14. The issue revolves around the translation of the word mªtey (sorry couldn’t find a superscript “e” in my special characters). So, I checked out the text in parallel versions. Isaiah 41.14 in Parallel Versions…
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Doug Chaplin on the KJV Superiority Challenge
I don’t want to give away the whole post, but you might like to check out Doug Chaplin’s comments on the KJV superiority challenge (this was new to me). Doug lays out the KJV and NRSV of 2 Corinthians 6.11-13 side-by-side before giving this conclusion: If your ear for the English language suggests the former…
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"Old Salts" in Jonah 1.5
In most English translations of the Bible, one of the words in Jonah 1.5 is usually translated as “sailors” or “mariners” (NRSV, ESV, NJPS, NASB, and others). I can remember discussing this in my very first Biblical Hebrew class under Charles Isbell at Lousiana State University. He uses the Book of Jonah (minus the poetry…