Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-06-01
John: That they may be one even as
we are one


OF the authorized version could have so
marred the beautiful passage in He
brews XII, Is, by the rendering: These
all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them
afar off, AID were persuaded of them
and imbraced them, and confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth In the first place, the state
ment is partly contrary to fact The
Old Testament worthless did not en-
brace the promises, but only saw them
from distance. In. the second place,
the word rendered persuaded has no
place in the text, while the equally
plain meaning of the Greek aspasame-
noi' is having saluted,' or greeted
The revisers give it thus: These all
died in faith. not having received the
promises, but having seen them and
greeted them from afar, and having
confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth The revision
thus returns to the older rendering of
Wycliffe, Tyndale and Cranmer, and
restores the beautiful image in which
the writer's thought is couched, of sea-
men recognizing the headlines of be-
loved country and greeting them from
a distance
IMPORTANCE oE THE ARTICLE THE
The Importance of the definite and
indefinite articles in the Interpretation
of sentences is well understood by
grammarians, but it seems to have
been frequently overlooked by the
translators of the King James Bible.
The article has frequently been omitted
from the English text where it existed
in the Greek, and this fact is illustrated
very strikingly in connection with the
word Christ This word IN never used
in the Gospels as proper name. 1t is
the official title of the Messiah, and
only once is it connected with personal
appellation Jesus. This occurs at Ohm,
xvii: 8, when Jesus says: And this
is life eternal, that they may know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent In
this passage the Savior stations Him.
self, as it were, in the future, when His
claim to be regarded as the Messiah
shall have been demonstrated by the
resurrection, and it is evident that only
after the resurrection could the word
Christ be properly used as Synonymous
with Jesus. In the Greek original the
definite article the is preixed in al
most every instance to the term
Christ and in the revised version
this is preserved in the translation.
PERTINENT INSTANCES.
A single instance of this change will
be sufficient to indicate to the reader
its value At Matthew, ii: 4, we read
in lhe authorized copy that when
Herod had gathered the priests and the
Scribes of the people together, he de-
manded of them where Christ should
be born The proper rendering is
found in the revised edition: He de-
manded of them where the Christ
should be born Another. instance of
the dropping of the article to the mani
fest injury of the text is to be found at
Hebrews, XII: 10, which reads in the
old version For he looked for city
which hath foundations, whose builder
lation of text, which appears in the re-
vised version, is: He looked for the
city which hath the foundations in
other words, for the new Jerusalem of
which it had already been said in the
Old Testament: Her foundations are
in tEa hole, mountains
THE DRAUGHT OF FISHES.
The article was not the only part of
speech which was incorrectly translat-
ed. The different lenses of the Greek
verbs were constantly mistranslated,
and the result was that in many cases
the sense of the text was entirely
changed, and often obscured. Very
little attention was paid to the differ
ence between the Greek aorist and the
Greek perfect, and they were inter-
changed very much at random in the
translation. The imperfect tense has
been translated in the authorized ver-
sion in such manner as to obscure the
meaning. Thus, in Luke v: 6, we
read, and their net brake There is
no authority for this translation. The
true reading is their net was breaking,
that is, it had begun to break, when
they beckoned to their partners in the
other ship to come to their aid. The
context, which shows that the ships
were filed with the fish taken, is per
fectly clear with this reading Had
the net broken, as the verse in the au
thorized edition reads, the fish would
have escaped, and the statement that
the ships were filled would have been
inconsistent.
THE SUBSTITUTION OF 'HADEs'
There is one word which is not to be
found anywhere in the accepted version,
which has been transferred bodily
from the Greek to the revised edition.
This is the word 'Hades,' which was
used in the Greek mythology to de-
note the world of departed spirits.
This word in the authorized version
was translated hell and the fact that
the scholars h wing this revision in
charge have refused to sanction this
tIduSluIlOu Hao given liSo W VIC lSPoiU
that the 'hell' of the Bible was to be
abolished. The report has no founda-
ton in fact. Wherever the word
'Gehenna' appears in the original it
has been properly translated hell
The 'Hades' of the original has quite
different Specification, and by translat-
ing it help the proper meaning of the
word was obscured. An instance of
the use of 'Hades' in the version is to
be found in Acts H., 81, where these
words are quoted from Psalms xvi. in
reference to Christ: Thou wilt not
leave My soul in Hades. neither wilt
Thou give Thy holy one to see cor
ruption.' The common rendering, hell
is evidently here wholly unsuitable.