DO YOU REALLY WANT A LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE?

There is a certain mindset of Christians I have encountered who make a fetish of reading the Bible literally for themselves without any interference from so-called Bible experts. One such person I know gets quite upset every time I happen to quote a Bible professor who is attempting to explain the text. Although that same person will gladly accept anyone who has put out a podcast on a portion of Scripture, as long as they don't have any real academic credentials and don't belong to any recognizable Christian denomination. It seems to reflect a growing anti-intellectual, anti-authoritarian attitude among the Christian community.

The problems with such an attitudes are many, but one obvious fact to point out is that whichever English translation you happen to swear by is the product of dozens of these same professors, usually in teams composed of recognized experts in Old Testament and New Testament history, textual criticism, theology, and Hebrew and Greek grammar. To illustrate that fact, I chose six Bible passages in a totally random fashion and have presented them below in a literal word-for-word translation to be compared with a fairly literal translation (RSV) that correctly renders the true meaning of the passage. And even here, keep in mind that to get the proper Greek or Hebrew wording in the first place took the efforts of teems of textual scholars sorting through the various early manuscripts available to us and comparing the variations in wordings found there.

II Samuel 16:2

Literal – “And said the king to Ziba what these to you and said Ziba the asses for the houses of the king to ride on and the bread and the summer fruit for to eat the young men and the wine for to drink the wearied in the wilderness.”

RSV – “And the king said to Ziba, “Why have you brought these?” Ziba answered, “The asses are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink.”

Note that the original Hebrew did not have any punctuation to help clarify the meaning; the Hebrew word order if rendered literally gives the impression that the food is eating the young men instead of vice versa; the Hebrew idiom “what to you” is not explained; and the context shows that the word for “house” actually means “household.”

Job 14:3

Literal – “Also on this do you open your eyes and me bring into judgment with you.”

RSV – “And do you open your eyes upon such a one and bring him* into judgment with you?”

Since the Hebrew wording does not really make sense in the context of this verse, the RSV and most other modern translations chose to go to the very early Greek, Latin, and Aramaic translations of this verse which appear to reflect an alternative textual tradition than that of the Hebrew text. To explain this decision, RSV appends a footnote * showing where the word “him” came from and giving the Hebrew word “me” as well for comparison so that the reader can make up his or her own mind on the issue.

Zephaniah 2:1-2

Literal – “Gather yourself even together O nation not being longest for before the birth of the decree like the chaff shall pass the day yet before comes not on you the heat of the anger of Jehovah before yet comes not on you the day of the anger of Jehovah.”

RSV – “Come together and hold assembly, O shameless nation, before you are driven away like the drifting chaff*, before there comes upon you the fierce anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the wrath of the LORD.”

Again we see that the somewhat incomprehensible Hebrew wording “the birth of the decree like the chaff” is replaced by the reading found in the ancient Greek and Aramaic versions. Both versions are given in the footnote for the reader's guidance.

Mark 15:42-43

Literal – “And now evening coming since it was preparation which is the day before the sabbath coming Joseph the from Arimathea an honorable councillor who also self was expecting the kingdom of the God taking courage went in to the Pilate and asked the body of the Jesus.”

RSV – And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”

Now that we are dealing with a little more modern language like Greek, it is a bit easier to understand a word-for-word rendering in English. Nevertheless, calling Joseph a “councillor” does not really well define his role as a member of the council, i.e. the Jewish Sanhedrin. And then we come to the end of the verse where it appears that Joseph is actually questioning Jesus' body.

Ephesians 5:5

Literal – This for be you knowing that every fornicator or unclean man or greedy who is an idolater not has inheritance in the kingdom the of Christ and of God.”

RSV – Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

There are two important places here where clarification of the literal rendering is vital. The first is in explaining the meaning of the Greek idiom “this for be you knowing,” and the second is in the necessary punctuation provided in RSV which indicates that covetousness is actually a form of idolatry. Without that clarification, one could easily get the idea that a person will not inherit the kingdom only if they are both covetous and an idolater.

I Peter 4:2

Literal – “for the no longer of men in lusts but in will of God the remaining in flesh to live time.”

RSV – “so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by human passions but by the will of God.”

It is necessary to rearrange the literal word order in this passage to place the clause concerning
“time” at the start of the phrase to make any sense out of it in English.

So if you happen to be tempted to feel that your “unaided” understanding of a Bible passage is superior to anything a university professor could come up with, just keep in mind that it took a number of those same university professors to prepare the very text you are reading.