Why the English Bible is Wrong

[CCCombobreaker]

What about the Bible's mistranslation bothers you?

What makes you think it bothers me?  Do you think that I chose the title I did because I don't like the Bible?

I think (both of) your objections say a lot more about you than they do about me.

Stop being so deliberately cryptic please.  You refuse to answer any of my questions even though I answer all of yours.  And then you make vaguely demeaning comments that really add nothing to the discussion other than trying to frustrate the people who are trying to make sense of what you posted and why you posted it and if you even want to talk about the issue at all (other than badgering people who post anything in this thread).  What does my objection say about me?  What assumptions are you making based on my response?  I am doing my best to make no assumptions about you... instead I ask you meaningful questions to try and understand your position so I don't walk away from this with a bunch of assumptions about you that benefit no one.

I think you chose the title to have some shock value, whether or not you support the Bible isn't inferable from the title or the content of the OP, but that you posted this at all means it is an issue that: at least you can troll people with, more likely that interests you, or perhaps is very important to you.  I don't even need to know your stance to have a discussion on the issue.  But that you are making such a big deal out of it either means you enjoy frustrating people or you really think the title is accurate even though quite a few reasonable members of this community disagree.

The more I try to communicate with you to understand all this... The more questions I have: why are your replies to our well-thought, detailed, thorough posts one or two lines containing questions that don't even address any of our points?  And of all the things you could object to in any of my posts, why are you nitpicking details that aren't even that questionable.  Your obstinance is hindering this discussion, not furthering it.   

And I would really appreciate you addressing my posts, their contents, and my questions rather than replying to this with something accusatory or deflective.

[nerd1]

This is probably one of the most brilliantly incisive talks about the problems with Biblical literalism I've ever seen. It's not even anti-religious; just a good, solid explanation of why taking the Bible literally is a really, really bad idea.

[ Invalid YouTube link ]

actually, even though I am religious, I must agree. The bible does contain fact, but taking the entire thing as solid truth is folly. You should learn to distinguish between which parts are real and which parts are metaphor.

[OldTrees]

This is probably one of the most brilliantly incisive talks about the problems with Biblical literalism I've ever seen. It's not even anti-religious; just a good, solid explanation of why taking the Bible literally is a really, really bad idea.

[ Invalid YouTube link ]

actually, even though I am religious, I must agree. The bible does contain fact, but taking the entire thing as solid truth is folly. You should learn to distinguish between which parts are real and which parts are metaphor.

You should have watched the video.

The video is about mistranslations and less accurate translating methods. It does not comment on literal vs metaphor.

[UTAlan]

I just watched the video and found it quite fascinating. A few thoughts:

Most of the examples he gave were not, in fact, mistranslations. He references Song of Songs 4:9 (

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Songs%204:9&version=NIV), saying "sister" is incorrectly translated, as it isn't meant to mean the author's sibling, but his equal. This is not a mistranslation, but a failure to understand the original intent of the verse. I find that he does this a lot in this video, including with the "The Water for the Chocolate." This is simply an idiom you cannot understand without context, not a mistranslation.According to him, the 10th commandment ("Do not covet") is a mistranslation. I need to do more research on this, but my initial thoughts are that he cannot be right about this, if for no other reason than it would be redundant. The 8th commandment is "do not steal."Re Title of the Thread: I agree that the title is misleading. Nowhere in the video does he posit that the Bible is wrong. In fact, he is a bible scholar and served on the faculty for Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. His intent is not to expose the Bible as being wrong, but to explore "how translation mistakes mask the original meaning of the Bible" (Source (http://www.lashon.net/JMH/index.html)). Your title of this thread strongly implies that the original text of the Bible is wrong. Even if you try to argue that you mean the English Translation, that isn't what the video is about, either. I'd recommend changing it, but I respect your opinion if you disagree with me and want to keep it as is.[/list]

[IceySammy]

The thing with translations is that sometimes it depends on personal thoughts etc, for instance some may think to call someone their bother or sister means they go by the belief that beings as we are all human beings we are all in a sense brothers and sisters. Where someone else may look on it and believe that they mean blood related. Plus when the so called orginal bible has many parts which either contradict what was said on a previous page or are just that hard to translate properly, you can hardly expect most bibles etc to be of much help or even have the right translations or meanings behind them.

And yes the person who started may have put the wrong title down but its human to make mistakes, can hardly expect it to be perfect when nothing in life is perfect.

[johannhowitzer]

Wrong =!= False.

If I give a Spanish person a Nova and they think "but it won't go anywhere", they're wrong.

The Bible, in any English form, is wrong.

Essence, I gotta side with BP on this one.  The original Hebrew and Greek are considered the Bible, yet you assume in your OP that the people reading this thread will be on the same page with you excluding the original translations.  Topic title needs changed to avoid misunderstanding.

[russianspy1234]

According to him, the 10th commandment ("Do not covet")

is a mistranslation. I need to do more research on this, but my initial thoughts are that he cannot be right about this, if for no other reason than it would be redundant. The 8th commandment is "do not steal."[/list]

Covet probably is as accurate as you can get in one word.  What the commandment means is more "do not desire what your neighbor has simply BECAUSE they have it"  in other words, it an admonition of the behavior children exhibit in that they have no interest in the ball until you pick it up.

also,

If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James —- your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right.  (http://www.wrathofblog.com/post/46733427/if-your-original-hebrew-disagrees-with-my-original)

[Wimbledofy]

didn't actually watch the video since it is 20 min, but from what you said about the bible being wrong, well that is not true. There may be some small slight errors, but the scribes of the bible had to write it down word for word, meaning that there are many copies the translaters had to go by, and they made sure that they would check through many different copies of the original language(not the original copy of the bible) to make sure it was very accurate and there very few passages(very very few) of which might not be right. The only bible that is truly 100% accurate is the original, but that doesn't mean that the context of the bible passages today are false. The bible is meant to be taken literally in the way it is written. True stories are meant to be read as true stories, parables as parables, and poems as poems.

[OldTrees]

didn't actually watch the video since it is 20 min, but from what you said about the bible being wrong, well that is not true. There may be some small slight errors, but the scribes of the bible had to write it down word for word, meaning that there are many copies the translaters had to go by, and they made sure that they would check through many different copies of the original language(not the original copy of the bible) to make sure it was very accurate and there very few passages(very very few) of which might not be right. The only bible that is truly 100% accurate is the original, but that doesn't mean that the context of the bible passages today are false. The bible is meant to be taken literally in the way it is written. True stories are meant to be read as true stories, parables as parables, and poems as poems.

The OP presents too strong of a claim compared to the video. The video points out that the meanings of words and phrases changes over time and the common means of translating the bible are not sufficiently accurate when those means are examined by linguistics (the science of language). The video concludes that we all have a responsibility to research what the bible meant.

[Wimbledofy]

ok i understand, but what does op mean?

[Essence]

Original Post.

[BluePriest]

I should so be a jerk and complain about how its not wrong, just mistranslated now