- Dec 26, 2024
My Avoidance of "Biblical" Words
- Jeff A. Benner
- Translation
- 12 comments
I have found that many of the English words used in mainstream translations carry with them a certain modern connotation that did not exist in the original Hebrew. For instance, we define a “priest” as an individual who is a “religious” leader and we would never call a building-inspector a “priest,” would we? Well, the Hebrews of the Bible would, well, not a “priest,” but a kohen, which is usually translated as “priest.”
The role of the kohen was multi-faceted. They were the “religious” leaders, but they had many other roles, including “building-inspector.”
And the priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house; Then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city: (Leviticus 14:39, KJV)
Because the kohen was much more than just a “priest,” I chose to use the word “administrator” as the translation for the word kohen in my Mechanical Translation. The Hebrew word kohen comes from the parent root ken, which means a "base." The kohen were the "base" of the community, the administrators.
I chose to write this blog because I came across the noun תפילה (tephilah) in my translation of Psalm 6:10(9), which is always translated as “prayer” in mainstream translations. The English word “prayer” is usually interpreted to mean “talking to God.” But this Hebrew word comes from a verb meaning “to plead” or “intercede,” so I chose to translate this word as “pleading.”
YHWH heard my supplication, YHWH will take my pleading. (Psalm 6:10(9), RMT)
I believe it is time that we remove the modern coverings of the Hebrew language and return them to their original meanings from within the writers original cultural perspectives.
About my Blog
The Bible was written in an ancient eastern culture, which views the world very differently from the way we do in our modern western culture.
My blog objectives:
Expose how our modern translations have ignored the original language of the Bible in order to present a Bible that is more easily readable by modern readers.
Transform your way of thinking to be more in line with the authors of the Bible.
12 comments
Similar to "removing the scales"...if we give a good go at removing this foreign "mask" and severing all traces of our previous theology, then we may be better positioned to have ears to hear and feet that walk in righteousness. Shalom!
I like your analogies of scales and masks. Both represent a degree of separation, one from seeing (blindness), and the other from one’s true nature (hypocrisy). Isn’t it the Greeks who saw life as some great theatrical performance? I think that this has contributed to the doctrine of the trinity which says that God is three persons (implying he wears three different masks). Either way, the veil was rent, and it is our job not to allow it to be placed over our hearts, or YHWH’s true character and nature. Amen brother.
"I AM THAT I AM" - YHVH - is the very definition of being THE AUTHOR OF ALL and therefore inherently being THE ONLY SOVEREIGN sovereign to wear whichever "mask" (trinity) YHVH deems necessary and sufficient and therefore appropriate as ONLY YHVH inherently knows WHO YHVH IS, no matter which costume YHVH "chooses".
Man with the happy help of SATAN/ PRIDE/ THE SNAKE trying to copy YHVH, while being convinced that he becomes THE ORIGINAL by putting on the mask of SATAN is a completely different issue.
"The trinity" or all other diversions are misdirections of SATAN through THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN - with each one's consent/ acquiescence - to take your eyes/ heart off THE LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. No-one should get fooled by intellectual hairsplitting no matter what denomination or fancy clothes and titles they wear or carry, even though it is INEVITABLE!
READ YHVH'S WORD!
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
Luke 24:31-32
31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
That he hides himself is undeniable, but I still believe that whatever way he expresses himself is still himself. The closest I can see to him wearing any disguise would be you and me, that he calls us his children and his body is difficult to understand. But we were created in his image and he teaches us to deny ourselves without denying him. And as a the high priest he is a meticulous building inspector indeed! Lord prepare us for the day of your visitation.
I was thinking about prayer (again) yesterday. There is much I feel I don't understand. Do you believe generally that all "prayers" are "pleadings"?
This is what came to my mind reading above comment, while at the same time having to admit that I have been struggling with the same tares (Matt. 13:24–30) that SATAN has been sowing into my heart again and again my whole life ... which is getting less and less "effective" due to YHVH'S WORD/ MERCY and the following story and Jeff's excavations . Long story short ... There was once an illiterate man desperate to learn "how to pray" and without any "help" in sight he asked another equally illiterate man how he prays. Who's answer floored the one asking as the second one told him "I only tell YHVH repeatedly the letters that I know one after the other" (I have no idea if such a person counts as illiterate, but which is irrelevant for the message, though) and continuing "As I don't know any prayer or how to pray I just BELIEVE that YHVH will put them together, so YHVH understands me."
Of course YHVH understands a child better than an adult (whatever that means). Not because the child is more literate but because it still has FAITH in abundance. SATAN/ THE WORLD is overcomplicating the HUMBLENESS, SIMPLICITY, STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS and at the same time diminishing the MIGHT, OMNISCIENCE, OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE of YHVH in order to make you SATAN'S SLAVE.
*** This long text might be partially viewed as testimony to the disease it is seeking to reveal. ***
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST even explicitly WARNS of NOT becoming LIKE a child … which is IMHO the reason "the Pharisees" (THE WORLD, and no-one knows apart from YHVH whether I would have been among them) all saw THE LIGHT that came INTO the world and did NOT RECOGNISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST blinded by the flash lights of THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN/ THE WORLD all around them and screaming at the top of its lungs at them: "Stay away from this "DANGEROUS MAN" (YHVH IN THE FLESH AND BLOOD) as HE is going to drown our people", i.e. HE is going to expose/ excavate the wickedness and depravity of THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN and then we are going to be penniless. Which in fact THE LORD JESUS CHRIST did much more effectively, profoundly, and lastingly (caveat: I don't truly BELIEVE such qualifications apply to YHVH) by carrying out the "order" of YHVH the way "they" did and still do today, than anyone of "those" participating in the execution back then could have imagined back then or those following in the footsteps of "those"/ falling into the same trap of SATAN since then.
The current “holidays” (holidays of what, YHVH’S WORD?!) are the most revealing example, but very few will see it that way, exactly as prophesied by the LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!
22And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.i 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32Remember Lot’s wife. 33Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.”j 37And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpsek is, there the vulturesl will gather.” Lk 17, 22-37
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
Edit: "... diminishing the MIGHT, OMNISCIENCE, OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE of YHVH ..." is completely SATANIC/ FALSE as it should read "... MAKING IT APPEAR that YHVH is an Iliterate idiot ..." so all those pursuing a career in THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN can APPEAR as though they are wise/ possessing special knowledge/ power.
From a modern perspective, prayers are, basically, "talking to God." However, in the Bible, where we find the verb palal, it should be translated as "pleading," but instead, it is incorrectly translated as "prayer." The Hebrew verb palal DOES NOT mean prayer.
Daniel 9:3-4
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer 8605 tephillâh (from pâlal 6419) and supplications 8469 tachănûn (from chânan 2603), with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4 And I prayed 6419 pâlal unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said 'âmar 559, 'ânas 597 O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
Could it instead read something more like this?
Daniel 9:3-4
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek for his judgment and mercy by pleadings, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4 And I pleaded, interceding before the LORD my God, and made my confession, and was insistent with a loud voice, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
Reading the verses in Daniel that follow do you think this is a good description for what he was doing?
Why is 'ânas 597 in the interlinear and not in the KJV? The only occurrence I could find is in Esther 1:8 "compel".
I also find it interesting that "prayed" 6419 pâlal in Daniel is translated "executed judgment" in Psalms 106:30; Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment pâlal: and so the plague was stayed.
Daniel was seeking to end the desolation, and Phinehas to stay the plague. Daniel on his knees and Phinehas with a javelin. Do you think that both instances could also be put under the light of a court proceeding by the word "pleading"?
Would pleading be a sort of talking to God or more of an action?
It seems like an impossible task, but I sincerely applaud your efforts, and am reminded that it is YHWH’s work. One that he already finished from the foundation of the earth, we must simply be willing to walk in it.
While I don't disagree as it is an obvious fact that translations/ transliterations are not the "original" I would like to point out that YHVH would not have allowed anything but the original if this would serve YHVH'S PURPOSE. Which doesn't carry any insinuation of having to find out YHVH'S PURPOSE of so many translation. But rather to focus on the study of YHVH'S WORD no matter what the translation is we are endowed with - knock and the door will be opened to you.
Once YHVH considers anyone "bored" with the translation the servant is using YHVH surely will find the appropriate solution, which could still mean having to stay bored as long as necessary according to YHVH'S WISDOM, STANDARD AND PURPOSE. HIS CREATION is the useless servant after his daily routine ... ALL PRAISE AND GLORY TO YHVH is all what we are due to YHVH.
Diversion by smoke and mirrors is the preferred tactic of SATAN AND HIS CULT, hiding in plain sight.
Ask how many are reading YHVH'S WORD at all and you will quickly realise how "crucial" this truly is ... I appreciate YHVH'S HAND in this, though!
I wish our Pastors today did what those did in the OT times, How things have changed. We could go to them for doctor advice, family advice and even building advice.
Eze 34:10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the "providers"; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the "providers" feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them (with Ancient Hebrew Intent)
The Hebrew word "raah" is more like a "provider" than a "shepherd.
Psalm 23:1 "The YHWH is my provider.... for example.
As the Lord provides for us , our "earthly providers" were supposed to provide as well, but instead they have become lazy and valueless. Shalom