Who cares?
It’s ἐπὶ in every Greek version, and ἐπὶ means “on.” The King James wasn’t divinely handed down. It was a group of scholars doing their best with what they understood.
Only idiots think that the King James, a version that doesn’t even account for class conditions of the word “if,” a very important distinction in the original Greek that’s lost on old dirty fingers McGee, was itself “divinely inspired” or “supernaturally preserved” and somehow superior to the Greek copies that came prior.
The KJV is beautiful in its language and definitely makes for good reading as literature. I prefer the RSV 2nd Catholic Edition for daily reading and research (NOT the NRSV, which has "inclusive" language).
If you want to get down in the weeds for specifics of translation issues, the original language is a must since a lot of the words have multiple meanings in English. "λόγος", for instance is translated as "Word", but has a much deeper meaning philosophically and theologically, and no English word comes close. Another good example is the NIV translating "παραδόσεις" as "teaching" when the text presents it in a positive light and "tradition" when the text presents it in a negative light, when the original word actually means both. The NIV is essentially translating the text to fit their interpretation that Tradition is bad.
Wasn't it translated into Greek almost entirely by jews? I remember hearing that before.
The New Testament, of which includes Revelation - location of the verse in question, was written in Greek, and it was largely written by Hebrew former adherents of Levitical law. But its original penned language was Koine Greek.
It would be like saying the US Constitution was “translated into English” by Englishmen.
Hebrew former adherents of Levitical law
What does this part mean?
Nearly as much as those who use the phrase (((organized religion))).
Or maybe ((((((they)))))) don't. We should all divide and pick a side. That way we can fight each other.
(post is archived)