The Mistranslation Argument
Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:42 pm
Every so often when debating an issue that depends on the support of Biblical scripture someone will bring up the point that some crucial word in the Bible has been mistranslated leading to the wrong impression of the scripture. However, whatever one thinks the proper translation may be, the fact remains that the "incorrect" word is what the faithful reader is being led to believe is true: his Bible is misleading him. In short, it brings up the issue of the Bible's trustworthiness.
One such case involves Isaiah 45:7 where God declares he creates evil.
........(KJV)
........"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
"Evil" occurs in 14 (47%) of the 30 translations I looked at. Reasoning that no translator would select a word that is more unfavorable to god than not, and that "evil" is the predominant translation, I think it's fair to conclude it's most likely the correct translation: God said he creates evil. Those objecting to this translation of the Hebrew רַ רַע (ra`) as "evil" say the proper translation should be something else (there are several notions as to what it should be * ). In any case, the Bible in which this supposed incorrect "evil" appears in Isaiah 45:7 continues to mislead hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Christians as to the true character of God. Hardly a decent thing to do.
Worse yet, it leads to the conclusion that if this one translation can be wrong and misleading, who's to say that the translations of other Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible can't be wrong?---some of them having gone unnoticed and perhaps quite crucial to one's theology. If, in fact, "evil" is what God actually said then 53% of the Bible versions are "lying" to and misleading its readers. AND, if "calamity" is, for instance, what God actually said, then 90% of the Bible versions are "lying" to and misleading its readers.
It does no good to argue, as has been done, that such errors in translation are insignificant or meaningless to the overall message, because one doesn't actually know this to be the case. It would be wishful thinking at its most desperate. It's also sometimes argued that a particular word has to be correct because it also appears in the same context in different passages. But this only points to a translator's objective to be consistent. One wouldn't expect different words to be used to describe the same subject.
Moreover, given the assertion that Biblical scripture was at least inspired by God, one has to ask why these mistaken translations appear in the Bible at all. One can only conclude that either God was only concerned with the faith of those people contemporaneous with the Biblical writings and that He doesn't care that errors pop up in subsequent translations, OR he's incapable of insuring his word remains true to his intended meanings. Got your pick it seems.
*Translations of the Hebrew רַ רַע (ra`) in Isaiah 45:7 in 30 versions of the Bible.
...WORDS....NUMBER...%
"Bad times"........ 1.... 3%
"Calamity"..........3... 10%
"Disaster(s)"........5... 16%
"Discord"............1.... 3%
"Doom"..............1.... 3%
"Evil"...............14... 47%
"Hard times" .......1.... 3%
"Troubles"...........2.... 6%
"Woe" ...............2.... 6%
If you take exception to what I've said please share your thoughts---without ad homs if you would.
One such case involves Isaiah 45:7 where God declares he creates evil.
........(KJV)
........"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
"Evil" occurs in 14 (47%) of the 30 translations I looked at. Reasoning that no translator would select a word that is more unfavorable to god than not, and that "evil" is the predominant translation, I think it's fair to conclude it's most likely the correct translation: God said he creates evil. Those objecting to this translation of the Hebrew רַ רַע (ra`) as "evil" say the proper translation should be something else (there are several notions as to what it should be * ). In any case, the Bible in which this supposed incorrect "evil" appears in Isaiah 45:7 continues to mislead hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Christians as to the true character of God. Hardly a decent thing to do.
Worse yet, it leads to the conclusion that if this one translation can be wrong and misleading, who's to say that the translations of other Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible can't be wrong?---some of them having gone unnoticed and perhaps quite crucial to one's theology. If, in fact, "evil" is what God actually said then 53% of the Bible versions are "lying" to and misleading its readers. AND, if "calamity" is, for instance, what God actually said, then 90% of the Bible versions are "lying" to and misleading its readers.
It does no good to argue, as has been done, that such errors in translation are insignificant or meaningless to the overall message, because one doesn't actually know this to be the case. It would be wishful thinking at its most desperate. It's also sometimes argued that a particular word has to be correct because it also appears in the same context in different passages. But this only points to a translator's objective to be consistent. One wouldn't expect different words to be used to describe the same subject.
Moreover, given the assertion that Biblical scripture was at least inspired by God, one has to ask why these mistaken translations appear in the Bible at all. One can only conclude that either God was only concerned with the faith of those people contemporaneous with the Biblical writings and that He doesn't care that errors pop up in subsequent translations, OR he's incapable of insuring his word remains true to his intended meanings. Got your pick it seems.
*Translations of the Hebrew רַ רַע (ra`) in Isaiah 45:7 in 30 versions of the Bible.
...WORDS....NUMBER...%
"Bad times"........ 1.... 3%
"Calamity"..........3... 10%
"Disaster(s)"........5... 16%
"Discord"............1.... 3%
"Doom"..............1.... 3%
"Evil"...............14... 47%
"Hard times" .......1.... 3%
"Troubles"...........2.... 6%
"Woe" ...............2.... 6%
If you take exception to what I've said please share your thoughts---without ad homs if you would.