Читать книгу For We Know in Part - Robert Henrikson - Страница 19

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Bringing these ancient traditions and viewpoints to the mind of modern man has not been an easy task. Scholars have to choose modern words that sometimes only approximate the full meaning of the ancient words they represent. We know this to be so when you hear a Bible teacher expand his instruction by saying, “In the original Greek, this word had the additional connotation of ....” Very often the translators have to make a human decision, an educated guess as to what word is best to use.

In some instances, translators do not just choose the best modern word to literally represent an ancient one. Sometimes they choose instead a word or phrase that best represents the prevailing theology of the subject they are deciphering. They make the translation say what they know their benefactors want to hear. In my opinion, this has most clearly happened with the interpretation of same-gender sexual activity. Because of a perceived aversion toward discussing sexual matters in general, translators have manipulated the ancient texts to also make them general and vague. The result is an misunderstanding of ancient texts by the laity that does not convey the individual significance of ancient Hebrew concerns and of the newer N. T. observations of same-gender sexual activity. We are then left to surmise that their understanding of those ideas is the same as ours. So we proceed to assign what we want to think as how they must have thought.