GENERAL THINGS EVEN MINIMAL “CHRISTIANS” MUST KNOW
Did you know, Jesus of Nazareth never said the words: Thee, Thou, Verily”
And He didn’t lisp either. So he never said “ith”.
These words are from the 1611 King James Version of the Holy Bible, which was one of the first English translations. Jesus spoke a language called Aramaic, which is referred to by some as ancient Hebrew and others as an “older” form of Hebrew, but was a language that seemed to come about when Israel was in that Babylon captivity (maybe a combo of Hebrew and Akkadian – now known as Arabic, much in use during the time Jesus literally lived as perfect man on earth. Actually people of that time were multi-lingual and spoke several languages. Jesus also spoke Hebrew and Greek. Where the Aramaic came from seems irrelevant.
Prior to the 1611 King James Version, one man who translated the Bible to English, was tortured and then burnt alive at the stake for his efforts. His name was Tyndale. He was considered a Reformer, had helpers, and actually didn’t quite finish the translation. Tyndale used the “Polyglot Bible” which had the Old Testament in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin, and the New Testament in Latin and Greek. There is now a publishing group called Tyndale Publishing, which puts out the Living Bible or now the New Living Bible, as well as a lot of other stuff, like that “Left Behind” fiction series.
Did you know most of the Old Testament was written first in Hebrew and most of the New Testament was written in Greek/Aramaic/Hebrew? The Greek people translated the Old Testament to Greek in about 250 B.C. They called it The Septuagint. They did ask the Hebrews if they could translate it and having just been conquered as a race by the Greeks, of course, the Hebrews said fine.
Then the Bible was translated into Latin which is called “Old Latin”. St. Jerome translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek and it was called “the Latin Vulgate”. This was the bible for the “Church” until the Reformation time.
John Wycliffe translated the first English version of the Bible, from the Latin Vulgate – so this was a translation “from a translation” and not from Hebrew or Greek because John Wycliffe did not know Hebrew or Greek.
Following the invention of the printing press, many versions were put out. Americans need to understand that all languages were included, – not just English. The version Martin Luther used was, of course, German, since Martin Luther was German.
Did you know for a long time in America there was one choice, the King James Version? This was followed by the Revised Standard, the Amplified, the Good News and many others, including the NIV, (New International Version)
There is a “Read through the Bible in One Year, NLT (new living text) edition”, which is a good one for morning reading, especially if you are not a morning person, because you really don’t have to think, since it is in the language of today. However, in regard to the Gifts of Healings in 1st Cor. 12, it misses the plurality of this Gift of the Holy Spirit and lists it in the singular – Gift of Healing. When there is a double plural in the original Greek, we can assume the plurality is very important. What this means is that Holy Spirit God has gifted some people to act in the Gifts of Healings in certain areas easier then in others. Not that all healings are not Miracles, but some people are better praying for certain needed healings than others. The prayer always, of course, is that Jesus as the Great Physician will do the healing.
It is important to note that there were several kings, all in a row, who called themselves King James and no, I don’t know which one accepted the English version of the Bible as being OK. Look it up on the WEB.
Did you know the copyright on the King James Bible has expired? Maybe that’s why it is quoted all the time. Otherwise it costs money (so much a word usually) to quote from a Bible.