Tag: greek

Pet Peeve of the Day

I’ve been on a Textus Receptus kick lately, so I’ve been doing my Bible reading in the New King James, since it’s the only modern translation based on the TR.  I can’t quite make myself dig straight into thees and thous.  But today in my reading, I come across 2 Timothy 2:17:

And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort.

Really?  Cancer?  I’m having a hard time believing Paul knew much about the spreading of cancer.  Totally pulls me out of the text.  So now, I’m looking it up… KJV says, “canker,” which at least sounds more legit, and is possibly where the cancer thing came from.  My KJV has glosses from the Revised Standard Version for some reason, and the RSV says “gangrene”.

Now I’m on a mission.  New Living Translation says “cancer.” Wuest says “cancer.”  What is with these people? NIV says “gangrene,” a surprising relief.  New English Trans. says “gangrene”;  So does Young’s and Mounce’s. The Message says, “accumulate like poison,” because why not?

The Greek word is γάγγραινα, which means… gangrene.  Literally.  That’s all it means.  You can even make that out by looking at the shape of the Greek word. I have no idea what cankers or cancer has to do with it.  Gangrene spreads rapidly, has no incubation period, and isn’t limited to unsightly spots on your upper lip.  It has to be cut out immediately or the patient will die.  This is clearly the image that Paul was aiming at.  

And this is why I get frustrated with Bible translations and translators.  They need to just. translate. the text.  As much as possible, leave the interpretation to the reader.  If the original is vague, make your translation vague.  Because if you help me out, and I catch you, all it will do is undermine my confidence.

Update

Hi guys. Looks like I’m behind a bit on my links. I’ll probably share some tomorrow. Events have been happening.

Last week was rough for David. Right after his first birthday, he developed a fever that kept him out of day care, so we rotated keeping him home. I stayed with him Tuesday, and Valerie’s mom took off Wednesday. That was the day, giving him some fever medicine, that Valerie’s mom had the joy of watching her grandson have a seizure. So he went to the hospital, where they discovered that he had gotten dehydrated (which can apparently cause seizures). Thursday Valerie stayed home with him, and by Friday, he was fine.

At the same time, David’s illness was also floating around at work – at least 2-3 people were home sick on various days that week, with high fevers. And on Thursday evening, I had a bout myself. So I had to call in sick a second time in a week (and the first time ever that it was actually me who was sick).

Around noon on Friday, I got a call from my temp agency – don’t come in on Monday. Apparently my day off was also my last day at work. Not really unexpected – our office has been closing down for some time, and this is the way of temp jobs. But at the same time, in most books, to let a person go when they’re not even there is plain rude.

Nevertheless, God is gracious and we are not ungrateful. We’ve been watching with familiar admiration all through this. In the years since I moved out on my own, though I’ve never particularly had any steady work, I’ve never been too short-handed to pay a bill that was due. Since we’ve been out of college, we’ve never even missed a paycheck, and this was no exception. I kept my job in a closing department, rather inexplicably, until Valerie had gotten her first paycheck. Now I’m looking again, and I’m confident that he will be faithful to provide – right at the last minute. 🙂

In other news completely, I’ve been thinking about changing our web address. First, It’s finally beginning to dawn on me that there is a certain measure of hubris in naming your site “spiritual,” in Greek no less, as though announcing to the world that this is exactly the embodiment of what you are. Secondly, nobody can spell it.

I’m thinking about changing it to something revolving around God’s grace, and the phrase that keeps coming to mind is from Psalm 18:34 (also 2 Sam 22:35)

“He teaches my hands to make war,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”

So I’m thinking BronzeBow dot net or org or something. There’s already a weblog at BowOfBronze.com, but I’m sure there’s plenty of room for all.

The Bronze Bow, of course, is also the title of a delightful children’s book by Elizabeth George Speare, which, oddly, was read to me in fourth grade, but I never owned.