^The Idle Babbler Illustrated

Volume 4, Issue2

"What would this Idle babbler wish to say?"'
                                           --Athenian philosophers to Paul, Acts 17: 18, NASB

July-August, 1997

A REGULAR NUISANCE!

Hello, there! This month in The Idle Babbler Illustrated, I will make a regular nuisance of myself to a certain, small segment of the world's population. I will not do this purposely, but will fall into it quite naturally and without premeditation. That is, I will teach the truth.

The truth I will teach is that Jesus Christ did not speak English. Additionally, He did not speak King James English. No, the Son of God did not once address His Father by the pronoun "Thou," and neither did He ever utter the words "eternal," "hell," "crumpets," or "Wimbledon." Jesus Christ grew up in Nazareth, not Nottingham. Fortunately, this truth will annoy only those who think that the King James Version is the "Word of God." Imagine discovering that God's real Words lie beyond one's casual perusal of the KJV. Imagine being handed a Young's or Strong's exhaustive concordance (after being told what it is--a complete record of the translators' inconsistencies) and being asked not only to look up every key word in the Bible, but to actually lift it! Is this issue going to be fun, or what'?

Let's say I start a commercial air service. I decide to call it Babbler Airlines. At Babbler Airlines, I advertise flights to Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and New York. On my first day of business, I have customers lined up in front of my counter, purchasing tickets to each of these large cities. What a great day! But there's one little detail about Babbler Airlines that I have failed to tell my unsuspecting customers: I send everyone to Denver, Colorado. That's right. It doesn't matter whether you buy a ticket to Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami or New York, you end up in Denver. Pretty neat, huh?

Look here. It would be a lot of trouble for me to have to keep track of all these different cities. Then I would have to try to remember who was going where This is why I send everyone to Denver: it makes my job easier. Why not just tell my customers I'm sending them to Denver? I tend to get a little excited with my advertising, making promises that I can't keep. But at least I attract a lot of patrons with my diversified "menu" of cities. Does it really matter if I fail to deliver as advertised? After all, Denver is such a nice place.

I believe you know the answer. Babbler Airlines would be out of business before sundown, Mountain Time. The owner of Denver's Red Roof Inn (the one that adjoins the airport) might name me "Employee of the Month," but my customers would hang me from the north goal post at Mile High Stadium.

What has this example to do with the KJV? Please read on.

The ultimate vocabulary

Most Bible readers know that God fashioned two colorful languages with which to clothe His revelation to man: Hebrew and Greek. God wanted rich languages containing words that could accommodate His detailed thoughts. Put another way, God wanted precise words. Call Him a "Surgeon of Vocabulary." There would be no extra words in God's vocabulary, like you might find extra nuts and bolts in a bag of hardware, "just in case." No, each of God's words would have a job to do. And no two words would have the same meaning, as if two different-sized wrenches would be provided for the same-sized bolt. No, in God's vocabulary, a different word would represent a different subtlety of thought. And so we read in Psalm 12:6 that, "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."

Passage Greek Word Meaning Context CLNT KJV Mt. 2:12 anachoreo retire wise men retired to their own country retire departed Acts 19:12 apallasso clear Paul's handkerchief cleared diseases clear departed Mt. 8:18 aperchomai come away disciples come away to other side of sea come away depart Acts 28:25 apoluo dismiss Paul dismisses the Jews dismiss depart Rev. 6:14 apochorizo recoil heaven recoils as a scroll rolling up recoils departed Lk. 2:37 aphistemi withdraw Hannah does not withdraw from sanctuary withdraw departed Lk. 9:33 diachorizomai detach James and John detach from Jesus detach depart Acts 13:14 dierchomai pass through Paul and Barnabas pass through Perga pass through depart Acts 17:15 exeimi be off Paul's friends have to be off be off depart Mt. 9:31 exerchomai come out healed men come out, proclaiming Jesus come out depart Mt. 20:29 ekporeuomai go out disciples go out from Jericho go out depart Acts 13:4 katerchomai come down Barnabas and Saul came down into Seleucia came down depart Jn. 13:1 metabaino proceed Jesus proceeds out of this world, to Father proceeds depart Mr. 2:9 poreuomai go wise men left Herod and went to follow star went depart

Promises, promises

Now I would like you to look at the above chart. Each passage on the far left contains the Greek word listed to the right of it. Notice how each of the fourteen Greek words are different. This corresponds to Babbler Airlines advertising flights to different cities. Like the cities, each of these words has its own personality. Miami is not Chicago, and Pittsburgh is not Los Angeles. Likewise, "anachoreo" is not "exeimi," and "aphistemi" is not "metabaino." With fourteen different words, God had fourteen different things to say, which are listed under the column, "Meaning." And what trouble He took to say them! Remember, He purified each of His words seven times.

The King James Version, promising to give us all of God's words, is the equivalent of Babbler Airlines promising to send its customers to Miami, Pittsburgh, and so on. Fine goals. But what actually happened at Babbler Airlines? I deceived my customers, sending them all to another place, namely, Denver. Hey! Here come some of my valued customers now, fresh from the land of purple mountain majesty. Let's ask three of them to evaluate my company:

"READ MY LIPS: I will never fly Babbler Airlines again."	"Yo! I get to Denver and I'm like, "Oh, no. Adrian's waiting for me in Pittsburgh."	"Company? Is that what you call Babbler Airlines? The Queen and I are not amused."

Many said that the peanuts were stale, too.

But now I want you to look at the far right side of the chart and discover that the King James translators have done something far worse than Babbier Airlines: they have ignored the divinely-inspired variations of God's Word.

Depart from me!

Unaccountably, the translators of the King James Version, in the corresponding verses listed at the left, have translated each of these different Greek words with the single English word, "depart." Appreciate the crime of it: fourteen different subtleties of thought, fourteen different Greek words purified seven times by God, all lumped into the single English word, "depart." This is the equivalent of Babler Airlines sending all its customers to Denver. Except, in the King James Version, you're not merely missing your family in Pittsburgh: you're missing what God wrote to man. This is the "rip off" of the King James Version.

Why did the translators do this? lt's not like each of these Greek words does not have a separate English equivalent. Under the heading "CLNT," you will note how these Greek words were translated in the Concordant Literal New Testament, a version I believe to be the most accurate in existence. Unlike most other versions, this one recognizes God's various thoughts, expressed by Him through the use of different words. Thus the translators assigned to each Greek word an English word or phrase that, as you can see, exactly matches its meaning. This isn't as complicated as it sounds. It's as simple and sensible (and beautiful!) as sending a flier to Los Angeles when "Los Angeles" is printed on his ticket, and sending another to Pittsburgh when his ticket reads "Pittsburgh."

In the preface to his Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament. George V. Wigram writes,

"The importance of the very words of the original Scriptures should bring one to understand the necessity of distinguishing the words of the original language from one another."

Why did the King James translators ignore these divine distinctions? Obviously, they had little reverence for God's words. Besides this, I believe they were simply lazy. It would have been time-consuming work keeping all these Greek words separate, at the same time trying to keep James happy and not spill your tea.

A sane principle

Before translating, the men who produced the CLNT determined the meaning of each Greek word by examining every occurrence of the word in Scripture. This is known as examining the contexts. Next, they gave each Greek word its own English equivalent. Thus, anachoreo, determined by its contexts to mean "retire," was given the English equivalent "retire." Pretty simple, huh? The most conscientious,   time-consuming step came in deciding that an English word, once assigned to a particular Greek word, would never be used again for another Greek word. In other words, when the translators determined that "retire" was the best equivalent of anachoreo, "retire's" job was over. "Retire" would be prohibited from covering any other Greek word besides anachoreo. To put it another way, "retire" would play man-to-man defense with anachoreo, having the luxury. of ignoring all other Greek words.

Der femur, ja?

Since Greek is such a rich language, it was difficult finding different words in the English language to accommodate it. We're talking about 6000 Greek words here. Give each Greek word its own English equivalent? Not an impossible task, but certainly a daunting one. For example, it was much simpler giving the 206 bones in the human body different names. Yet how could anatomists have done otherwise?

Hmm. What if the gentlemen who named our bones followed the King James route, failing to distinguish the things that differ?

Don't open the closet!

As I was saying, it took much time and effort for the translators of the CLNT to separate what God had separated. (The Concordant Version of the Old Testament--the CVOT-was begun in 1909, and is still being translated today.) The King James translators must have had a cricket match to go to (or depart to, I should say).

It was easier for the KJV men to simply ignore these fourteen different words and lump them into the single word "depart." Otherwise, they would have had to scrutinize every Greek word in every passage of Scripture. But instead, they made the decision kids around the world make every day; they decided to "clean their room" ("translate the Bible") by "throwing everything into the closet" ("lumping several different Greek words into one English word"). The work goes fast, just don't open the closet.

But again, by carefully sorting and separating each Greek word, the translators of the CLNT gave God credit for selecting (and purifying) different words to relay different thoughts. This is called reverence for God's words. The benefit of this translating technique will be clear to you soon, especially as you continue to study the chart and marvel at the indolence of the James Gang. When you read the word "depart" in the KJV, which of these fourteen Greek words are you reading? Without lugging around a concordance, you wouldn't know. But by opening either Young's or Strong's, the careful seeker can "open the closet" of King James' bedroom and see the mess. Sorting out that mess is another matter. In the CLNT, the sorting has been done for you.

The detail God

So what difference does it really make? Who cares whether the wise men departed or retired to their own country? Does it matter whether Jeus departed out of this world or proceeded out of it? And why should we be concerned whether heaven recoils or departs?

These distinctions may not be as vital as others I will soon mention. But they do uncover rich shades of meaning, plugging us into God's diversity. Besides, if it pleased God to use different words, it should please us to recognize them.

God loves detail. And what a vocabulary! In Matthew 2: 12, doesn't the word "retire" suggest the relief and satisfaction of the wise men at the completion of their journey? By comparison, "depart" is colorless. In John 13:1, how much more interesting it is to learn that Jesus was to "proceed" out of this world, rather than merely depart it. "Proceed" suggests motion toward a goal, where "depart" only tells us that He left. See how God wrote to inform us? To move us?

The word apochorizo ("recoils") is a magnificently descriptive word, chosen by God to portray the heavens during the day of His indignation. With "recoil," we can almost see and hear the repulsion, the speed, the agitation above the earth. To substitute "depart" for it is to step on a spinning top. And haven't we seen this word "depart" somewhere before?

How about, "Paul's handkerchief cleared diseases" in Acts 19:127 Don't you love that? What action is described here! Yet the KJV's anemic, "the diseases departed" suggests nothing of God's power. With "clear," we can almost see bruised skin becoming pink. How is it that the diseases "departed?" Did they take a bus?

Come on down!

In Acts 13:4, the Concordant Literal New Testament tells us that Barnabas and Saul came down into Seleucia. It's easy to see how the translators arrived at "came down." Consult the chart again, third word from the bottom. The Greek word here is "katerchomai." The prefix "kata," in Greek, means "down," and "erchomai" means "come." Therefore, katerchomai is literally "down-come." How brilliant, how simple, how sensible, actually, to translate "katerchomai," in Acts 13:4, "came down." The KJV translators encountered this same word, yet failed to extract its treasure.

Pause here for a moment. What difference does it make whether these men came down to Seleucia or "departed unto" it'? Well, with "katerchomai," God has actually troubled Himself to give us the lay of the land. I looked into my Bible atlas to confirm this and, sure enough, Seleucia lies at sea level on the east coast of the Mediterranean. Antioch Syria, from which Barnabas and Saul left for Seleucia, lies fourteen miles inland, near the foothills of the Amanus Mountains. So Barnabas and Saul did, literally, come down to Seleucia. If you're still saying, "so what'?" consider the accompanying allegory: At Antioch Syria, the bustling headquarters of Paul's missionary journeys, the holy spirit had just spoken to the ecclesia there, saying, "Sever, by all means, to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." This event had all the excitement of a Sunday night revival. There was fasting, praying, good fellowship and hymns. But then came "Monday morning." At dawn the next day, Barnabas and Saul set out to "walk the walk." And what a walk. On this trip, they would be withstood by the false prophet Bar-Jesus in Paphos, harassed by the Jews in Antioch Pisidia, stoned in Iconium and nearly killed in Lystra. So in more ways than one, Barnabas and Saul came down from Antioch. More inspired detail squashed by the KJV.

The example I gave you in the chart is only one of the hundreds (yes, hundre&) of examples of Greek words ignored in the KJV. But the example I am about to give you makes the difference between "proceeds" and "departs" seem small by comparison.

One "hell" of a mistake

The religious and secular man's nightmarish ideas of HELL (that is, of a Christ-managed hothouse where sinners get burned forever) come to them compliments of the same careless translating I've exposed in this issue of the IBI: the practice of ignoring separate Greek words.

In 2 Pet. 2:4, God chose the Greek word "Tartaroo" (English transliteration, "Tartarus,") to identify. the temporary abode of sinning angels. Tartarus holds spirit beings, not humans. and there is not a flame on the premises. The KJV and NIV translators gave this specific Greek word the English equivalent, "hell."

In Matthew 5:22 (and in several other places), God chose a different Greek word, "Geenna," (English transliteration: "Gehenna") to name a valley on the southwest corner of Jerusalem where the corpses of criminals will be disposed of during the thousand-year kingdom. There are flames here, yes, but the flames cremate the dead (Is. 66:24), they don't torture the living. Most of humanity is not even alive to see Gehenna (Rev. 20:5), let alone be tormented there. The KJV and NIV translators gave this specific Greek word the English equivalent, "hell."

No sane person would swallow the idea of a billion people suffering forever in a 2500 X 200 ft. valley southwest of Jerusalem. So, to maintain the false fear of eternal torment, the KJV, NIV & NASB translators suddenly turned a geographical location into a mythological torture chamber

Geographical Location, in Original KJV, NIV, NASB: Hierousalem Kapharnaoum Nazaret Bethania Ephesion Bethleem Bethsaida Kappadokia Beroia Gomorra Galilaia Damaskos Geenna* Jerusalem Capernaum Nazareth Bethany Ephesus Bethlehem Bethsaida Cappadocia Berea Gomorrah Galilee Damascus hell     *See Mt. 5:29,30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15,33 Mk. 9:43,45,47, Lk. 12:5, Js. 3:6

In Luke 16:23 (and in other places), God chose the Greek word, "hades," to describe the state of invisibility; in Greek, the word means "unseen." God uses this word often to describe a person's nonexistence in death: unless spoken of figuratively, a dead person doesn't see anything, hear anything, feel anything, know anything, do anything: hades. Flames, screams, pointy tails and pitchforks are conspicuously absent. All the dead "go" here, not just the wicked. The KJV and NIV translators gave this specific Greek word the English equivalent, "hell."

Which "hell" should we go to?

Now, let's say that an orthodox minister tells you that your dad, who died three months ago, is in "hell." This is a terrible lack of information. If you are a careful Bible student, you will know that the King James, along with other versions, translated three different Greek words with the single English word "hell." As fond as you are of your father, you will want to know exactly where he is. No, this loosey-goosey "hell" talk will never do, especially as the orthodox minister intimates that your father will be there "forever."

At this time, naturally, you will want to show the orthodox minister the chart below. In your most respectful tone, you will want to ask him, "Pardon me, but which 'hell,' is my father in ? As you can see on this Wonderfully Clear & Simple Chart, the version you are using to locate my father has indiscriminately used this one English word to describe three different places. So please, is my father in Tartarus, Gehenna or the unseen?"

At this time, the orthodox minister will become very uncomfortable. The first thing he will try to do is change the subject, asking you where you got such a newsletter. You, then, will say, "I got it off the Internet; it was written by a man named 'Priddy.' Now, will you please answer my question?" You should not think it rude to answer this way. You did get the newsletter off the Internet; it was written by a man named 'Priddy;' and you do want the minister to answer your question.

If the minister is lucky, he will remember somewhere he has to be. If he is unlucky, he will not remember. If he does not remember, you must now stare at the minister. You must stare at him respectfully, yes, but stare nonetheless. This is hard to do, I realize, but the skill can be learned and perfected in front of a mirror, at home. Neither should you say anything to the minister at this time. This is extremely hard to do. It will require great restraint not to babble something, anything, to make the orthodox minister feel better about struggling with his dark profession. But you will be doing him a favor, in the end.

If the minister says that your father is in Gehenna, you must say, as graciously as ever and with all earnestness, "Then let us take a plane to Jerusalem and look for him there." If the minister says that your father is in Tartarus, remark that, while your father did, on occasion, fail to remember your mother's birthday, he was never a stubborn, sinning angel who surrendered his sovereignty during the days of Noah (1 Pet. 3:19-20. 2 Pet. 2:4, Jude 6). If the minister says that your father is in hades, let a smile come to your face and rejoice aloud in front of the startled cleric that, like Christ (Acts 2:3 l), David (Ps. 16: 10), and Jacob (Gn. 37:35) before him, your father has ceased from his troubles and sufferings (Jb. 3:11-19), and now rests, as if asleep (Jn. 11:11,14).

Passage Greek Word KJV NIV CLNT 2 Pet. 2:4 Tartaroo hell hell Tartarus Matt. 5:22 Geenna hell hell Gehenna Lk. 16:23 hades hell hell unseen Note: Gehenna, like Jerusalem. Capernaum, Nazareth, and so forth, is a geographical location. With every other geographical location, the KJV and NIV brought It directly over from Greek into English. Why didn't they do this with Gehenna, rather than turn it into "hell? Can you say, "theological bias?"

Unwitting victims

The purpose of this edition of the IBI has been to cause those who unaccountably revere the King James Version to look at some facts. The same trio on page 2 who eventually demanded a refund from Babbler Airlines have also praised the KJV:

"READ MY LIPS: I will never read anything besides the KJV."	"Yo! I read the KJV and I'm like, wow, this is so close to the original Latin, it's scary."'	"'Thy,' 'Thou' and 'Thee' are such holy words that they give me the goose bumps every time I hear them. Brrrr! There I go again.

Why? The robbery is the same. Yes, but it's easy to realize one has been robbed when one lands in Denver, having departed for Pittsburgh. It's harder to spot deceit when it requires a concordance and an unbiased heart.

Those who stubbornly insist that the King James Version is the "Word of God," have not only lost the color of God's revelation, but, staying this course, will die ignorant of His glorious purposes.