The Wandering Heretic

In the programming industry, it is always hard to know when to cut off changes long enough to make a general or update release. You just know the second after you do so, you will find a “bug” or error that will make you look foolish. However, if you don’t pick a “cut” time, you will never release anything. So you do the best you can, cross your fingers, close your eyes, and issue the update. This circumstance occurs in the software company I work for as well as for my Context Group Version of the Bible.

So for more better than I hope worse, I am cutting version 2.5 of the Context Group Version Bible. The PalmBible Plus version can be downloaded from here. However, since Palm Pilots appear to be going the way of the dinosaur, I have made it possible to read the Context Group Version online from this website. For this post, you can click here to start reading this version. I have also added a permanent link for reading the CGV online on my Context Group Version page, accessible at the left of this website.

Details of the major changes I have made in this version follow:

I changed my translation of the Hebrew word ahabah back to love, since it appears to imply in some cases the affectionate and emotional attachment that we apply to the term. However, ahab has remained variations of “give allegiance to” to reflect the general “group bonding and attachment” associated with the term in ancient societies.

I changed variations of “sin” and “sinner” to those who disgrace [God], since that is the cultural meaning of “sinning” in the ancient world. It then counterpoints “righteousness” which I translate as “vindication.” Those who are “righteous” are those who do not “disgrace” God, but “vindicate” Him to the world by their actions and, if necessary, their words.

I generally cleaned up a lot of areas that were translated awkwardly due to previous global changes made to the terms in the file. Sometimes global search and replace activities can make some unforeseen and, dare I say it, STUPID results!

“Laetros” was kept as people, normally referring to a single ethnic group (ususually the Judeans).

I changed the word “hatred” to “rejection” to reflect the group expulsion or exclusion that hatred meant in the ancient societies. According to Malina and Piltch, a better translation would be “indifference” because to those in an “in-group” those outside did not even exist and were not worth even the effort to hate them (as we define the word). Hence, Jesus admonition against those who were neither hot nor cold, but indifferently lukewarm is culturally relevant. Yet, indifference to us means more like neutrality (not something that existed at all in the Middle East).

I changed the word “Greek” (when it refers to people and not language) as “Hellenist” since there were no ethnic Greeks in the first century. Athens in the first century was not part of a country called Greece but a region called Achaia (south of Macedonia). There was no country called Greece in the first century. There were, however, people who spoke Greek and believed in facets of historic (even to them) Greek culture. These were called “Hellenists” and that is how I changed the term. It even closer approximates the Greek word used for this group of people.

I found and fixed some areas where Yahweh was not changed to YHWH consistently.

Chiton is now translated consistently as “tunic,” whereas himation is now translated as “cloak.”

Fixed from previous release, making “hate” equal to “reject.”

“Spit” changed to “vomit” in Revelation 3:

“Bless” as a verb changed to variations of the verb forms of “esteem.” The noun forms of Blessing became either “esteem” or “[source of] esteem, depending on how it was used, whereas “blessings” became “esteem{+}” to mark it as a plural form (similar to you{+} used for the plural form of you). To “bless” something in the first century was to give it honor or to increase its public honor or status (usually with God, from God, or to God). It had none of the semi-magical meanings we give it today. Therefore I have retranslated the variations of “bless” in its verb and noun forms as “Esteem.” This gives it more the meaning of becoming special, yet distinguishes it from “glorify.”

“Worship” as a verb was changed to “bow down in deference” since that phrase combines the literal meaning as well as the social meaning of the term in both Hebrew and the Greek. The word for “worship” in both languages meant “bow down to” and in that culture, one only bowed down low to those of a higher social rank and with more honor than you possessed. It could be to a social better or to God, the ultimate social better.

Kraspedon changed from “border” to “tassels” to reflect the four purple (or blue) tassel specified by the Torah to be worn by all dedicated Judeans.

“Blaspheme” and “Blasphemy” and its variants changed to “slander” to reflect the meaning of the word rather than a transliteration that we have poured a different meaning.

Doubt has been changed to “hesitate,” since the first century people were more concerned with the physical expressions of emotions and how they were outwardly expressed. Therefore doubting normally expressed itself as “hesitating” or “wavering.”

“Temptation” changed to “loyalty testing” and “tempt” to verb forms of the same. In the ancient culture, someone who “tempted” you was an agent of the King who tried to see if you could entice you to say something disloyal to the king or his kingdom.

“Dogs” and “dog” were changed to “scavengers” since in the ancient Middle East a dog was considered in much the same way as we do rats. They were not domesicated and kepts as pets; they were not considered cute. Only because honor required that all homes and doors be left wide open during the day did a dog get into the house and create major messes.

“Euaggelizo” changed from “good tidings” to “joyful news” to be more contemporary.

Plateia changed from “streets” to “public squares” to reflect the architecture of the ancient cities.

Epiousious changed from “daily” to “necessary” to better reflect the meaning of the word to a first century peasant.

Changed various words previously translated as “faint” to the various Hebrew and Greek words behind them to be more varied, but consistent with each different word. For example, ayeph is now translated as “exhausted,” puwg to “numb,” lahahh to “languish,” ekkakeo to “weary.”

Entrepo retranslated consistently as “shame” or variations thereof.

Husteresis changed to “destitution” from “want.”

“Superfuity” changed to surplus for ease of reading

Kataphroneo changed from “despise” to “ignore” to reflect the greater insult in the Middle East.

My most controversial change may be translating all variations of “sacred” or “holy” to “special.” This reflect the Hebrew idea of “holy” as separated out for a specific purpose. I am trying to avoid the more mystical and “other-worldly” associations we have put onto the term. (I plan on posting more on this topic later.) In this way, we are God’s special people who have a special mission and are to behave a special way, in contrast to the rest of the world, in fulfilling that mission.

Finally, I toyed with the idea of changing “Peter” to “Rocky” as that actually was what the word “Petros” meant in Greek. It would make some sense of Jesus declaration to Peter that he, as “Rocky” was the “Rock” on which the church was built. However, at the last minute I chickened out, not because of the Roman Catholic implications, but because all I could see was Sylvester Stallone walking around, saying, “Yo, Jesus.” I figured it would have the same affect on my readers. This will have to be an innovation left for a future century.

Future planned changes:
Biggest change I want to make: I want to consistently translate the Hebrew “adama” and its variants as Mankind unless I am certain it is referring to the name of Adam in Genesis. For the first few chapters at least, where the article preceeded ‘adam’ I will translate it as “mankind,” but if there is no article, I assume it means the name “Adam.” This will create a linkage between chapter 1 and 2 of Genesis that is not found in most translations.

I want to apply the same policy to usages of anthropos to be translated as variations of people or persons. This will have the rather interesting policy of making Jesus call himself the Son of Mankind or the “Son of the People” rather than the traditional “son of man” to be consistent. Such a translation will merge the political with the religious nature of that title, much as it would have been considered in the first century.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 11:58 am and is filed under Context Group Version. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.