To Translate or Not to Translate

Continuing on with the KJV update, I've made it through the gospels and have started on Ephesians. It's relatively short, and I didn't want to jump into Acts right away. However, Ephesians is incredibly dense. The gospels seemed a lot looser linguistically, not that I'm an expert. They just seemed a lot easier to work with and understand. Paul had a professional doing his writing, so maybe that's the difference. I suppose I could look it up, if I get overly curious. Acts was written by Luke. Maybe it would have been easier after all.

As I'm going through this and updating the old-fashioned words to modern words, I keep finding things that need retranslation. I've mentioned this problem before and how that's not something I should be doing. I'm not a Greek expert. A good example of something I've found is John 21:8. In the KJV is says, And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. The word 'for' usually should be 'because'. I let it slide this time, at least so far. I may change it in the re-check. The problem is the phrase 'but as it were two hundred cubits'. In Greek the word translated 'but' means several things. The phrase 'as it were' is one word in Greek, and it means a lot of things: as, like, even as, which how, that is, that, to wit, etc. None of it is exactly 'as it were". Right after that is the word off, which also has a list of translations and was not translated into English.

What the KJV guy(s) put makes sense, but it's not quite what the words I'm looking up really mean. Every time I find something like this I struggle with whether to "fix" it or not. One thing I can do is check some of the other Textus Receptus manuscripts. The problem with those is they either copy from the KJV, or the KJV was copied from them, which doesn't help. This verse was partly copied.

This is one of the very rare times I went ahead and "fixed" it. In the update it says, And the other disciples came in a little ship; (because they were not far from land, notwithstanding as much as two hundred cubits off,) dragging the net with the fish. I went ahead and changed 'for' to 'because'. I think since would be a better word, but it's not in the lexicons I was just checking. It's in another one but would need more study, because of the conditions for usage. Offhand, it looks like since would only be correct if it came at the beginning of the sentence. Ugh. I know it's the right word, but. 'Little ship' could be rendered as boat, but I let it slide, since it's talking about professional fishermen.

Anyway, now it's updated to more modern English and is more literal to the Greek. It's pretty cool finding out what a lot of these verses actually say. This one wasn't a huge revelation, but it's easier to read and understand now. Although it's a good word, I may change notwithstanding later. :) Perhaps to 'nevertheless as much as two hundred cubits off'.

Did you know Yoda is a Hebrew name? It'll be in the update with a spelling of Yodah. Little Easter egg there. :)

Enough of that. I have something that could use some prayer support. A couple of weeks ago, it seemed like God showed me something for my life that doesn't seem to be for the near future. Not without drastic change anyway. I wasn't sure, so I prayed for confirmation. The answer seemed to be 'wait'. Hmm. I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe God was showing me something that depends on something that needs to happen in someone else's life? The speculation could be endless. Without going into detail in case I'm completely mistaken about the whole thing, it would be an open door that doesn't seem to be the direction I was heading. I think it would require moving out of state, which would be a substantial disruption and a good reason for telling me ahead of time. I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm not 100% sure it's even God. Hence the prayer support. At the very least I need more patience for waiting. Thanks for anything you can do. If it is God and not a mistake, there will be more later and pics as soon as possible. hehe

Have a great weekend.