Department of Translations

In a day or two, I plan to kick off a Translation Department here at the Raft. Why have a whole file on translations?

One thing I’ve noticed over time - we use language in ways that are beneficial to our cause. This is especially true in religion. One side of an issue wants to prove their point, so they use a particular word in a particular way. The other side uses that same word in a slightly different way.

To a guy with a history degree, this really doesn’t work. There is only one truth. The search for that Truth is why we're here. If we foul the language with our 21st century, English-centric views, we run a very great danger of fouling the lessons of the Bible. Example…

Catholics believe that John 6 means that Christ is really present in the Eucharist. Many Protestants say that’s hogwash. The word “eat” means something to one group, and something else to another. How to resolve this? Simple. Go back to the Greek and see what the original author intended. To do that, we have to be able to translate the Greek.

There are many words in the Bible that don’t translate well into English. There were ideas in Aramaic that didn’t translate into Greek well. All this has to be factored into our search for the truth. So, as time passes, I’ll add translations of critical words and critical passages of Scripture. Hopefully, this will help.