We used to teach that an imperative built on the present tense stem indicated an action already underway. This is most evident in prohibitions, for example, to tell a barking dog to stop. We know this is no longer the case, but it does surface from time to time in translations and commentaries.

Prof. Bart Ehrman claims that originally John 1:18 declared Jesus to be the “unique Son” (μονογενὴς υἱός), which was later changed to “unique God” (μονογενὴς θεός) by the orthodox scribes who wanted to assert the divinity of Christ in contrast to the adoptionists (Misquoting Jesus, 61–62.)

In my upcoming book, Why I Trust the Bible, due out in August, I deal with this text critical issue (spoiler alert, John originally did write “unique God”), but here I want to make a different point. Even if John did write “Unique Son,” there are other proofs for the deity of Christ.

The answer to his question is partially based on Ephesians 4:26 and a textual variant in Matthew 5:22, and as such it helps us to understand the relevance of textual criticism.

A while back I did a vlog on the supposed “17 Missing Verses” in modern translations, and  the questions keep coming. So I thought I would create a website specifically to deal with this issue. It is www.MissingBibleVerses.com.

Sometimes prepoisitional phrases can be so succint that they are hard to understand. All translation involves interpretation.

Sorry I have been gone for a while. Between a wedding, holiday’s, travels, and finishing a book, life has been a little chaotic. But things are back to normal, at least for a week.

From time to time, I find myself wondering why translators wouldn’t simply translate the Greek and let the chips lie where they fall. I know we have to be careful not to miscommunicate, and there is often meaning in the nuances of the grammar, but other times I just wish we would translate what the Greek says and means.

We all know that Greek wants to start a sentence with a conjunction to indicate the specific relationship of that sentence with the preceding. We also know that punctuation and the use of paragraphs can often perform the same function, and so an initial καί is often left untranslated. But every once in a while I come across one that probably should be translated, and the Great Commandment might be one. 

As I am working on issues related to trusting the Bible, one of the topics is Bible translation. At times it seems the translations contradict each other. One translation says “brother” and the other says “brother and sister,” so which is correct? If one translation says “he” and the other translation says “they,” which is correct? Which one is right? And why are they different? These are real concerns, and they can lead you to not trust your Bible. Part of the answer is to understand the different types of translations. Today we will look at “Natural Language” translation theory.

The Pharisees wanted to know if Jesus believed divorce was legitimate for any and all reasons. The challenge is to translate the phrase, recognizing that it is a singular (each individual reason) and also general (any and all reasons).