Proverb of the Week
Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard. – Proverbs 26:10 (ESV)
The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors. - Proverbs 26:10 (KJV)
This Proverb of the Week will depart from my normal practice of commenting on its content to explain the very different rendering of the same Hebrew text by various Bible translations.
So what’s going on here? The issue comes down the fact that words in Hebrew have a range of use and meaning which often depends on the context in which they are used, just as words in English do. As it turns out, two of the key Hebrew words in this proverb have a wide range of possible meaning. Keep in mind that the word “God” is not in the original Hebrew of this proverb as indicated by it being shown in italics in the KJV to indicate it was added to help clarify meaning. The word translated as “great” in the KJV is translated as “one who hires” in the ESV, both representing someone in authority. Likewise, the Hebrew word translated as “formed” in the KJV is translated as “wounds” in the ESV, both legitimate translations.
The difference in how the proverb is translated largely comes down to whether the translators understood the authority mentioned to be the great God, as the KJV does, or merely an employer as the ESV and many other translations render it. It’s important to note that the truth of both translations of this proverb can be supported by other passages of scripture, and though only one of them can properly reflect the intention of the inspired author, this should not be cause for alarm over the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Most important of all is to note that there are only a handful of verses in the Bible that fall into this category of being this difficult to translate, and none of them, in any way, effect any major Christian doctrine or belief.
No comments:
Post a Comment