# Regarding Pastor Mark Dever comment on the KJV and the Hebrew language



## SolaGratia (Mar 20, 2009)

Regarding Pastor Mark Dever comment on the KJV:

8. The King James Version of the Bible. I can live with the KJV. It is beautifully done. But there’s no need to use it. As people have done throughout the history of translating the Bible, churches should be okay with using a version which translates the languages that were contemporary for Moses and John into language that is contemporary for us today.


Did the ancient old testament church ever format or translate the scriptures of the Old Testamnet into the contemporary language of their day? Assuming that the Hebrew language has changed in time like any other language has change as we think they have? 

For example, was the book of Job change so that the people during Ezra or post-Ezra time could better understand it according to the excuse we have today.

Has the Hebrew language in the Old Testamnet always been the same Hebrew language from Moses to John the Baptist or from Genesis to Malachi?


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## Knoxienne (Mar 20, 2009)

In my humble opinion, what there's no need for is endless versions of the scriptures coming out every week (and postmodern fluff like x-treme teen bibles and [insert special interest group's]devotional bibles associated with all of it) which further divide the Body of Christ. My


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## Marrow Man (Mar 20, 2009)

SolaGratia said:


> Did the ancient old testament church ever format or translate the scriptures of the Old Testamnet into the contemporary language of their day?



Yes, the Septuagint.


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## greenbaggins (Mar 20, 2009)

Gil, they translated it quite early into Aramaic, since that was the language of the exilic Israelites. Soon after that, the Bible was translated into Greek as well.


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## Romans922 (Mar 20, 2009)

Pentateuch was written in Paleo-Hebrew, then updated to hebrew as we have in our Hebrew Old Testaments today, which were then added vowel pointings and accents, etc.


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## SolaGratia (Mar 20, 2009)

Romans922 said:


> Pentateuch was written in Paleo-Hebrew, then updated to hebrew as we have in our Hebrew Old Testaments today, which were then added vowel pointings and accents, etc.



This is the answer I was asking. So the Hebrew language *WAS* "updated/modernize" per se. 

Thanks!


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## Romans922 (Mar 20, 2009)

Yeah i have a picture of paleo-hebrew of the L-YHWH, I don't know how to do it in English, but it means it is Yahweh (no vowels - YHWH) with the preposition L (to, for) in front of it.


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## MW (Mar 20, 2009)

No person has ever spoken the language of the Bible. The Bible is literature. The idea of translating the Bible to reflect contemporary English is nonsense. Contemporary English is moronic in comparison to the richness of what the past has to offer. Let's teach people the best the English language has to offer, not reduce the oracles of God to the "meanest" English.


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## he beholds (Mar 20, 2009)

armourbearer said:


> No person has ever spoken the language of the Bible. The Bible is literature. The idea of translating the Bible to reflect contemporary English is nonsense. Contemporary English is moronic in comparison to the richness of what the past has to offer. Let's teach people the best the English language has to offer, not reduce the oracles of God to the "meanest" English.



Why translate to English at all? Let's teach people Hebrew.


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## MW (Mar 20, 2009)

he beholds said:


> Why translate to English at all? Let's teach people Hebrew.



Wisdom distinguishes things that differ.


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## he beholds (Mar 20, 2009)

I deserved (and expected) that


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## Jen (Mar 20, 2009)

he beholds said:


> Why translate to English at all? Let's teach people Hebrew.



That's what I was thinking...

My dad noticed that Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German is about the level of the NIV. Plus, Moses wouldn't be able to read my BHS -- and why is that? Because the language changed so much that the Masoretes came up with the vowel pointings to preserve the pronunciation of the text as it was done in the synagogues.

Languages change; if they don't, they're dead.


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## MW (Mar 20, 2009)

he beholds said:


> I deserved (and expected) that



 Thankyou for being gracious.


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