Finished reading the New Testament

[Serving Zion]

Did you actually read that part? It certainly seems like something right out of a mafia movie.

When I looked at that translation in this light, yeah I could see it. Got a healthy chuckle to see your perspective, thanks for that

Perspective is key to understanding the heart of the writers, thereby receiving the right spirit. This is where translations are failing us, because there is no way that the English language can convey the fullness of meaning of the original writings.

For instance when the Greek is written, the most predominant words are placed first in order, so that the emphasis of importance in the grammar is indicated by the word's proximity to the beginning of the sentence. In English, it's not grammatically correct to speak that way, so there are different ways to express that emphasis, but then it becomes a paraphrased translation rather than a word-for-word translation.

This was interesting though. When I compared your translation, I honed on 2 Corinthians 9:4 as being the especially thuggish one, and found that the NSRVACE has a most gracious expression:

But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking.
NSRVACE

But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you in this matter would not prove empty, and so that you would be ready just as I said. Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, would be put to shame in that situation.
CSB

It's really clear to see a difference that is implied between these, especially when one has already become attuned to the spirit in the verses leading up to it. In the CSB, it sounds as though St. Paul had made a promise to the Macedonians, that he was afraid of them if they should be disappointed (in your mafioso movie, he's probably got kick-backs arranged, right?). Matthew 10:28 contradicts that character. Whereas in the former translation he is only fearing the dishonour that he would be unable to escape if they had been stingy, that is consistent with the character of a Christian (Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 2:9).

Anyhow, God is able to overcome all that, because God is spirit and He speaks to the heart. The words really are a conduit for the spirit, ultimately, so the spirit of the translator does have a big role in teaching and imparting the knowledge of His character.

I am using the Tree of Life version for my everyday reading these days, it's pretty good in that way. There are a few words that they've retained the original Hebrew words (eg: kadosh, kedoshim, ruach), but the overall intention of the pictures they paint with their words is pretty well in line with what the original writers were expressing.

Not only does language and spirit count, but also perspective. Perspective (a prejudicial context) is hugely important to determining the meaning that we derive from scriptures. This is a major problem for Christians in the present age, where their doctrinal presupposition causes them to misread what is actually written (or, if the translator has the prejudice, it causes him to convey a wrong idea in the subsequent translation).

One glaring example is the doctrine of Original Sin, or Ancestral Sin, where the most popular Christian prejudice of the present day would misapply Romans 5:12 with an assumption that humans have inherited some spiritual or genetic disorder as a result of Adam and Eve's transgression - that we are born as sinners and in need of being born-again. Whereas in absence of that prejudice, if we simply observe that the sin nature is taught through culture, it makes a lot more sense as to how justice can exist while also saying that a person needs to be born again, because it has flowed to give a more realistic definition of the phrase "born again". We don't get logical inconsistencies when we ask whether babies are doomed to suffer hell, and it removes the cognitive dissonance when trying to reconcile scriptures like Romans 7:9-10.

I made this little gospel booklet to show what some of the scriptures say in context of core topics. If you go through that material, you'll see some of the scripture you've already read in a new light, and no doubt you'll pick up some new insights too.

Yeah thanks for that perspective BTW, so now I'll be looking for more examples to blame English for all the thuggery in the name of Jesus!

For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful through God for the tearing down of strongholds. We are tearing down false arguments and every high-minded thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Messiah — ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
- 2 Corinthians 10:4-6