Lolabrigida

I'm drunk and posting... But...It bugs the Hades outta me whne a Christian says, " Lets; look it up in the original language." "Lets go to Greek or Hebrew or what ever...." If it's the Truth, If the bible is truly "god'breathed" Why the HELL does it matter what language? If it's english, german,lithuanian. Truth is truth. Right? Am I making sense? WHy do they always use this 'let's go back to the original....' if it's unerring, then what's the point of comparison? Maybe another glass 'd do me good...eh?

Toto

Sober up ~Elsewhere~

Corona688

The arguments I've most often heard for this is that translations to other languages and cultural loss have robbed the bible of some of it's context. A literal, word-by-word translation of a poem from a different language might be nearly unreadable; the rhythum would be gone, and the metaphors might be butchered beyond recognition. This means that translation of literature leaves a LOT of wiggle room for what the author thinks a particular passage might mean, and the translation could easily end up showing his particular biases. Moreover, there may have been nuances the translator missed. Also, an understanding of hebrew would likely go hand in hand with a better understanding of some obscure metaphors that might not translate into english at all.

In fact, I agree with this, even though I think the bible's just a book; why else would there be so many different english translations of the bible? This does nothing to explain why their supposedly inerrant bible is not inerrant, but the excuse of translation error is often quite effective anyway since I'd wager that damn few nontheists can read hebrew.