Quick Update: Interlinear’s ZIP File
July 26th, 2010
Just a quick update today: I’ve put all my current Greek-English Interlinear’s in an easy to download .ZIP file, so that you don’t have to download each one individually 
Posts Tagged ‘new testament’
Update! Yahuchanon Chapter 3
July 16th, 2010
Weekly updates? What on earth is going on with TWTY! Well, just a quick update to note that Yahuchanon Chapter 3 has been translated and uploaded onto the website, in both online and PDF form. Enjoy!
Update! Yahuchanon Chapter 2
July 10th, 2010
Just a quick update to say that Chapter 2 of the Translation of Yahuchanon has been finished and uploaded in both webpage and PDF form.
See it online or Download the PDF
Quick Update!
June 4th, 2009
Just a quick post to note that I noticed several spelling/other errors in the Translation of Lucus/Luke, and so have corrected it and added the update to the webpage, as well as to the separate PDF file and the ZIP file containing the translation of each book currently done.
As always, if anyone notices any errors in the translation, be it misspelled words or something else that is missing, please, do let me know, so I can correct the error and post an update as quickly as possible
Update! New Translation
May 9th, 2009
Seeing as though the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost is fast approaching (Saturday evening 30/5/09 – Sunday evening 31/5/09), I have decided to upload the First two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. I have only done the webpage form at the moment though, without any notes on it, and no PDF at the moment. All of these will be added when the whole translation of the Acts of the Apostles has been completed
Please find the webpage version of the first two chapters of the Acts of the Apostles here.
Update! Translation Revision
April 20th, 2009
After finishing both the Lucus and 2 Thessalonians Translations, I have gone back and done a revision of my translation of Titus. It has now grown quite significantly, and I have also finally created a fully-functional PDF file to go with it
As it happens, I shall be starting both the Textual Criticism and translation of the Book of Acts (a.k.a The Acts of the Apostles) immediately, and judging from how long the translation of Lucus took (the same author of Acts), this may be the final update for a while, as Acts is even longer than Lucus!
Saying that, there was something that seriously annoyed me when I was doing my revision of Titus, so I shall probably post a few blogs between now and when I finish translating Acts
Please find the PDF file of Titus here, and the webpage here.
And as always, all the translations can be downloaded in Zip format from this link.
Update! New Translation
April 15th, 2009
Less than five days after I posted up a new translation, I have another new translation for all of you! This time it is the shortish book of 2 Thessalonians. Whilst it may only be four A4 pages long, the Apostle Paul leaves a wealth of information for us to read, ponder and acknowledge.
The PDF file can be found by clicking this link, and the webpage should be up on this link shortly
Translation Update! Lucus: Chapters 13 – 24
April 4th, 2009
Well, it’s been a long long long time in coming, but I have finally finished translating Luke/Lucus and have uploaded it in HTML form onto this website. Click here to go to it and read
Also, due to one of the comments below, I am currently working on making large Print PDF files. So, for those of you who’ve found it difficult to read the normal PDF files after having them printed, I think you’ll find the Larger Print Edition files to be much more readable for you
Update! All PDF's in one file
March 5th, 2009
I have uploaded a zip file containing all the PDF’s of all the translations to date – this will make it easier to download them all at once, obviously
'Ask' or 'asking' – Translational error
March 2nd, 2009
As I’ve been translating the eye-witness account of Lucus/Luke, I thought it’d be nice to just have a look at a blatant translational error in one of its chapters.
In Chapter 11:5-10, we read (ESV/English Standard Version):
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.’’
I’d like to focus on the words “ask”, “seek”, and “knock”. In the Greek, they are the words αιτεω/aiteo, ζητεω/zeteo, and κρουω/krouo, and each of them, each and every time they are mentioned in this passage, are in the present, active tense.
Now, anyone who’s at least read a book on Koine Greek will know that the Greek present tense indicates “a processing” or an “undefined” aspect – context will aid you with deciding which one. And what does the context of this passage indicate? That you ask, seek or knock once, and then you receive, find, or have something opened for you? Not what I can see, and certainly what isn’t implied at all by the word impudence.
The man in the example wasn’t “rude” by asking his friend once to give him what he needed and then going away; the point of the passage is that the man was continuously pestering his friend until he got what he needed, to which Yahushua actually says, “Keep asking, and it shall be given to you; keep seeking, and you shall find; keep knocking, and it shall be opened to you.” Anyone who’s studied Greek learns about the processing aspect of the Greek present tense as soon as he learns the Greek Alphabet! How is it that Ph.D Scholars can’t even get such a simple, basic thing into their translation?!
The ESV and its scholar’s pride themselves on their “translation” being, and I quote, “a new, essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning(italics mine).” (source) “Precision”, “accuracy” and “depth of meaning”? Really?! And yet they can’t even get the actual meaning of three damn words across properly!? One thinks that the ESV translators need to go back and do a first-year koine Greek course again before they make such claims of being “precise” or “accurate”.
But enough about the ESV. Let’s have a look at some other popular English Bible Translations, and see how they fair.
Lucus 11:9
- NJB:
- ‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
- ASV:
- And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
- CEV:
- So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.
- Darby:
- And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.
- Geneva:
- And I say vnto you, Aske, and it shall be giuen you: seeke, and yee shall finde: knocke, and it shalbe opened vnto you.
- God’s Word:
- So I tell you to ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.
- Good News Translation:
- And so I say to you: ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
- The Message:
- Here’s what I’m saying: Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.
- NET:
- So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
- NCV:
- So I tell you, ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you.
- NIV:
- So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
- NKJV:
- So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
- NRSV:
- So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
- RSV:
- And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
- Revised Websters:
- And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.
- KJV:
- And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
- WNT:
- So I say to you, ‘Ask, and what you ask for shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you.
- YLT:
- and I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you
These 17 Bible translations all miss the point, and are inaccurate translations of the processing aspect of the Greek Present tense. And most of these (ESV, NRSV, The Message, KJV, NKJV, NIV) are some of the most popular English Bible Translations – and none of them are able to do their job properly. They also (apparently) follow the “Formal Equivalence” or “Essentially Literal” translational philosophy – bar the NIV and the Message of course – One’s a Dynamic Equivalence (NIV (“Thought for thought” translation)), and the other’s a piece of crap that isn’t worth mentioning (The Message).
There are a few, though, that actually translate the words correctly and get the processing aspect of the Greek present tense across:
- NLT:
- And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
- LB:
- And so it is with prayer—keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding; knock and the door will be opened.
- ISV:
- So I say to you: Keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you.
- HCSB:
- So I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
- AMP:
- So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.
- DRP:
- So I say to you: Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.
Six compared to seventeen, only one of which (NLT) is actually considered “popular” compared to the rest. It’s shocking to say the least.
A translation that deserves a special mention is the NASB (New American Standard Bible). In its main text, it translates the passage as So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you, but it has little notes next to ask, seek, and knock, and states that Or Keep asking/seeking/knocking. The NASB managed to to put the wrong meaning in the main text, but the right meaning in the margin! Why bother doing that, when you could’ve just put the correct meaning in the main text itself, and not have anything in the margin!
Problem is, people are far too familiar with the KJV, and none of the “major” translations have the balls to break away from it.
Just compare the KJV to the ESV, for example: KJV:And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.; ESV:And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Apart from updating the KJV’s English, what exactly makes the ESV different to the KJV?
Not very much, I can assure you of that. And trust me, this isn’t the only place where the ESV and other “Bible Translations” can’t get simple meanings of Greek words across. But pointing them all out requires several volumes of books; not a mere blog.