Lexicography and translating

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10-22-27

Active member
Dec 17, 2023
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#1
I read some of the comments made in the article that deny the correctness of the K.J.B. As I read it, two verses come to mind: 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3, we are not to be shaken in mind or spirit or word. We are not to be deceived, “For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.”

Lexicography, the science of words, is a branch of learning that teaches and applies words’ proper meaning and just application.

A lexicon is a vocabulary book containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language, with the definition of each or an explanation of its meaning.

A linguist is a person skilled in languages. This term applies to those well-versed in the languages. Those who worked on the K.J.B. were professors of languages, Greek, Hebrew, English, French, German, etc. Those who worked on the K.J.B., the 47 translators taught in what was considered the most outstanding universities in the world. They wrote the books the students studied.

To define a word is to explain the significance of that word or term and to give the idea of what a word is understood to express.

To translate: To translate means to interpret words, phrases, etc., from one language into another language. It is also to express the sense of one language in the words of another.

The Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek more than two hundred years before Christ. The work was completed by those who loved the Lord and his word.

The New Testament was written by Jews, aiming to express Hebrew thoughts, conceptions, and feelings in Greek. Their idiom, consequently, in soul and spirit, is Hebrew, but in its external form, written in Greek.

Certain words in Scripture have caused a division in God’s church. This rift is caused by a few who choose to translate certain words according to their limited knowledge of the languages or just blatant deception. Small cracks have developed into a great chasm of division.

These divisions have isolated many, and the danger is losing eternal life. Anything that makes a person take their eyes off the Lord Jesus may become an idol to that person, this in regard to them adding new meanings or taking away of God’s word.

Why do we need a dictionary or lexicons when studying? Because they embrace a wide field of research. Any serious scholars pursuing the study of languages, critically and philologically, will trace every word to its original origin, investigating each word’s primitive form and significance.

Their study will include:

The way words have been used throughout different periods of history.

The particular people with their dialects.

The manner and order in which all have been deduced from the original root usage.

This step is crucial in getting at the truth of a word’s meaning. Unfortunately, this is the step that is left out today. Why? Because of personal biases, lack of effort, and rush to publish.

Lexicographers observe the relationship to which a word or phrase stands to other words in construction, phrases, and the various modifications it has undergone in these respects. This is termed the histological method of lexicography.

1. Historical: This is in the sense that a word, phrase, or passage is deduced from the circumstances of time, place, and under which it had been written, its primary sense, as opposed to any secondary or even more remote sense.

2. Logical: Logic is the science of correct reasoning, implying correct thinking and legitimate inferences from premises and principles assumed or admitted being accurate. Logic includes the art of thinking, as well as the art of reasoning.

Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD.” The Lord demands correct reasoning, thinking, and Holy principles in studying His word.

3. To estimate by comparison. Our body may be considered heavy compared to a feather, but light compared to a truck. To compare is to set or bring things together in fact or contemplation and then examine the relations they bear to each other, agreeing or disagreeing.

The above proceeds upon supposing that a language is itself ancient and independent of every other language; therefore, its words are traced to the ultimate roots within itself; this is true in Greek and Hebrew.

Languages do go through stages. There is the Golden Age, the historical base, pure and in its’ prime. Language changed, and a new understanding of words was produced because of economic trade, wars, conquest, the breaking up of countries, the merging of conquered armies, and the founding of new colonies.

For example, the language of the New Testament is the later Greek language. This latter form of Greek was spoken by Jews mainly. They applied the Greek tongue that these Jews spoke to subjects on which native Greek writers had never used it.

Therefore, the meaning of particular Greek words used by the religious Hebrews was understood only by those who practiced that specific religion. The same holds for Christians, a new understanding of words used by Greek writers, taken from old law, culture, and procedure. So, being needed, it was taken from the Greek language spoken at that period.

The writers of the New Testament, except for Paul and Luke, were not well educated. Like the rest of the general population, they knew the Greek language only from the intercourse of ordinary everyday life and not from a higher education.

With these writers, the Hebrew element of that language was mingled within their idiom and would naturally have great prominence. The difference lies in the turn of the thought or in the idea itself rather than in the expression.

No Greek writer had ever written on Jewish affairs, theology, or ritual. For example, in Hebrew, it means to bless; in Greek, it means to speak well of. So, God blesses us, which would not mean the same to us today; God speaks well of us.

The writers of the New Testament were to be the instruments of making known new revelations, they are then a new dispensation of mercy to us. A new circle of ideas and new doctrines had to be developed. Human languages were not prepared for this new doctrine of salvation by grace.
 

GRACE_ambassador

Well-known member
Feb 22, 2021
3,215
1,613
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Midwest
#2
So, God blesses us, which would not mean the same to us today; God speaks well of us.
God Speaks 'Very Well' of us? Praise His Blessed and Holy Name!:

"Blessed Be The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who Hath​
Blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly places In Christ"​
(Ephesians 1:3)​
We, in turn, should "speak Very Very Well" Of Him - Praising His Name!!

Amen.