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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2009 12:18:01 GMT
from The TelegraphEarlier this week one of the world’s biggest publishers of Bibles, Biblica, announced plans to bring out a completely new international version of, er, the New International Version
It comes after a 2005 edition, Today’s New International Version, caused outrage among traditionalists for its politically correct attempt to make the holy text of Christianity “gender accurate”.
So out went references to sons of God, the creation of man and brethren, and in came children, humans and brothers and sisters.
Mary became pregnant rather than with child, and nobody was “stoned” in case it gave teenagers the giggles.
Meanwhile, the excellent Ship of Fools website has drawn up a list of the top 10 worst Biblical verses, which appear to approve of sexism, genocide and slavery.
So what would you do to keep sales going of the bestselling book of all time? Should we keep it just the way it is or update it so it does not offend modern sensitivities?
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Post by Liberator on Sept 7, 2009 1:47:14 GMT
I'll bet it's even less textually accurate than other recent versions. First, there is more than one 'Bible'. In Europe there is the Protestant 'Masoritic' Hebrew-based Babylonian Old Testament and the traditional 'Septuagint' later translation into Greek of an earlier version that the New Testament always references. Then there are the versions used in older churches like the Coptic and Syriac. Then there is the point that by the time it was all compiled, Jews had come round to the idea that there was only one deity, so all references under any name had to be translated as 'God' (as if that were a personal name) or 'The Lord' (mostly where it has YHWH instead of Elohiym). This is deciding that all the different names sprang from one single concept instead of became grouped into it, as if we translated 'Zeus, Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes' all as 'God' because later times had come to see them all as aspects of some unitary deity that might well be true but was never how they were seen when they were first written down. For me, it is essential that 'Elohim' (as in Created Man in Their own likenessand 'YHWH' (as in threw an almighty tantrum because Now they are as Us, knowing Good from Evil) represent two different concepts because the first is 'God' of morality transcending this world and the second 'Devil' amoral 'Lord' (ie 'Symbol') of this world
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