Butch5
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- Nov 13, 2019
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I think we should keep in mind that the Bible doesn't "say" anything. It can't speak to us and tell us what passages mean. That means that we are interpreting the Bible, which we do based on our presuppositions. So, what we believe before coming to the Bible will determine how we interpret the Bible. In addition to that, we're reading a translation. So, we're reading someone else's interpretation of the Bible. So, in effect we are interpreting an interpretation of the Bible. That means our interpretation is only likely to be correct if the interpretation we are reading is correct. If the interpretation we are reading is incorrect then it's likely ours will be too.No they don't.
Hebrew is not Greek, Greek in not Hebrew. The new Testament wasn't written in Hebrew. Trying to translate the old testament into the new testament
and the new testament into the old testament is false justification of translation. The Bible says what it means, and means what it says.
If you have to close your left eye every third word, and blink your right eye every fourth word, and reverse the letters every fifth word...
You're probably confused. The Bible isn't that hard.
You are correct that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. However, around 250 B.C. it was translated into Greek, by Jewish scholars and was known as the Septuagint or the LXX. This was then copied and spread through the Greek speaking Jews who had been scattered during the Babylonian exile. It became the Bible of the early Christians before the New Testament was written. When Paul said to Timothy,
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:15 KJV)
it would have been this Septuagint that Timothy would have studied. It's also this Septuagint that Jesus and the apostles used and primarily quoted from. When the Jewish scholars translated this word olam, which means, to the horizon, not eternity, they used the Greek word aion. They were trying to express this idea of "to the horizon" in Greek. The distance to the horizon would be different depending on the terrain. On flat land the horizon would be in the distance. In hilly terrain the horizon could be relatively close. The distance would determine the time it took to reach the horizon. Thus olam could indicated different lengths of time. Likewise aion was used of different lengths of time. In English the best translation would be an age.
Both olam and aion are used of things that end. Jesus spoke of the end of the aion, He spoke of this aion and the aion to come. The English word eternity, by definition, means unending. Something that ends is not unending. It simply can't be. Thus, olam and aion cannot mean eternity or forever. They just can't.