Posted on 12/02/2014 7:40:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Pacifists use a mistranslation of the Sixth Commandment in the King James Bible to justify their cause.
Ask almost anyone to recite the commandment in the Ten Commandments that prohibits taking a life, and you will be told, “Thou shalt not kill.”
That is the King James translation of the Sixth Commandment. Overall, it is a magnificent translation. But this one has led to much moral confusion.
Yesterday, PragerUniversity.com, which has had more than 20 million views this year, released eleven courses (each five minutes long) — the Ten Commandments and an introduction.
The reason we made these video courses is that I believe that everything we need to make a good world and rid ourselves of evil is contained in the Ten Commandments.
For the next few weeks, my column will be selected transcripts of the courses, all of which I present.
Whatever your faith, or if you have no faith, I invite you to watch the videos at www.prageru.com — the introduction and the Ten Commandments, or any one of the Ten. They are cleverly animated with text and graphics.
Here is the text of Commandment Six — explaining why the King James translation is wrong:
You would think that of all the Ten Commandments, the one that needs the least explaining is the Sixth, because it seems so clear. It is the one that the King James Bible, the most widely used English translation of the Bible, translates as “Thou shall not kill.”
Yet the truth is the quite the opposite. This is probably the least well understood of the Ten Commandments. The reason is that the Hebrew original does not say, “Do not kill.” It says, “Do not murder.” Both Hebrew and English have two words for taking a life — one is “kill” (harag, in Hebrew) and the other is “murder” (ratzach in Hebrew).
The difference between the two is enormous. Kill means:
1) Taking any life — whether of a human being or an animal.
2) Taking a human life deliberately or by accident.
3) Taking a human life legally or illegally, morally or immorally.
On the other hand, murder can only mean one thing: The illegal or immoral taking of a human life. That’s why we say, “I killed a mosquito,” not, “I murdered a mosquito.” And that’s why we would say, “the worker was accidentally killed,” not, “the worker was accidentally murdered.”
So why did the King James translation of the Bible use the word “kill” rather than “murder”? Because 400 years ago when the translation was made, “kill” was synonymous with “murder.” As a result, some people don’t realize that English has changed since 1610 and therefore think that the Sixth Commandment prohibits all killing.
But, of course, it doesn’t. If the Ten Commandments forbade killing, we would all have to be vegetarians because killing animals would be prohibited. And we would all have to be pacifists — because we could not kill even in self-defense.
However, you don’t have to know how the English language has evolved to understand that the Ten Commandments could not have prohibited all killing. The very same part of the Bible that contains the Ten Commandments — the Five Books of Moses, the Torah as it is known by Jews — commands the death penalty for murder, allows killing in war, prescribes animal sacrifice, and allows eating meat.
A correct understanding of the commandment against murder is crucial because, while virtually every modern translation correctly translates the commandment as “Do not murder,” many people cite the King James translation to justify two positions that have no biblical basis: opposition to capital punishment and pacifism.
Regarding capital punishment and the Bible, as I note in my Prager University course on capital punishment, the only law that appears in each one of the Five Books of Moses is that murderers be put to death. Opponents of the death penalty are free to hold the view that all murderers should be allowed to live. But they are not free to cite the Bible to support their view.
Yet, many do. And they always cite the commandment, “Do not kill.” But that, as should now be abundantly clear, is not what the commandment says, and it is therefore an invalid argument.
As regards pacifism — the belief that it is always wrong to kill a human being: again, anyone is free to hold this position, as immoral as it may be. And what other word than “immoral” can one use to describe forbidding the killing of someone who is in the process of murdering innocent men, women, and children, in, let’s say, a movie theater or a school?
But it is dishonest to cite the commandment against murder to justify pacifism.
There is moral killing — most obviously when done in self-defense against an aggressor — and there is immoral killing. And the word for that is “murder.”
The Ten Commandments are portrayed on two tablets. The five commandments on the second tablet all concern our treatment of fellow human beings.
The first one on that list is “Do not murder.” Why? Because murder is the worst act a person can commit. The other four commandments — prohibiting stealing, adultery, giving false testimony, and coveting, are all serious offenses.
But murder leads the list because deliberately taking the life of an innocent person is the most terrible thing we can do. That is why it is so important to understand that the commandment prohibits murder, not all killing. When people liken killing in self-defense to murder — such as when they equate killing the terrorist who is murdering people with the murders that the terrorist is committing — all they are doing is reducing the evil that murder is. And when they use the Ten Commandments to justify that position, all they are doing is making the Ten Commandments, the moral foundation of Western Civilization, morally irrelevant.
The next time you hear someone cite “Do not kill” when quoting the Sixth Commandment, gently but firmly explain that it actually says “Do not murder.”
— Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His most recent book is Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph. He is the founder of Prager University
The problem is not as simple as stating “That Shall Not Murder.”
You see, even professional writers and journalists have “MURDERED” the English languages through the years, and if people actually understood the means of the words and phrase which people use, then we wouldn’t have HALF the problems we currently have!
As someone already noted, people “die” in accidents, they are not accidentally “killed,” although that is the most common phrase used today by journalists, TV reporters, and authors. But, the CORRECT English phrase would be that he died accidentally.
I have told my kids for years, “WORDS HAVE MEANING!” Learn them and use them appropriately and, more importantly, listen to others use of the words - because they often do not even know what they mean. Clarify, when necessary!
I like that!
Read Eccliastes 3:
A time for peace, and a time for war.
No not done away with...just updated to modern language norms. Most folks led by the Holy Spirit had read that commandment in the KJV and knew that the reference stood for ‘premeditated murder’. I remember as a teen listening to leftists citing that verse from the KJV in their tomes against war, or state execution of murderers and I knew inwardly they were twisting its meaning. Later on when I read what the Hebrew meaning was for that expression(or at least the translation from the Hebrew to English...I don’t read Hebrew) I then realized that the Holy Spirit DOES assist folks with understanding the scriptures. The term “kill” was “murder” as I had argued with the lefties over in my teen years.
Perhaps whoever has charge of the KJV translations can redo the verse as “Don’t commit premeditated murder”...someday. I suspect that even if we had the most up to date linguistically transparent translations of the Bible, folks would still twist it to deceive the sheep. That is a SIN problem, not a translation issue.
Language usage reflects changes in cultural practices...so the Holy Spirit will always need to work to keep the HEART understanding of the Bible pure as God would want us to understand it! After all doesn’t the bible say...”and I will write my laws on hearts of flesh.”?
Or “some people just need killin.” :-)
It’s the law of self defense.... if the man wants to come and murder you unjustly, it is okay to kill him in self defense.
Even in the case of an ambiguity of text (and the Hebrew original isn’t ambiguous) context is needed. There were various capital penalties prescribed by the Mosaic covenant.
It’s a public domain work today but yes it, too, had a copyright at one time.
He didn’t and the verse Salvation cites is not Christ negating the laws against murder nor execution of murderers. He was expanding on that law by equating hatreds held by a man towards another was just as harmful and “liable for judgment” as it was if a murder had been committed. Likewise, a man was liable to make good as much as possible with one who has something legitimately against him.
A great many spiritual “Ables” may prevent a great many spiritual “Cains” by following this great maxim...”Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” Ephesians 4:32
You want to understand Matthew 5:21-26? Read Ephesians 4:32!
Most other translations, including the NKJV, translate it as “Do not murder”.
What Eccliastes 3 says is nothing matters(over and over) except for what God says. You and God don’t get to have it both ways(if you believe your God is a just god).
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I always hate it when people say this. Yes it is true as far as you understand it, it does not do away with the Ten Commandments. The Law of Moses was not the Ten Commandments but the laws of daily life as outlined mostly in the last 3 books of Moses.
The Ten Commandments are still in force, are still the law of God. Breaking them has consequences, consequences that can be overturned by the Grace of Jesus Christ but not before we have paid a price, a heavy price of a broken heart and attempted to make restitution and begged forgiveness.
I hear people saying all the time that working on the Sabbath is OK now because the law has been fulfilled, hog wash. The same is true of adultery, many talk of how little a deal it is to break this and other of the Ten Commandments, THEY ARE WRONG!
Which is why I use the NKJV as well as the KJV. It’s just that certain KJV passages sound so wonderful in the “original Handel”!
:)...... :0-—hallelujah!...for the lord God omnipotent reigggnnnneth!
That is why I like the NRSV and in my situation, NRSVCE or Catholic Edition. It cleans up the English.
Better to have an English you can understand.
Do not tell that to the folks who promote ebonics! SARC!
Tell that to the Amalekites.
Just follow Christ’s(the high priest of Melchizidek) example as to how he observed the Sabbath and we should be doing just fine.
The priestly line of Aaron......the LAW OF GOD....the priestly line of Melchizidek. The Law stands apart. Aaron condemns and prescribes punishment under the law....Melchizidek seeks to redeem us from the bondage of sin caused by the breaking of the laws.
This concept of the fulfillment of the Law thru Christ bodily may be best understood by reading John 1:14”and the WORD became flesh and dwelt amongst us!”
Who was Christ but God in Flesh; the very God from whom comes his laws and statutes, his love, grace and mercy!. Christ was God’s love gift to the world. If we want to know how we are supposed to act or live, we can read of how Christ lived. Christ received a lot of criticisms for not living or speaking the way “cultured religious folks were supposed to live or speak”...but he lived the way God lives, for he was and still is indeed God!
Aaron’s way would have had the prostitute stoned....Melchizidek’s way was to forgive and redeem the prostitute and tell her...”Go and sin no more!” Christ did not set the law at naught, but used his authority as sinless savior to forgive and redeem(but with a warning Go and sin no more!). Christ healed on the Sabbath...he was accused of ‘working’ on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath and we are expected to use some brains...if we see a need to be a blessing on the Sabbath as Christ saw a need for healing, we might indeed act to be a blessing!
We are to love God with the whole of ourselves as we are able to muster and we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves;...when we seek to master those two commandments as the holy Spirit makes us able, then we will by nature follow all of the law the way Christ followed the law. We will also have the wisdom to rightly divide what laws to follow at the time and what other laws are subordinate. Love will dictate how we are to live. For his law will be written in our inward parts....our “operating systems” if you will!
The original Handel is a very easy language to understand...especially in Dmajor:”FOOOOR THE LORD GOD, OMNIPOTENT REIIIIIIIGNNNNETH, HALLELUJUH! HALLELUJAH!”
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