The HUGE mistake that many people make is to take an English version of the Hebrew Bible and accept it (no pun intended) as gospel. No, it isn’t. It was written in Hebrew, which is a very complex language with many subtleties that get lost when translating it to other languages. Then it was translated into Greek; then to Latin and then to old English, and finally to the English that we speak, read and write today. MUCH understanding has been lost by the vast majority of the world, which doesn’t read or understand Hebrew (and doesn’t care to, for that matter).
Someone thinks that the set of questions posed in this article are new? Well, not quite, they’re only off by about 3,400 years. While I’m no scholar, I am about as certain as I can be of anything that this was discussed in detail in the Oral Torah (also called the Mishne Torah), which was given by G-d to Moses on Mt. Sinai (what do you think that he was doing up there for 40 days?), and that both the Torah and Oral Torah accounts of these events was discussed at great length over the course of over a thousand years by hundreds of great members of the Sanhedrin and great rabbis - all of whom spoke, read and wrote in fluent Hebrew.
Unless you're reading a really antiquated translation, it's translated at least "with reference to" the original languages.
But honestly, you're right. It's worse than you describe, in fact. If you've ever done any translations of any text (Biblical or otherwise) with any complexity to it ... you know it's a very messy business. The plays on words, idioms, and word connotations in one language are impossible to carry over into another.
Quote-MUCH understanding has been lost by the vast majority of the world, which doesn’t read or understand Hebrew..
I saw a study that differentiated the Hebrew ‘man’ used in Genesis 1 with ‘the man’ that is used in Genesis 2.
It would denote a specific man in Genesis 2 as opposed to all mankind.
And their claim was ‘the man’ ,Adam, was created on the 3rd day, before all the animals and before all the rest of ‘mankind’. Hence dominion over.
Created the same day the earth brought forth vegetation, which is recorded as His 3rd day.
It was an interesting study. I think they were trying to find a way for Cain to find a wife that was not related to the parents. and certainly mankind being created after ‘the man’ would help their premise..
Hebrew is complex.
I would love to have an expert in Hebrew tell me how Erev, tranliterated as ‘evening’ in Genesis- (which can also mean ‘twilight’ and ‘fading of the day’ in the Concordances I have seen) , means that is when a day begins.
Because logic and creation says before ‘twilight’ or’fading of the ‘day’ can happen, ‘light’ would come first.. And considering Scripture says he called the light ‘day’, it seems to be pretty clear. Except in religion.
And that little complexity have people beginning days when His Creation and His Word says that is when ‘night’ starts..not ‘day’..
Quite a complexity for sure!
And the people who speak and read Hebrew are lost as well...There is no original Hebrew scripture to compare it to...
And the Greek??? The Greek has been a dead language for centuries...And there certainly aren't any original Greek manuscripts to compare anything to....All we have are copies of copies and translations of those copies...
So why do you suppose God would have had his scriptures written in a language that he knew would vanish away for the most part and his original written words would vanish as well??? What did God epect his children generations down the line to do???
God said he would preserve his words forever...You figure he lied about that??? If he didn't, where are they???
Just FYI:
The fast day on the Hebrew date 10th of Tevet was originally mourning the translation of the Sefer Torah from Hebrew into Greek, because of the disasters that would result.