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And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied. (Ezra 9:3 KJV)
We can venture to say that 'rent' means 'tore off', rather than some financial leasing arrangement. But 'astonied'? Translation please.
When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and my robe and ripped out some of the hair from my head and beard. Then I sat down, quite devastated. (Ezra 9:3 NET)
Thank you NET.
This website mainly uses biblical references from the New English Translation (NET) version.
Over the centuries, the Bible has been published in several translations and versions. Each new issue attempts to be easier to follow than its predecessor and claims to be more accurate to the original Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek.
The English language is constantly evolving and some of the older translations are less easy to follow. The King James Version (KJV) has been the mainstay of Christian churches in the West, particularly in Protestant churches, but this was published in 1611 and many of the Old English phrases used, whilst quaint, can sometimes prevent the reader from grasping the true meaning.
Interestingly, the word 'prevent' in the previous paragraph had two meanings when the KJV was published: The current meaning of 'hinder', and an older Middle English meaning of 'come before' (from 'pre' meaning 'before', and 'venire' meaning 'come'). So in 1 Thess. 4:15 we read:
which can be compared with a modern translation:
Another example can be found in Acts 17:22
which appears to be (but isn't) a different interpretation in a modern translation:
The word 'let' in the KJV can also be misinterpreted to mean 'permit', when the actual intention is the archaic meaning of 'forbid'. Such meaning is obsolete in general English; an exception being the legal phrase 'without let or hindrance'.
In fact the KJV itself urges us to speak clearly. 1 Cor. 14:9
And with that, we rest our case.
The English language will continue to change and consequently the Scriptures must be updated into contemporary language for us to understand God's Word. For this reason, Nelson published a revised New King James Version (NKJV) in three stages between 1979 and 1982.
So why has the NET version been selected for the seiyaku.com website, rather than the excellent NKJV version? The answer is that copyright laws prevent us from reproducing sizeable passages from the NKJV.
Thomas Nelson, Inc and Holman Bible Publishers are commercial companies who need to protect their investment with copyright restrictions. They depend largely on their profits to fund development of future editions. The NET Bible®, however, is freely available at bible.org. We are not trying to compete with NET Bible's publishers; on the contrary, we support them. We offer neither sophisticated search facilities nor analytical commentaries. If you require such research tools, please visit bible.org.
We also include the Nova Vulgata, the official Roman Catholic version in Latin.
No copyright on that, and useful for students to compare side-by-side with English versions.
For the names of the books in the Bible, you may be more comfortable using some names than others. For example; 'Revelations', 'The Revelation of St. John the Divine', or the 'Apocalypse'. Nothing should be implied by our decision to use certain names; we'd rather you focus on the book's content.
Book names on this website are abbreviated according to common conventions.
a few more English quirks.
English has one of the worst vocabularies to spell; and there are good reasons behind this which we'll write about later. But for now, here are a couple of examples:
How to spell fish
George Bernard Shaw is said to have written a London Times article when he was campaigning for spelling reform, giving the following example:
How to spell potato
Many people remember way back in 1992, when the then Vice-President Dan Quayle's image was unfairly destroyed by a simple spelling mistake. At the Luis Munoz Rivera School he 'helped' a 12-year old student spell the word potato. Although the student had already spelt the word correctly, Quayle added an "e" to the end of the word. Not that it matters one jot of course, there are much more important things for a vice-president to worry about; like himself and the president being voted out of office a few months later.
Sew, if you have difficulty spelling sum times, take hart - your not a loan!
Here's yet another alternative spelling of potato:
We'll begin with a box and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
The one fowl is a goose but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese.
You may found a lone mouse or a whole set of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why should not the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural wouldn't be hose.
And the plural of cat is cats and not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say Mother, we never say Methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim,
So English, I fancy you will all agree,
Is the funniest language you ever did see.
Source: Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio, Sacrosanti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II, Ratione Habita, Iussu Pauli PP. VI Recognita, Auctoritate Ioannis Pauli PP. II Promulgata, Editio Typica Altera
A palindrome is a word that is the same whether read left to right or right to left. For example 'racecar' and 'kayak'. Composing palindromic sentences is a popular pastime for those boooring Monday morning meetings, and include:
Borrow or rob?
Do geese see God?
We panic in a pew.
Never odd or even.
Ana, nab a banana.
A nut for a jar of tuna.
Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?
Dennis and Edna sinned.
Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
Murder for a jar of red rum.
Madam in Eden, I'm Adam.
A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!
Go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog.
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
...and our favourite:
The space ship maneuvered to the middle of the football field. A ramp lowered down and an alien walked down to the ground and said, "Dias dnad nuorgeh tot nwod deklaw neila nad nanwod derewolp marad leifl lab too feht foeld dimeht ot der evuen ampih secap seht!"
... or was it the Los Angeles Times?
If anyone can provide documentary evidence that such an article actually appeared, we'd be interested to see it.
In the 1980s, Charles E Robinson, a professor of English at Delaware University, found a letter written in December 1855 by the English publisher Charles Ollier to his friend, an English essayist and poet, Leigh Hunt. The letter included: "My son William has hit upon a new method of spelling 'fish'...", followed by the formula shown on this page.
'Spelt' - British English
'Spelled' - American English
Having an international audience, this site tends to follow the more common British spelling.