Body of Text by one half of the Time Monks George Ure from the Web Bot project.
This is from todays column at
www.urbansurvival.com...
regarding his involvement with
www.thechronicleproject.org...
and his views on the work, which is showing to be the exposure of one of the oldest conspiracy theories we know. Who screwed with the bible
translation, why and what does it really say.
Body text: Today is, incidentally, "St. Jerome Day", the patron saint of translators, according to the liturgical calendar.
Which was just strange enough to send me scampering to Wikipedia where the back story on his being the patron saint of 'translators' jumps out at
me:
Jerome (c. 347 – 30 September 420) (formerly Saint Hierom) (Latin: Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; Greek: Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος
Ἱερώνυμος) was an Illyrian Christian priest [1] and apologist. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border
of Dalmatia and Pannonia. He is best known for his translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), and his list of writings is extensive.
All of which is all the more personally meaningful because I've spent a little time getting to know (and perhaps offering an idea or two, here and
there) to the efforts of The Chronicle Project (
www.thechronicleproject.org... ) which is in the process of re-translating the Bible using
something called Self-Defining Hebrew (SDH) which you can read about on their web site if you're interested.
The whole premise of their work boils down to a couple of real stimple concepts: The first is that Hebrew had built into it (at the get-go) a system
of 'error-correction' which helps to keep the texts pure down through generations. Not that serious efforts weren't made in that regard anyway, since
there was usual one translator translating, one translator doing the writing of the translation and a third making sure the first two didn't screw up.
But, where things seem to have gone off the rails by a country mile, or two, is in losing the essence of what was once a 'verb language' and
developing instead of single verb/action concepts installing (in latter day translations) up to dozens of different meanings for different character
sets which seem (at least under SDH) to resolve down to single meanings. Books like "Strong's Concordance" as the work progressing seems to show, may
be part of a systematic reinterpretation of what was originally there and installing 'definitions of convenience'.
That's because (when SDH is applied) the 10 Commandments turn out to be 11 instead. And, the prohibition in modern interpretations of things like
"Thou shalt not kill" (sometimes "Thou shalt not slay") turn out to say something more like - and I'll do a poor job of paraphrasing here - "You
shouldn't turn your back on a member of community who needs your help/support/sustenance".
Oh, there's also no mention of they neighbor in there, either. The 'retooling of what's there in ancient Aramaic and Hebrew, seems to been deliberate
and inspired by an agenda of some kind that wasn't in the original texts.
For me, this is a pretty doggone interesting project to be aware of and when things involving translation and language comes up, and a big coincidence
plops down in the middle of what goes on in my life around the edges, it could be a meaningful coincidence.
Or, if could just be George tilting at windmills again. Experience suggests that most people don't want to question centuries-old translations even
if some of them are pretty clearly made-up to suit a socioeconomic agenda from an earlier time. Or, as the case may be, to continue a socioeconomic
business model, much of which may be based on previous mistranslations.
I'm always amazed at the number of people who haven't read the history of such events as the First Council of Nicaea, 325, or the Second Council which
met in 787. Even fewer are the number of people I've met who have put serious study into what was "handed down" from Aramaic and Hebrew source
documents, and how much was 'enacted' at what a really inquisitive mind might take as an ancient version of Congress, except deciding matters of Faith
instead of matters of Law.
Not that there'd be anything but purest of intents, in either case, of course... But then there's the First Council of Constantinople in 360...
We'll award bonus points when you find the [purported] meetings at which reincarnation (and other key spiritual possibilities) was (voted/) written
out of existence... But with that, I'll just shut the hell up since no one seems to agree on any of this subject area.
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Think of it as histories slowest moving investigative reporting story. Besides, Thursday's headline was only a 'coincidence', right?
edit on 1-10-2010 by shoulda taken the blue pi because: added link