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Translation of Luke 2:2
July 19, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Need help from someone more proficient with Koine Greek than I am. One apologist who's seen my Jesus Timeline video has claimed that Luke 2:2 says the census occurred "before" governor Quirinius, not "during". This is an attempt to square Luke with Matthew and push Jesus back to the reign of Herod the Great.
The obvious problem, to me, is that I can't find a single Bible translation that supports the use of the word "before". All of them, without fail, say "during" or "while" or "when". The closest thing I (and he) could find was the ESV which had a footnote suggesting the alternate translation. However, even this version used the word "when".
Anyone know anything more about this apology?
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 19, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Clearly, Satan changed the wording in the original Greek translation. Yes, that must be it. It obviously couldn't be that the Bible is a collection of desert scribblings full of fanciful metaphysical pre-scientific hocus-pocus, with no regard for history or reality in general...
...could it?
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 19, 2010 at 6:54 pm
"Luke" and "Matthew" (names made up by later editors) were telling stories to different audiences. With the focus on Jewish rites, customs and personalities it would appear that whoever wrote "Matthew" was writing for a Palestinian audience, whereas the author of "Luke", with his focus on Roman personalities was writing for a Greco-Roman audience that didn't give a shit about Jewish rituals.
Neither author had any idea that their novels would later be scooped up by pious assholes and combined into a single "book" which only shows the contradictions between them all the more clearly. Any time now one of our resident xtian nuts will drop by and sprain his scrotum trying to "explain" how the obvious contradiction is not a contradiction at all. It's always good for a laugh when they do that.
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 19, 2010 at 7:14 pm
The Ommnisiunt One:
Yes Satan must have changed it! There is no other explaination! Of course, if I was an all powerful God I would have stopped Satan from doing it.
This debunking religion lark is so easy.
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 20, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Yeah - that 'Satan' outfoxes 'god' at every turn, doesn't he?
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 20, 2010 at 10:58 pm
'God' always comes across as something of a schlepper. Of course the morons claim he wins in the end but you'd expect that from them, wouldn't you?
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 21, 2010 at 7:26 am
Waiting for me min? Actually I quite agree with your assessment and appreciate the good read.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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RE: Translation of Luke 2:2
July 21, 2010 at 11:12 am
Nah, you weren't the one(s) I had in mind.