[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:32:57 +0300
"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 02:55:31PM -0500, Micah R Ledbetter wrote:
> > (As for Bible translations, I used the NASB, which still maintains  
> > some archaic language - it's based on the RSV, written 1907(?) - but  
> > is much more readable than the KJV to me. I chose it based on  
> > everything I've read on how literal it is.)
> 
> The original text of the old testament used a vocabulary of about 800 words.
> 
> How that translates into English I have no idea, for example there
> are no verbs to be or go like in English even in modern Hebrew.
> There is also no word for of, from or to, being expressed by prefixes.
> 
> Double negatives are required. so you would say "not bananas no here"
> or "not have I no bananas".
> 
> Aramaic is close enough to Hebrew for the same rules to apply. 
>  
> IMHO Hebrew is so different that if you take a sentence in English and
> translate the words to Hebrew they make no sense or vice versa. There
> needs to be more translation, and context based interpretation.

For a good example of a 2000 year old mistake, see the errors related to the
story of Jesus saying "turn the other cheek".

We've interpreted that as "be passive, and if someone hits you, let them hit
you again."

However, Jesus lived in a semetic world that often recorded events in
greek, where "turn the other cheek" was not a reference to being passive, but
in how you face someone.

It didn't mean let them hit you again, it meant to face them as an equal.

It comes from the fact that upper classes would often strike an underling
either backhanded, or with his left hand.  The left hand or back of the hand
was considered dirty, and often really was.

Jesus was telling his people to turn the other cheek, not to let them hit it,
but to force them to use their right hand forward, as if they were equal.

It was a rebellious, not a passive statement.



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