Words explained
Words the church kept
and readers lost
Every translation inherits vocabulary from the one before it. After four hundred years of that, some words carry no meaning for the person reading them. Here is what each one meant before English got hold of it, and what this translation prints instead.
From the Hebrew
- LORDbecomes “Yahweh”Most Bibles replace God's actual name with a title. This one prints the name.
- sinbecomes “failure”An archery word. It means the arrow went wide of what it was aimed at.
- lovingkindnessbecomes “loyal love”The word English keeps failing to translate. Love that stays when it does not have to.
- peacebecomes “wholeness, everything as it should be”Not the absence of conflict. The presence of everything that ought to be there.
- covenantbecomes “binding agreement”A treaty, with terms, witnesses, and consequences. Not a vague promise.
- judgmentbecomes “justice, setting things right”Closer to fixing what is broken than to condemning what is wrong.
- lawbecomes “instruction, teaching”The word means teaching. Reading it as legislation changes the whole book.
- spiritbecomes “wind, breath”One Hebrew word covers wind, breath, and spirit. Context picks which.
- heartbecomes “heart, mind”The Hebrew heart thinks and decides. It is not where feelings live.
- righteousbecomes “the person who does right”Describes conduct, not temperament.
- inheritancebecomes “inheritance, allotted share”Land handed down, and the family identity attached to it.
- Son of Manbecomes “Son of Man, human being”Sometimes it means "a human." Sometimes it means considerably more.
- holybecomes “belongs to God / set apart”Reserved for one purpose and kept back from every other use.
- atonementbecomes “make things right”To cover, or to wipe clean, depending on which scholar you ask.
- soulbecomes “life, whole self”Hebrew has no word for a soul that floats free of a body.
- fear of the LORDbecomes “living in awe of God”The same word covers terror and reverence. Which one depends on where you stand.
- faithfulnessbecomes “faithfulness, complete integrity”Related to the word you say at the end of a prayer.
- wisdombecomes “wisdom, skill at living”The same word describes a skilled craftsman. It is competence, not cleverness.
- prophetbecomes “prophet, spokesman”Mostly they told you about now. Predicting the future was the smaller part.
- servantbecomes “servant, slave”One word, and translators have been softening it for four hundred years.
- thus says the LORDbecomes “this is what Yahweh declares”A formula that marked the words as quoted, not summarized.
- sacrificebecomes “sacrifice”Most of it got eaten. It was a shared meal more often than a loss.
- burnt offeringbecomes “entirely burned offering”The one offering nobody ate. That was the point of it.
- altarbecomes “altar”Literally the slaughtering place. The furniture was not decorative.
- tabernaclebecomes “meeting tent”A tent where an appointment got kept. Both halves of that matter.
- meat offeringbecomes “grain offering”The King James called it a meat offering. There was no meat in it.
- trumpetbecomes “ram's horn”Not brass. An actual horn off an actual ram.
- Selahbecomes “Selah”Nobody knows. Anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing confidently.
From the Greek
- Holy Spiritbecomes “the Breath of God”The Greek word behind "Spirit" is the ordinary word for breath and moving air.
- righteousnessbecomes “made right with God”A courtroom word that English turned into a personality trait.
- glorybecomes “weight, magnificence, honor”The Hebrew underneath it means heaviness. Something with actual weight to it.
- kingdom of Godbecomes “God's kingdom, where God is king”Less a place than a reign. The question is who runs things, not where.
- sin (New Testament)becomes “failures, corruption”Same archery picture as the Hebrew, carried into Greek.
- Christbecomes “The One”Not a surname. A job title, and one people had been waiting on for centuries.
- gracebecomes “undeserved kindness”A word so churched over that most readers cannot say what it means.
- brethrenbecomes “brothers and sisters”A masculine plural that included everyone in the room.
- faithbecomes “trust”Trusting a person, not accepting a proposition.
- eternal lifebecomes “limitless life”About a kind of life, not only a length of it.
- gospelbecomes “good news”What a runner shouted when the war was over and your side had won.
- repentbecomes “completely change direction”Turning around and walking the other way. Feeling bad is optional.
- disciplesbecomes “followers, students”Apprentices, really. They lived with the teacher to become like him.
- Lordbecomes “Master”Ranged from "sir" to a claim that got people killed.