How would you translate this in regular language?

Question

Acts 4:32-35 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)

32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

35 And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

To Mr. T.: I should have included the link, it's the same as YOURS except this one is King James.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:32-35&version=9;


Did you notice the words "Public Domain" on the site?

And I'm so terribly, awfully, remarkably sorry, but Bible passages are most certainly not "copyrighted."

Get a life, why doncha.

To Washington Irving: No, I'm ashamed to admit that I have not heard of Camilo Torres. And what a hell of a bumper sticker, eh? "The Revolution is Love."

Ironically, sadly, tragically, and almost indeed comically - all the people screaming the loudest about Christianity are the very ones furthest from the message.

Today's crop of mercenaries would rather slit your throat than help to feed or clothe or heal one unfortunate human being.

To Mr. T's -- Please accept my sincere and humble apology. I have been cursed and bashed and abused and attacked on these boards, so the fact of the matter is that I guess I understood your simple post to be a slap - telling me I was infringing on copyright law - when all I was doing was posting a Bible verse. Which, of course, is NOT "copyrighted."

I could have worded the question better. I wasn't asking for a literal, academic "translation."

I was trying to get people to read this Bible verse and put it in the context of their daily lives.

Jesus wouldn't last five minutes in America.

Again - I am truly sorry, I thought you were chastising me.

To Alias Smith and Jones: Whether or not you're an agnostic is really irrelevant. You don't have to speak Italian to fully enjoy the opera.

The Bible is full of wisdom and poetry on a purely scholarly level, apart and separate from any "religious" aspect you may personally find "distasteful."

It's also full of claptrap and contradictions. We have a brain, you know. It's up to us to separate the chaff from the wheat.

Answer 1

Thanks for the uplifting read. I was raised catholic and the message in this passage comes up frequently in the New Testament.
Jesus was an anti-imperialist who rallied the native population of Palestine against foreign exploitation. All the stuff about being the son of god is great, but Christs message is an earthly one. Love one another, help the needy, feed the hungry... well, you get the message.
I have no doubt that if Jesus Christ would have come to us in the 20th c., he would have been a commie. Furthermore, I have no doubt that he would have been killed by the US or its mercenaries. Oh, well.
I love the last line, "distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Amen!

Peace, Blue. (You should post the sermon on the Mount, what is it, Mathew 19?)

PS: Have you heard of Camilo Torres? the Colombian priest who became a Revolutionary? He used to say that his duty to spread god's love could only take shape as injustice was eliminated. Injustice being the opposite of love, revolutionary justice was nothing other than godly love. To Camilo Torres, figthing for his people against the oppressive government and corporations was spreading god's love. He said it as succinctly a i have ever heard it: "The Revolution is love"

Answer 2

It means that the holy Republican libertarian dream is correct!

32: There was no actual governmental force telling them what to do.

33: It was all by the wonderful glorious revolution of the resurrection of Jesus.

34: Nobody went hungry because people could sell things without price controls and since people are so nice there were no taxes that made it difficult to share with others.

35: And people could brag to the apostles' about how much they gave to other people because of free trade and unfettered trickle down to the masses.

What it doesn't mean is that it worked, because if it REALLY worked it would STILL BE HERE.

So in fact it's a BIG FAT LIE. (1)

So are the following ideas:

Someone copyrighted the Bible. (2)

"Communist dictatorship" (3)

Answer 3

I believe this passage is blacked out in the George W. Bush family Bible as well as the White House copy.
It would also be considered a barrier to Profit by the W.T.O. and by "Free Trade" agreements as well.

Answer 4

Remember that with 6.5 billions of souls on the planet…I have but one opinion so, here goes:

32 “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.”

Yes, it is essentially communism but with a twist that is more honest than communism as practiced by the various governments which indulge in it. You will realize that reason would be the direct enemy to such abuse.
The possessions were to be TURNED OVER TO THR SOOTH_SAYERS to be distributed as THEY saw fit. So, essentially it is honest communist dictatorship.

You will also notice that blind faith is required. For ides like this...logic must be avoided t all costs.

34 “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,”

Here the order is that a true believer will sell everything they own and turn it over to the sooth-sayers. This can be accurately described as the ultimate fantasy of the con man.

This is sort of the ultimate wish list of someone sitting at a table in the processor of the Vatican, making up their most self-serving list of not-to-be-believed desires for a religious dictatorship. You will note that Pope after Pope tried to rule the politic of Europe for centuries. They usually backed this attempt with force of arms.

It’s fair to point out that the first Christian bible was constructed by catholic functionaries working with their own ideas and want list using the reconstructed Christian folk lore of (I think it was Eusebius but you will have to check if my memory is adequate on this name) who, went around writing down the various chriatian memories of the folklore destroyed by Constantine’s predecessor’s order that the Roman Army search out and destroy all things Christian.

Constantine was responsible for much of the Christian indulgence and old Eusebius pretty much wrote the dogma that would last for centuries.

Answer 5

All the people believed in Jesus, and all of the people looked after each other and shared their possessions so that none would be without. The rich people sold their lands and gave the money to the apostles so that they could distibute it to the people who needed it.

Could you imagine if all the people would really do that? That would be awesome! There would be no poor, hungry people in the world.

Answer 6

32 The people believed in Jesus. 33 god gave the apostles the ability to see Jesus come back from being dead. 34All that believed in Jesus was equal. 35.Tithing, giving and receiving.

Answer 7

32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Translation:
32 And they all believed they were united. They agreed silently that they had no possessions that they alone owned, rather everyone owned them.

Answer 8

Quoting from a copyrighted translation is copyright infringement, but it's legal to give a link to a clearer contemporary translation: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:32-35&version=65

---- updated
Wow. I try to help someone and get an anonymous lashing for trying to help. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

I was referring to the fact that the Message translation by Eugene Peterson, which I linked to for you, is copyrighted. I didn't say that you posted copyrighted material. On the link I made, look at the bottom right of that page and you will see the copyright info. Yahoo Answers prohibits pasting in copyrighted information, thus I gave you a link to the source because that page has permission from the copyright holder to display it.

Your question on how I would translate it to "regular" language made me think that it's already been translated to "regular" language, and that's why I provided the link so you could see the word-for-word translation of it, already done, in "regular" language. If I had known you had already researched Peterson's translation, I would not have mentioned it. You didn't say you had, and this is not "Yahoo Clairvoyants", it's Yahoo Answers. I was only trying to answer your question and help.

Best of luck with your questions.

Answer 9

sounds like a description of one of the many Christian communes that sprouted up throughout the middle east and north Africa during the 1st through 3rd centuries AD.

what a bunch of liberal socialist commies, lol

Answer 10

Sounds like Communism to me.