Have Christians not only invented words but have also hijacked words and corrupted their true meaning?

Question

Words like ‘faith,’ ‘believe’ and ‘salvation’. I mean, their entire doctrine comes from a translation from Greek or Hebrew into Latin then into English as we know it and at all of those steps, there must have been at least a few situations where the words that replaced the original text were chosen with a ‘close enough’ mentality. But the guys doing the translating had a backup plan anyway; all they had to do was make people believe they were inspired by God during the translation and they would burn in hell if they questioned it then the people would believe anything. Pretty clever plan, don’t you think?

Answer 1

It's been my experience that most Christians will spin, redefine, reinterpret, de-emphasize, over-emphasize, deny, fabricate, invent, inflate, exaggerate, ignore, obfuscate and/or redirect as necessary to try and keep their primitive superstition artificially alive in a modern, informed society.

Answer 2

Translation is more of an artform than a science. You will find there are times that a word can be taken into more than one context. There is also the case where the translated verse or word fits better than what it was translated from. So it's up to the translator to balance meaning with context.

One example could be the word "shoujo" in Japanese. The literal translation for this is "young woman/girl" but it can also mean "virgin". The same with the Hebrew word, "divchina" which means "young woman/girl" but in other cases could mean "virgin" as well. So a lot of historians say that the mother of Jeebus wasn't actually a virgin so much as a "young woman". This mistranslation then sets the stage for the immaculate conception which really is the cornerstone for Xianity. Without a virgin birth, you have no son of gawd.

An example of how a different verse winds up saying something different, but fits better comes from a movie I saw a long time ago. It was French and the line given was "t'es degeulace" which literally translates to, "you're disgusting". But the subtitles read, "you're a *****". This line fit better in the story than the literal translation.

So yes, you're right when you say that some of the words have been corrupted in the translation. But that's the nature of the beast.

Answer 3

Invented words? I'm not sure about that.

Hijacked words? Most certainly. Though everyone "hijacks" words to explain new concepts. Science certainly has. Nothing unusual there.

Corrupted their meaning? See above. Word usage changes over time. Is this corruption or simply an evolution of word usage.

Translators do the best they can. Languages differ. There are often no exact words in one language to express a word in another. For example, there are multiple words for love in Greek. These words express, in essence, a hierarchy of love. English only has one word. We certainly miss some of the meaning if we read a passage on love in English (unless we take the time to find out which Greek word was used).

Your statement about "being inspired by God" during the translation process sounds like rumor....not fact. What is your source?

Answer 4

You said it so it must be true?

That, my friend, is why I'm trying to learn Hebrew and Latin for myself. Didn't do so well with the Greek. Maybe I'll do better on Hebrew and Latin.

Dum spiro, spero. As long as I breathe, I have hope. Of learning Latin, that is.

Somehow, I think that if the Bible had not been translated correctly, we would have known by now...considering how many have tried to translate it.

Answer 5

No because in the Bible, Jesus said to only 2 people that they had great faith, and all they did was believe it was Jesus Christ standing before them, without testing validity or without even first being told he was the Messiah. In fact, having faith in anything comes without prior validity or evidence. That's what the word means. Even having faith in another person, it still means you believe in them before they have even carried something out later on. Learn what a word means before criticizing how a group of people use it. Faith (aside from belief in Jesus and God) means "Complete trust or confidence in someone or something", which includes regardless of if they have done whatever it is you have faith in them about. Couples have faith in each other that they won't cheat without looking for evidence of the opposite happening. So, it all goes back to validity not being tested or evidence being given first. That's what the word faith means.

Answer 6

Translators were not inspired by God. Only the original writers were.

If you doubt any of the translations, you can always go back to the original Hebrew and Greek copies of the authographs.

Answer 7

Almost everything about Christianity had been either hijacked from other religions or ancient cultures. For example, most of their holidays are stolen from pagan traditions. There really is nothing original about Christianity.

Answer 8

during translation the meaning of many words are lost or changed. this is common and unless you want to go into a huge explanation of what the word you want to say is instead of taking a word that is similar people will go with the easier one. its the evolution of language.

Answer 9

If you do not have God's Spirit in you all the written and spoken words in the World will fall on deaf ears. God speaks to your heart and then confirms it with two or more witnesses. Sometime in the spoken Word and sometimes in the written Word. It is not a clever plan of man to do anything with truth. It is a smart plan of God to make it fit all situations that He speak.

Answer 10

FAITH- in the dictionary- has a meaning. Further- people of many religions---accepted religions, can and do have "faith". The word faith in NO way, means SOLELY that a person is Christian.