Bible Versions
Greg, Nancy, and James Todd todds@pa.net
Wed, 24 Dec 1997 11:59:18 -0500 (00883004358, 199712241659.LAA19947@emh1.pa.net)
MS FITT
>Mr Till,
>What do you know of this version, ? I found it floating around
>If this statement is correct it places a version of texts, in print
>long before any I have knowledge of.
>in my estimate it is easy to find seventy " lying " Jews, but I
>have no notion as to the source of the "miraculous power,"
>assist.
>
>The Alexandrian version, or what is known as the
>Septuagint, translated by seventy learned Jews, assisted by
>"miraculous power," about two hundred years before Christ,
>
>And this
>
>both the Hebrew Greek words for breath were also used (in their languages) to
>refer to one's soul.
NANCY
In Greek, the word "psyche" means breath, spirit, mind, (physical) soul. It
is akin to the Latin "anima" which means wind, something that breathes,
breath of life or a physical soul, and to the Latin "animus" which means the
mind (the seat of thought) or the spiritual soul (the seat of feeling). The
Greek testament also uses the word "pneuma" which means wind, air, breath,
breathing, spirit, (spiritual) soul.
The word "spirit" comes from the Latin "spiritus," breathing, breath,
breeze, breath of life, spirit (in the sense of school spirit or
high-spirited), which in turn comes from the verb "spirare," to breathe,
blow. Breathing was associated with being alive - the ancients observed that
when a person or animal stopped breathing, it was (or at least appeared to
be) dead. Therefore they associated breath with life. A common Latin idiom
for dying was to say that a person "breathed his last breath."
The Romans believed that when a person died, his soul or spirit could find
rest only when the body had been properly buried. Until then, the spirit
haunted its home, bringing unhappiness to itself and others. Funeral rites
were of such great importance to the ancient Romans that poor people joined
burial guilds (a kind of funeral insurance) to ensure that they would have a
proper burial. A small, set amount was paid to the guild every week, and
when a member died, his funeral and burial expenses were paid by the guild.
The hypocrisy of the xtian claim that xtianity teaches good family values is
illustrated by Jesus commanding a would-be follower to neglect the
single-most important familial duty, seeing to the proper burial of his
father. I am really tired of pick-and-choose xtians who ignore all the
distasteful biblical teachings and focus on the few that actually have some
merit, or twist the meaning of those that don't, like Jesus's command that
all who follow him must hate their families or his claim that he has come to
set family members against each other. At least Lenny Santee was honest
enough to admit that since the bible says that slavery is proper and moral,
slavery is moral. How anyone can hold up the bible as being a guide to
living a moral life is beyond me.
Boy, did I get off the topic. Sorry. I'll descend from my soapbox now.
Nancy Todd
todds@pa.net
MSFITT
>The Hebrew word for kidney has been translated soul in modern English Bibles
>to avoid explanations of why the ancient Hebrews attributed moral to a
>person's kidneys.
>
>