{"id":119,"date":"2018-03-29T22:45:40","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T05:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/?p=119"},"modified":"2018-09-05T21:21:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T04:21:37","slug":"the-synoptic-gospels-inerrancy-translation-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"The Synoptic Gospels’ Inerrancy: Translation Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sometimes an apparent contradiction arises from a translation, not from the text in its original language.<\/strong> Matthew 16:13<\/strong> in the King James Version (KJV) reads, \u201cWhen Jesus came into the coasts<\/u><\/strong> of Caesarea Philippi, . . .\u201d Mark 8:27<\/strong> says, \u201cAnd Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns<\/u><\/strong> of Caesarea Philippi: . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

First,<\/em> how is it possible for “coasts\u201d to be involved in the Matthew reference? Caesarea Philippi<\/strong> is at the foot of Mount Hermon in Galilee\u2014in the interior of Israel. Neither the Sea of Galilee nor the Mediterranean Sea has any \u201ccoast\u201d nearby. Caesarea Maritima<\/strong>\u00a0is the city sitting on the Mediterranean coast.<\/p>\n

Second<\/em>, \u201ccoasts\u201d and \u201ctowns\u201d appear to be two different types of locations entirely\u2014the first is a geographical entity like mountains and rivers, but the second is a sociological or political entity like cities or states. However, when we look at other translations (e.g., ESV, \u201cthe district of\u201d in Matthew 16:13) we see that \u201cdistrict\u201d and \u201ctowns\u201d are more compatible. The ESV translates Mark 8:27 as \u201cvillages.\u201d \u201cVillages\u201d makes a better equivalent to \u201cdistrict\u201d and diminishes the impression of any contradiction or inconsistency between the two Gospels. In the Greek, it is really quite clear. \u201cCoasts\/District\u201d is ta mer\u0113<\/em> (Matthew 16:13) and \u201ctowns\/villages\u201d is tas k\u014dmas<\/em> (Mark 8:27). The first means \u201cparts\u201d or \u201cdistrict\u201d and the second means \u201cvillages\u201d or \u201ca relatively small community with groups of houses.\u201d Thus, a later and better translation resolves the apparent difficulty created by an English translation made in 1611 when \u201ccoasts\u201d could also mean \u201cregion\u201d or \u201cdistrict.\u201d<\/strong> A recent Ukrainian translation correctly uses \u0434\u043e \u0437\u0435\u043c\u043b\u0456 (\u201cto the land\/country\u201d\u2014\u0437\u0435\u043c\u043b\u044f) a synonym of \u043a\u0440\u0430\u0457\u043d\u0430 (\u201cland\u201d or \u201ccountry\u201d\u2014used in the nation’s title, \u0423\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0457\u043d\u0430, \u201cland, country, motherland\u201d).<\/p>\n

Many such easily resolved problems exist in the Gospels. Some are translation related, some related to the culture or history or geography. But, more difficult problems do occur in passages where the solution is not so quick or transparent. Future posts will examine some of those problem texts.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> “The Synoptic Gospels’ Inerrancy: Geographical Realities”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes an apparent contradiction arises from a translation, not from the text in its original language. Matthew 16:13 in the King James Version (KJV) reads, \u201cWhen Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, . . .\u201d Mark 8:27 says, \u201cAnd Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: . . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,26],"tags":[142,441,442,349,624,625,626,393,187,559,561,627,190,565,628,629,45],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-translation","category-new-testament","category-study-series","tag-bible-translation","tag-biblical-inerrancy","tag-biblical-inspiration","tag-biblical-interpretation","tag-caesarea-maritima","tag-caesarea-philippi","tag-geography-of-israel","tag-gospels","tag-hermeneutics","tag-mark-8","tag-matthew-16","tag-mt-hermon","tag-new-testament","tag-synoptic-gospels","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-bible","tag-william-d-barrick"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbarrick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}