[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Originally Posted by chette777

the new Greek interpretations they cahnge the Greek meanings. for example in Act 14 the Greek word dios(eastern text, TR etc) equal to our English word deity in th KJV, has become the Greek word zues in the Western text, vaticanicus, etc...) NIV et al newer versions. the newer Greek text is what the Study portion is using and printing in the footnotes. While the KJV Bible is using the TR and other older more reliable Greek text..,The newer Greek text change the word dios to zues because they want you to think the god they were worshiping was Zues not Jupiter as the KJV translators translated the word dios which just means a deity. the Translators put Jupiter for dios becasue in the city of Iconuium was the headquarters for Jupiter worship.

Acts 14:12
And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius,
because he was the chief speaker.

Acts 14:13
Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city,
brought oxen and garlands unto the gates,
and would have done sacrifice with the people.

Chette, what you write is unclear and does not seem to be correct. The names Jupiter and Zeus are Roman and Greek equivalents for the same deity. There is no word dios==God in either the TR or the modern version Greek text in the verse, in fact there is no variant at all in the Greek text on this word. Likely due to the etymology the general Latin word for God (Dei) is similar to the Greek word for this particular deity (dia == dyzooce). I looked particularly at verse 12 in my double-checking on this question.

In the lexicon you can see the word:

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/...03&version=kjv
dyzooce
Jupiter or Zeus = "a father of helps"
the national god of the Greeks and corresponds to the Roman Jupiter

This does not translate to "diety" in the KJV, it translates to the name of the particular false deity of the region. Now it is true that Jupiter was the supreme false deity of the Romans.

John Gill

And they called Barnabas Jupiter,.... The supreme God; it may be because that Barnabas was the oldest man, of the tallest stature, and largest bulk, and made the best figure; whereas Paul was younger, of a low stature, and mean appearance:

and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker; Mercury was the god of eloquence, and the messenger of the gods, and the interpreter of their will {r}; Paul being chiefly concerned in preaching and speaking to the people, they called him by the name of this God: the Jews had a doctor in their schools, whom they called Myrbdmh vad, "the chief of the speakers" {s}.

{r} Vid Macrob. Saturnal. l. 1. c. 17, 19. {s} Juchasin, fol. 45. 2. & 46. 1.

We have to be careful that our criticisms of the modern versions are sound. They have so many corruptions and errors and blunders, we do not need to make some that aren't there . In this Jupiter can be considered a better contextual translation than Zeus but it would be hard to call call any of the versions wrong.

To be sure, I double-checked the apparatus and they showed no variant on the verse other than a participle in the verse that means "truly, certainly, surely, indeed".

There are a few places on the web you can check something like this very easily, without having to know a word of Greek. One is to look at the King James with Strong's numbers and compare it with the NAS with Strong's numbers, e.g. on Crosswalk. Another is the Laparola site http://www.laparola.net/greco/index.php and the similar Zhubert site http://www.zhubert.com/bible?source=...f=acts+14%3A12 . Also there is the John Hurt Greek Bible site http://www.greeknewtestament.com/B44C014.htm#V12 . On the last site you can see the word "men" in the TR but not the WH text and you can see the word dia is the same.

The word dios would be a Latin word, so you would not expect to see it in the Greek text. In most cases the word for God in Greek will be qeovß (Theos).

Shalom,
Steven