Quote:
Originally Posted by HowlerMonkey
The Hebrew was God-breathed, the English was man-translated. For me not knowing Hebrew, this is a matter of faith I guess. Matthew 5:18 says:
"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
There are no jots or tittles in English, so Jesus must be talking about the originals.
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First of all, the Scripture was inspired in Hebrew. Not "God breathed", but "inspired". That is the right word.
Secondly, if the words were inspired then, and they were copied faithfully, though variations occurred due to copying errors, etc., yet it was possible to gather the right word, and translate them, the inspiration is never lost. Thus, we have divine words in English, though they were not made by inspiration in English, if they are faithful in English, they are inspired.
Thirdly, translation cannot be a limitation, because Scriptures indicate that Gentiles would obey the Scripture. Therefore the actual Scriptures must be in the Gentiles' languages, and most particularly, English. If the Bible is not fully in English, people would not be able to be converted, or perfected.
a. Matthew 28:19, 20 Jesus shows that the obedience of nations is to His commandments which the nations must be able to receive.
b. Romans 16:26 Paul shows that the nations must be able to be obedient to the Old Testament Scripture.
c. Romans 15:4 Paul shows that we must be able to know teachings of the Old Testament.
d. Colossians 1:5, 6, 27 Paul shows that the Word of God must be going forth to all Gentiles, and bringing forth fruit.
e. Acts 13:47-49 Luke states that the Word of God for salvation must go to the ends of the earth, and that Gentiles will glorify the Word, and that it shall be published abroad.
f. 1 Peter 1:23, 25 Peter proclaims that the Word of God to get Gentiles converted is going forth, and that it has come even to you.
Fourthly, the promise "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." is not restricted to the Hebrew. If so, how could promises regarding the Gentiles be fulfilled?
For example, how can people know that Gog was fulfiling prophecy when Bible Hebrew is no longer spoken? See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiAzJS8e-q0
Fifth, the promise of jots and tittles is not restricted to the Hebrew, in that we are observing the Bible in English, using the English words jot and tittle, and they are written with English letters. The dictionary shows these have an English meaning (in the Oxford English Dictionary). A jot is a small letter, or part of a letter, a tittle is a stroke or mark. Therefore, when no jot and tittle is to pass, and we have a perfect Bible in English, it can easily be argued that the Word of God is promising that itself would not fail in English, as much as the Word will not fail to come to pass, as has been recorded in heaven, in the autographs, in copies, in translations, and in the KJB as the final and world standard form.