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  #18  
Old 06-30-2009, 09:08 PM
HowlerMonkey
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bibleprotector View Post
d. there is a marked reliance upon the "Hebrew" and the "Greek". For example, "devil" is defined as "demon" (as if "devil" isn't clear enough), "pence" is defined as "denarius" (a simple word being defined as a foreign, complex one, to the confutation of the sense), "frankly" wrongly defined according to the Greek, rather than the English, where it comes from the Latin, via French.
I see the names assigned to various denominations of coins in the AV as one of the areas where it could have been translated much better. A denarius is a specific Roman silver coin that was used all over the Empire. To translate "Denarius" as "Penny" is rather misleading and confusing to those not familiar with coinage in the First Century and in the early 1600s in England. A Denarius was more or less a days wage in the First Century, in the 1600s in England a common day's pay was a Shilling (=12 Pence). This choice of translation confuses the value of the coin in question.

In fairness to the AV translators it should be noted that the English Penny can trace it's origins to the Roman Denarius. When the Empire fell, coined money became much less common for a while, when trade and the need for coined money revived in the AD 700s the French introduced a silver coin called a "Denier" it's inspiration should be fairly obvious by the name alone. The French Denier was about the same diameter but rather lighter than the Roman Denarius. Not to be outdone, the English introduced their own coin minted to the same specifications as the French Denier, it would become known as the Penny. Throughout the Middle Ages the English Penny had a lot of buying power, but by the Tudor period had been shrunk in size and was quite debased.

In my opinion calling the Denarius a "Penny" confuses things rather than simplifies them. Most people know what a Denarius is and if they don't, it is not hard to learn what one is. Calling it a Penny suggests that is had much less buying power than was in fact the case, this was true in 1611 and is even more true today.

An even worse choice of translation is "Farthing." The word Farthing suggests that the coin so translated was worth 1/4 of a Denarius (translated Penny in the AV). In fact the Greek word translated "Farthing" was "assarion." An Assarion may have been a Roman As, which was a bronze coin about 26-30mm in diameter witha weight of about 10g. The Assarion may have also been a bronze coin minted in Antioch that was a bit smaller and thicker than the proper Roman As, but about the same weight and value. In either case the As was not worth 1/4 of a Denarius. There is another coin, the Sestertius which was a large bronze coin of about 33-35mm and with a weight of about 22g. It took 4 Sesterii to make a Denarius and it took 4 Asses to make a Sestertius (so the As was worth 1/16 of a Denarius.

The use of the word "Farthing" by the AV translators very much confuses the meaning and in my opinion* can fairly be called an error.

*My opinion on this matter is based on my 20+ years of experience as a professional numismatist specializing in Roman, Biblical and medieval coinage.