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Old 05-31-2008, 07:00 AM
Steven Avery Steven Avery is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 462
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Hi Folks,

Great study, Will.

I wasn't aware of quite that level of problem with the Tyndale translation. Of course William Tyndale was ploughing new ground, so his translation was incredible even with the weaknesses later purified in the King James Bible.

One irony is that the King James Bible translators were 100% aware that the context of the reference in Revelation in 18:13 are bodies that are more specifically slaves.


Revelation 18:11-13
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti...ePosition=1501
Margin note: 'or, bodies'


John Gill connects these slaves with popery.

http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/...velation18.htm
Tyre had her merchants for these (Ezekiel 27:14,20) and Mr. Brightman's opinion is, that the French are Rome's merchants for horses and chariots, and the Swiss for slaves, or "bodies", as the word may be rendered, who live by exercising their bodies, and hiring them out in war; and who are many of them the guards of the person of the pope of Rome: and last of all it is added,

And trading in the souls of men == indulgences. (& pardons, dispensations, absolutions, masses, bulls, preferments etc)

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Here is a modern scholar who understood the slavery reference, including noting the strategic placing in the verse. Although in a modernist context the discussion can help give some context to the times and also to the Greek and translation discussions.

http://books.google.com/books?id=4rGPq4fKncIC
From Every People and Nation: The Book of Revelation in Intercultural Perspective... - David Rhoads
http://tinyurl.com/69engx
Article by Clarice J. Martin
"Slaves as the least valued Commodity..." (p. 98-102)

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Shalom,
Steven

Last edited by Steven Avery; 05-31-2008 at 07:06 AM.