Like I've said before, somewhere, I think, translators are imperfect men who never claimed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Because they have so poisoned me with what they have done with the Biblical verses on homosexuality, I don't see them (some didn't even bother to hide their (bias) as having the final say on anything. They should be tour guides of the Word, not like how they see themselves, expounders of it. We tend to look at the Bible translators as wise sages in a torch-lit cave writing with a quill pen, holy fire over their heads. The reality is they're just doing paperwork on ancient languages. If you look at the panel of interpreters of the RSV from old photos, you'll see they're just sitting in a circle with their desks in a class school room looking bored, bickering over what means what, and counting the minutes they can go home to have meatloaf while watching the Ed Sullivan Show.
We need to be in the mindset of not blindly accepting what any translator/theologian/teacher/preacher of the Word says to us.
Paul's koine (everyday language) Greek is available in any bookstore (It's not hidden in some Vatican archive or you need a Mormon "Seer Stone" to read), so there shouldn't be a reason to not go and read the Greek of his words yourself along with buying some fancy bookmarks you'll end up losing. If you read Greek to the English word for literal word, it CAN be confusing to the average reader unless they've spent some time in these verses to get the hang of how to read them. Example:
"Ἦσαν-They δὲ-But οἱ-The φαγόντες-Devour τετρακισχίλιοι-Four Thousand καὶ-And ἀπέλυσεν-Released αὐτούς-them."
You'd never know this verse was from Mark 8:9 and not a Bible verse sounding like the undead devouring four thousand and then being released to do more devouring. This is the raw Gospel, choppy, repetitive, uses different Greek spellings for the same word, not at all easy to understand, but untainted by any Bible translation from the time Paul spoke those words.
When I went to Paul's Greek, a whole new world opened up to me and many times I found myself sometimes crying with the beauty I was reading that no Bible translation got words right or had words that were missing. The reading of 1 Corinthians 13:12 usually reads in your Bible as:
"For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
When I went to the Greek myself, it had more depth with it really saying:
"We see this moment through a mirror (ἐσόπτρου, mirror, not glass. A mirror parallels our world), a riddle (the word Riddle (αἰνίγματι) is left out of translations), but we'll understand and know when we are face to face. We have a piece (now), but we'll know as I will be known."
Reading Paul's real words can also clear things up. The mysterious thing called "faith" is just trusting God. That's it.
The hard to understand; "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'but the righteous man shall live by faith" in Romans 1:17 Is a translation put out there I still don't get when it really says; "Fulfillment of the Law of God is trusting. According to what is written, trusting will make you innocent and THAT will make you alive."
Oldest image (middle) of Paul known.
