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Friday, February 26 2010
The King James Version was published in "modern English" - of 1611. It was denounced by the "authorities" at that time for that very reason, which makes it ironic that it is now often criticized for not being in modern English.
The King James' does however present challenges to understanding, now, due to the words that it uses. An example of that is "earing." What does that word mean to you in our time now? Perhaps it might mean a piece of jewelry that is attached to the ear i.e. an ear ring. But to the readers of the King James in 1611, it meant plowing fields because the word originated from an old Anglo-Saxon word, erian, which meant the same thing. That is why "earing" was used to translate the Hebrew word, pronounced khaw-reesh, which meant plowing, or the plowing season.
Consider the difference in translation for Exodus 34:21 where the King James uses "earing time" and the Revised Standard Version uses "plowing time."
"34:21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest." (Exodus 34:21 KJV)"34:21 "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest." (Exodus 34:21 RSV)
"In earing time and in harvest"
The primary reason that Joseph found himself in Egypt (see Joseph, Prime Minister Of Egypt) was to provide the means for the survival of "Israel" (which at the time consisted of a few dozen members of the family of Jacob, who the LORD renamed as "Israel" i.e. "46:26 All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own offspring, not including Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all" Genesis 46:26 KJV; see also The Origin Of 'Israel'). Joseph prepared for the time "in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest."
"45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you.And they came near.
And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." (Genesis 45:4-7 KJV)
The Israelite monarchy was created because the Israelites decided that they wanted a mere human leader. The LORD granted their request, for the time being (see the Israelite Monarchy study series Israelite Monarchy - The Origin, The Civil War, The United Kingdom, The Division Of Israel, The Northern Kingdom, The Southern Kingdom and The Messiah). Unlike when the LORD was leading them however, the Israelites were to discover that humans tend to be self-serving pushers, not genuine leaders (see also Leaders And Pushers) - what you sow, they will take.
"8:10 And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 8:11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 8:12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 8:13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 8:14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 8:15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 8:16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 8:17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 8:18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day." (1 Samuel 8:10-18 KJV)
Christ's return will mark the beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth. From that time on, people will begin their true time of growth, not as physical creatures that die, but as spiritual beings that will live forever.
"30:19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. 30:22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.30:23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. 30:24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. 30:25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." (Isaiah 30:19-26 KJV)
Fact Finder: What are some examples of agricultural analogies used for Christianity?
See The Fruitful Seed, The Sower, Labourers Of The Harvest and Seasons Of The Harvest
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This Day In History, February 26
1443: Alfonso of Aragon entered Rome, where he later became king.
1616: The Inquisition delivered an injunction to Galileo.
1797: One-pound and two-pound notes were first used in England.
1815: Napoleon Bonaparte departed from the island of Elba with 1,200 followers. Within 3 weeks, France rallied to its former emperor but his last hope of keeping his crown ended in Belgium with the Battle of Waterloo in June. The British government subsequently banished Napoleon to the island of St. Helena where he died in 1821 at age 52.
1832: The Polish constitution was abolished and replaced by one imposed by Czar Nicholas I.
1848: The Second French Republic was proclaimed after the abdication of King Louis-Philippe.
1848: Karl Marx and Frederich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, an economic experiment that by the late twentieth century had been proven as a dismal failure that enslaved the workers that it promised to "liberate."
1867: The British House of Lords passed the British North America Act, establishing Canada as an independent nation.
1901: The leaders of the Boxer Rebellion in China, Chi-hsui and Hsu Cheng-yu, were beheaded in public.
1915: Flame throwers were used in battle for the first time when the Germans used them against the French at Malancourt.
1933: Construction began for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
1935: RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging) was first demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt of Britain.
1936: Adolf Hitler opened the first factory for the manufacture of the "People's Car," or Volkswagen.
1951: The U.S. 22nd Amendment was added to the constitution, limiting the presidency to 2 terms.
1952: Winston Churchill announced that Britain had its own atomic bomb.
1969: Levi Eshkol, Israeli prime minister from 1963, died. He was succeeded by Golda Meir.
1972: The Soviet Union recovered Luna 20 which had returned with a cargo of moon rocks.
1980: Egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations, ending 30 years of war between the two nations.
1993: A terrorist bomb severely damaged the World Trade Center buildings in New York. 6 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured.
1995: The London finance House of Barings collapsed after huge losses were run up in Singapore by a single trader.
