Why is it that in some versions of the bible, certain words – seemingly at random – are capitalized?
There are always going to be differences between even languages with similar grammars, let alone between English and ancient Hebrew and Greek (or Aramaic, which is also found in source texts and is generally believed to be the language Jesus spoke). The ethical choice, of course, is to mark such passages prominently. But then many of us are “debtors” while others are “trespassers”. Bible translation has many subtleties and land-mines: The RSV translators translated the Old Testament from a Jewish viewpoint. Other views, including those of the New Testament, were not considered. This translation style led Conservative sections of the Church to accuse the RSV of tampering with some passages that can be read as prophecies relating to Jesus. There were some people who were so enraged over the RSV that they took their anger to unhealthy extremes. Among
You also have to consider that the Hebrew and Greek languages have about 3 times as many words as the English language The reverse is true: the English vocabulary is far greater than that of any language in history, thanks to massive borrowing and innovation. Compare the OED to the largest you can find for Hebrew and Greek and you’ll quickly see the difference. The first printing used Roman type instead of italics to indicate text that had been supplied by the translators I confess I haven’t seen a first printing, but in subsequent printings the reverse is true: italics are used for text supplied by the translators. This is necessary because Hebrew and Greek omit words that are necessary for English grammar; in Hebrew, you can just say “This my son,” but in English you have to supply a verb: “This is my son.” Since the translators believed the original text was literally the Word of God, not wanting to (as it were) put words in God’s mouth they carefully marked the ones they’d added.
