A Little Study of the 7 Thunders

We want to study the prophecies in the Book of Revelation.

John was very specific in that he did not want anyone to mess with the book by adding or removing any words.

I find this interesting, because that would, it seems, make it impossible to translate, since translation is complicated and it's hard to translate a single word from one language to a single word in another language. But even John might have been translating it. I don't know and he didn't mention it. I believe the original copies were written in Greek. But did Jesus talk to John in Greek? While on Earth Jesus spoke to us in Aramaic, not Greek. So it seems likely that John translated what he heard in Aramiac into Greek when writing it down. Or at least translated it to be sent to the churches in Asia.

John used the Greek term, logos, when referring to words. The meaning of logos is slightly different from our understanding of the term "word". Logos can mean word, but it carries something deeper. We can think of a word as a group of letters, it could be a noun or a verb, it might be able to be conjugated or abbreviated, etc. But we often miss that a word, when it is used, when it is expressed, it's more than letters or grammar. It's a connection from one person's mind and heart to another person's mind and heart. That's logos.

So I believe John did not want anyone to mess with the logos, the connection, the communication, the meaning of his book. That allows us to translate it to other languages. However, to be clear, we need to do it very, very carefully.

We can see an example of where a word and logos could be different in John chapter 3. When Nicodemis came to Jesus he pointed out that he believed that Jesus has come from God. Jesus then replies, "Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." So Nicodemis gets confused and questions how a person could possibly be born "again"? Then Jesus explains: Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

Now why did this happen? It's because the word "again" in Greek is "anōthen" which can mean "again" but also can mean "from above." Of course, it's more likely that the conversation happened in Aramaic, but the Aramaic word is "men derish", which can also mean both "again" and "from above." We lose that in translation.

Actually the phrase "men derish" literally means "from the head" but that's not it's meaning. We have a similar expression. Imagine we're practicing for new play. (on Broadway, I hope!) And the director calls out, "Okay everyone! Let's do it from the top!" We know what that means. Yes, we have to do it "again" - and - we have to do it "from the start". But there is nothing about "the top". It's not exactly the same, but it shows how an expression can have two meanings and how there could be two interpretations.

So we see that in John 3, the words were "from the head", but the "logos" carried two similar meanings: "again" and "from above". The translator had to use an English word, but we didn't have one that was so clearly both meanings. I guess they had to make sense of Nicodemis's reply which clearly came across as "again".

I kinda wish they had gone the other way. "You must be born from above" - I just think all those bumper stickers and t-shirts would sound so much cooler:

"I've been born from above!"