Hiram Bingham realized early in his life that God -- must like everyone does -- must have have a name and when he learned it and started a Bible translation for the natives of the Gilbert Islands in 1857 he made sure he used it.
This was no easy task. First of all he had to learn the Gilbertse language. He did this making pointing at things and asking their names, gradually making up a list he could use in his translation.
He was hindered in all of this by bowel and throat problems as well as weak eyesight which prevented him from reading more than two or three hour at a time, but he persevered.
And by 1865 when he had to leave the islands because of poor health he had not only given the natives a printed language but also had succeeded in translation the Bible books of Matthew and John into Gilbertese.
This he followed up by translating the the entire New Testament into that native language by the time he returned to the islands in 1873. And by 1890 he had translated the entire Bible in that language -- featuring God's name lehova in Gilbertese (Jehovah in English) thousands of times in the Old and New Testament, sometimes called the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures today.
His is one of the few -- but not the only Bible translator who respected and used God's personal name in his translation.
Later this week we'll look at a few more who followed his example.
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If you have ever wondered just how big those blocks of stone were in the Jerusalem Temple. Take a look below.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
How Big Were The Stone Temle Blocks?
Have you ever wondered just big those stones in the Jerusalem temple were? I know from visit to the stone quarry where my step grandfather was the foreman years ago that such blocks can get pretty big.
The big blocks of stone my step grandfather's crew cut out were used in the granite city hall here in Vancouver BC and know it was not a simple matter to cut the huge blocks out using drills and dynamite and then loading them onto huge barges to be towed to the finishing plan in Vancouver was no easy task.
And the quarring of the huge stones used by Jewish builders must have been a mammoth task judging by a picture I have seen of them. They must have been pretty impressive for Mark 13:1 Jesus' disciples exclaimed: "Teacher, see what sort of stones, and what sort of buildings!"
The temple area itself was one of the wonders of the ancient world. King Solomon's original temple was awesome enough and King Herod in Jesus time made a huge expansion of the Temple platform to 480 metres by 280 meters making it the largest man-made platform in the world up to that time/
One of these temple stones examined by archaeologists was a whopping 400 tons. The majority of these buildings were smaller than that but were still extremely with a a few weighing in at more than 50 tons each.
Naturally depending on their location in the temple these stones could be smaller or larger but some of them were reportedly 11 meters long, 5 meters wide and 3 meters high.
You can imagine the difficulty in moving such huge building stones from the quarry to the building site and them lifting them into place.
The big blocks of stone my step grandfather's crew cut out were used in the granite city hall here in Vancouver BC and know it was not a simple matter to cut the huge blocks out using drills and dynamite and then loading them onto huge barges to be towed to the finishing plan in Vancouver was no easy task.
And the quarring of the huge stones used by Jewish builders must have been a mammoth task judging by a picture I have seen of them. They must have been pretty impressive for Mark 13:1 Jesus' disciples exclaimed: "Teacher, see what sort of stones, and what sort of buildings!"
The temple area itself was one of the wonders of the ancient world. King Solomon's original temple was awesome enough and King Herod in Jesus time made a huge expansion of the Temple platform to 480 metres by 280 meters making it the largest man-made platform in the world up to that time/
One of these temple stones examined by archaeologists was a whopping 400 tons. The majority of these buildings were smaller than that but were still extremely with a a few weighing in at more than 50 tons each.
Naturally depending on their location in the temple these stones could be smaller or larger but some of them were reportedly 11 meters long, 5 meters wide and 3 meters high.
You can imagine the difficulty in moving such huge building stones from the quarry to the building site and them lifting them into place.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
What Languages Did Jesus Speak?
Have you ever wondered that? What languages did Jesus speak?
That's an interesting question isn't it for the Jews of Jesus day did speak speak a form of Hebrew and possibly an Aramaic dialect. However, when Jesus read the the words of Luke 4: 16-21 concerning the coming of the Messiah it reportedly was in Hebrew and he apparently did not translate what he read into any form of Armaic.
But would he have been clearly understood? There was a number of languages in common use during this time in Palestine. Professor G. Ernest Wright says that "Greek and Aramaic were evidently the common tongues" and that the Roman military and officials used mainly Latin. And orthodox Jews could have used a late form of Hebrew -- the the Hebrew Isiah was originally written in.
Greek was also frequently used by Roman governors according to Alan Millard in his book Discoveries from The Time of Jesus. And according to Millard Jesus could have answered Pilate during his tile in that language.
The Bible is silent on this at John 18: 28-40 but there is no mention of an interpreter and Pilate more than likely would have likely understood only Greek and Latin.
According to professor Wright he is uncertain whether Jesus could spreak Greek or Latin, but it is known that during Jesus' ministry he regularly spoke in either Aramaic or highly Aramaized Hebrew.
For more information on this refer to Biblical Archaeology; 1962, page 243.
That's an interesting question isn't it for the Jews of Jesus day did speak speak a form of Hebrew and possibly an Aramaic dialect. However, when Jesus read the the words of Luke 4: 16-21 concerning the coming of the Messiah it reportedly was in Hebrew and he apparently did not translate what he read into any form of Armaic.
But would he have been clearly understood? There was a number of languages in common use during this time in Palestine. Professor G. Ernest Wright says that "Greek and Aramaic were evidently the common tongues" and that the Roman military and officials used mainly Latin. And orthodox Jews could have used a late form of Hebrew -- the the Hebrew Isiah was originally written in.
Greek was also frequently used by Roman governors according to Alan Millard in his book Discoveries from The Time of Jesus. And according to Millard Jesus could have answered Pilate during his tile in that language.
The Bible is silent on this at John 18: 28-40 but there is no mention of an interpreter and Pilate more than likely would have likely understood only Greek and Latin.
According to professor Wright he is uncertain whether Jesus could spreak Greek or Latin, but it is known that during Jesus' ministry he regularly spoke in either Aramaic or highly Aramaized Hebrew.
For more information on this refer to Biblical Archaeology; 1962, page 243.
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