Re: >^..^< "The answer is blowing in the wind"

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:30:22 -0800, David Friedman
<ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
Paul Dormer <prd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
whitroth@xxxxxxx (whitroth) wrote:

Presumably, it's on along the lines that allowing sin to exist
diminishes your own chance to get into heaven. "Thou shall not
suffer a witch to live."

Nope. The *actual* translation - and I've known someone who actually
translated it herself, not taken what King James' translators (who
wanted to curry favor with their boss) wrote - is that it says "suffer
not a poisoner" to live. Esp. in a land with actual desert, someone who
poisoned, including possibly wells, was *really* bad news to all.

Witches? There were no witches back then....

Curious. I actually checked the Revised English Bible that I have on my
shelves, which translates it as "You must not allow a witch to live." and
doesn't gloss it. That was published in 1989, long after King James had
any say in the matter.

The Latin words most often used for "witch" are _malefica_
"evil-worker" and _venefica_ "poisoner."

I believe the passage is from Exodus, so the latin would itself be a
translation. Does anyone know what the original wording is?

I'm a little suspicious of confident statements about the "actual
translation" of things that old, since when one gets into the serious
arguments it often looks as though there is real disagreement about the
meaning of words or passages.

I am reminded of a section of Michener's The Source where the Jewish
archeologist is explaining to the Christian archeologist the difference
in philosophy between the two religions. He points to the Death of
Moses and how the respective holy books in the different languages
report the death. He claims that the Christian Bible talks about how,
when Moses died, his life force was undiminished and the Hebrew copies
of the Torah, essentially, claim that Moses was still capable of
ejaculating (or get an erection).
--
"You already have zero privacy -- get over it,"
- Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems
.

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