Religions - Mistranslations, Mistakes, and Out and Out Lies, Part 1

Over the next few posts, I want to discuss the ways religions have become twisted. Let's start with the issue of bad translations.

There are some basic terms that have been bandied about for years that are the result of bad translations. Take the idea of polytheism, the idea of many gods. Often, this is thought to be the belief system of many older religions. Actually, all religions, that we know of, believe in 1 ultimate creator, the reason there is something rather than nothing, the cause of existence itself. Most believe that this god has little interest in the day to day running of the Cosmos and leaves that up to a host of lesser spirit beings of varying power. This is actually henotheism, not polytheism. Thus, when translators came across Hinduism and found the word deva, they mistranslated that as gods. It really means powerful beings. We did the same thing with the Egyptian texts. When mistakes are made in translation, the rest of the translation must be questioned, especially when, as with the Egyptians, we are only guessing at the meanings. Languages are subtle. By the way, our so-called monotheisms have the same spirit beings, we just call them angels and demons.

In Buddhism, I was always taught that the 1st Noble Truth was 'all life is suffering' and that the 3rd was 'suffering is caused by desire.' The actual translation is 'all life is sorrowful' and sorrow is caused by 'ignorant craving' and these are obviously more temperate and realistic sayings.

In  the Old Testament, we have Yahweh telling Moses that 'I am what I am.' This implies a God that is sternly constant and unchanging. The translation should read 'I will be what I will be.' This implies a God who is free, almost whimsically free. Now, this may not be the most comforting way to view God for many, but it is  certainly more realistic. The older I get, the more I realize that our comfort is not the Creators primary concern.

Another mistranslation is found in Isaiah when it is written that the messiah would be born of a virgin. Most Jews of that era did not read Hebrew, reading instead the Septuagint, a Greek translation. For some reason, they translated a word that meant young girl as virgin. Later, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, reading the Septuagint and trying to convince Jews that Jesus was their Messiah, claimed that Jesus was born of a virgin and a world of mistakes has followed, leading to countless unneeded arguments and, at times, to unneeded violence. Next time, I will deal with other mistakes