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| Q: | Hebrews I speak French, though not fluently. I also asked a question once before about Hebrews 6:4-6, because it bothered me so much and because I was afraid it applied to me. I happened to look up this passage in French, and yikes, it seemed very different. First, impossible was reiterated as I've never seen done in English. Second, the sense I got was that those who fall (not fall away, as is specified in English) cannot be renewed by penance or penitence. That's really different from the idea that they cannot be brought back to repentance. So, how do you know you can trust a translation? I ask this because this passage seems like such a matter of life or death, although elsewhere it probably doesn't matter. | ||||||
| A: | Translations of the Bible are made from the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. The only way one can know whether a translation is reliable or not is to go back to the original languages. It's like the translations that are made of speeches presented at the a United Nations meeting. Sometimes the translation is not real accurate, so the only way to know what the speaker actually said is to go back to the original language in which he made the speech. That is why in the Wisconsin Synod we require that our pastors learn Hebrew and Greek in their preparation to serve in the ministry. A look at the original text of Hebrews 6:4-6 shows that the translation "renewed by repentance" is not at all what the Greek text says. The Greek preposition preceding the word "repentance" never means "by." Rather it means "to" or "into." The Greek verb translated with the idea of falling is not the simple word "fall" but "fall to the side" (thus "fall away.") So it would seem that the French translation is not really following the original Greek closely but is an interpretive translation. That is, it is a translation in which the men who did the translating seem to be putting their own interpretation on the passage rather than just conveying the meaning of the words as they appear in the Greek. | ||||||
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