Defending the Bible: The King James Version

I have written several posts on “Defending the Bible” (see below for a list of posts on "Defending the Bible"). One of my readers and one of my students have asked me to write a post on the King James Version. I promised both of them that I would do it, but this post is not it. At a later time, I will write a post on the King James Version.

The purpose of this post is to address an article written by Paul Greenberg, the editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In his article Greenberg descries the problems with modern translations of the Bible and praises the beauty and accuracy of the King James Version. He wrote:

I’d like to think that, if you placed one of the newer versions side by side with the King James, even someone who’d never heard of either could appreciate the superiority of the older translation. All it takes is an ear for the English language.

In order to demonstrate the superiority of the King James Version over modern translations, Greenberg chose two passages from the Old Testament that, in his view, demonstrate that the translation of the Hebrew text found in the King James Version is better than the translation of the same passages in modern versions of the Bible.

The first example Greenberg provided was taken from the Joseph story, more specifically, Genesis 37:3. This text in the King James Version reads as follows: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.”

Greenberg wrote:

Many of the newer, spiffier versions of The Book cross the fatal line from translation into interpretation. Some even cross the line from translation into parody. The New English Bible, for example, washed out Joseph’s coat of many colors, which became only "a long, sleeved robe" in its denatured English, a literary style that might best be described as Modern Drab.

The expression “coat of many colors” has become a proverbial expression in American culture and it has provided the theme for children books, songs, movies, and for sermon topics. Mr. Greenberg believes that modern translations of the Bible have “washed out” the colors from Joseph’s coat and in the process made a “parody” of what the King James says.

However, what Mr. Greenberg is not aware of is the true meaning of the Hebrew words behind the “coat of many colours.” The Bible says that Jacob loved Joseph so much that in order to show to his family that Joseph was his favorite son, Jacob gave him a KeTöneT Passîm. And here lies the root of the problem.

Outside of the Joseph story, the word KeTöneT Passîm appears only once in the Old Testament, in the story of Tamar, the daughter of David, in 2 Samuel 13:18. The passage reads as follows: “Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times.”

In this text, the KeTöneT Passîm was the kind of garment the princesses of the house of David wore. This text seems to indicate then that the KeTöneT Passîm was the kind of garment worn by royalty. Thus, when Jacob gave Joseph a KeTöneT Passîm, Jacob was treating him as royalty, in fact, treating him as the ruler over his brothers. The KeTöneT Passîm signaled Joseph’s favored status in Jacob’s family.

The word KeTöneT is used in the Old Testament to designate a garment of some kind, but the word Passîm does not mean “color.” The Hebrew word Pas means “extremity,” as in the sole of the foot or the palm of the hand. It is for this reason that modern translations translate KeTöneT Passîm as “a long robe with sleeves” or “an ankle-length garment.” The translation “a coat of many colours” comes from the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible, which translates KeTöneT Passîm as tunica polymita, that is, a tunic made from different pieces of colored material.

Claus Westermann, in his book Genesis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1987) p. 262-63, wrote the following about the KeTöneT Passîm: “it is a special garment, a sleeved tunic (not a “coat of many colors”), according to 2 Samuel 13:18 the costume of a princess, an ankle-length tunic . . . that designates high rank.” Then, Westermann said: “It is this tunic, not Joseph’s dreams, that first poses the question: May a brother be thus exalted above his other brothers?”

The second example Greenberg used to demonstrate the superiority of the King James Version over modern translations was Psalm 23:4. In the King James Version, the text reads as follows: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

Mr. Greenberg wrote:

Compare the power and the glory, the stark faith of "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil," to the anemic version of the 23rd Psalm in a translation put out by the Jewish Publication Society, which mentions only "a valley of the deepest darkness."

Is ours so euphemistic an age that we dare not speak even of the shadow of death? This newest version of The Book reflects the New Living Translation that first appeared more than a decade ago. Here’s hoping that title didn’t mean to infer that older ones, like the King James, are dead.

Thus, according to Greenberg, the reason modern translations do not follow the King James in Psalm 23:4 is because modern translations are reluctant to speak about death and use the expression “a valley of deep darkness” as an euphemism for death.

A study of the Hebrew word behind “the valley of the shadow of death” is very revealing. The word calmäwët appears 18 times in the Old Testament. H. Niehr, writing in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), volume 12, page 396, said that the word comes from the word calam which means “to be dark.” The word clmT appears in Ugaritic with the sense of “darkness,” “gloom.”

The expression “shadow of death” reflects a popular etymology that derives the word from cal and mäweT, two words that mean “shadow” and “death” respectively. After studying all eighteen occurrences of the word in the Hebrew text, Niehr, the author of the article in the TDOT concluded: “Attempts to understand calmäwët in the sense of this popular etymology is unpersuasive.”

Two examples from the prophets will clarify the use of calmäwët. The first example is taken from Amos 5:8:

The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name (Amos 5:8 NRSV).

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name (Amos 5:8 KJV).

Amos says that it is God, who is the creator, who turns “deep darkness” (calmäwët) into morning. The expression “deep darkness and morning” is in an inverted parallelism with “day and night.” The idea of death, reflected in “the shadow of death” of the King James Version, is completely absent in the thought of Amos.

The second example is taken from Jeremiah 2:6:

They did not say, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?” (Jeremiah 2:6 NRSV).

Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? (Jeremiah 2:6 KJV).

In this passage, Jeremiah links the land of deep darkness with the wilderness wandering. The wilderness through which the Israelites traveled was a land of desert and pits, of drought and deep darkness. The same idea is present in Psalm 23:4. The psalmist was equating the inhospitable place where he worked with the place where his ancestors spent many years.

James Clemens, in his article “On the Expression ‘The Valley of the Shadow of Death’ in Psalm 23:4,” published in the Expository Times 5 (1893), p. 288, wrote:

"The shadow of death" simply expresses in a vivid way the gloom of the valley through which sometimes the flock is led . . . But a scrutiny of the particular term employed here, as we have seen, further assists in guarding against our seeing a necessary allusion to actual death. Keeping to the primary significance of the word, it is a "valley of deep darkness" that forms part of the Psalmist's picture.

The King James Version has a beautiful Elizabethan English that people love and a literary style that reflects the beauty of old English, an English than few people today can understand. On the other hand, modern translations of the Bible make an attempt at presenting a faithful reading of the Hebrew text in current English, even when the English of modern translations is not as sonorous as the English of the King James.

Other Posts on Defending the Bible:

Defending the Bible

Defending the Bible: The Date of Joel

Defending the Bible: The Conservative Bible Project

Defending the Bible: Burning the NIV


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Coat of Many Colors, Joseph, King James Bible, Psalm 23, Shadow of Death

Barack Obama: The New Joseph

African bishops attending a meeting at the Vatican have compared President Barack Obama to Joseph in Egypt. The following is an excerpt from a news report released by the Associated Press:

VATICAN CITY — African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms — putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts.

Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election.

"It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.

"We believe God has his own plans. God directs history."

Barack Obama has been compared to God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ, to the Pope, to the Messiah, and now to Joseph.

One of these days Barack Obama will be compared to Moses, the one who will lead the people to a land flowing with milk and honey.

UPDATE:

A reader has called my attention to a news report published by NPR, in which Obama, in an address in Selma, Alabama, in March 2007, compared himself to Joshua:

“The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way,” he said to the audience, in which famous civil rights leaders like John Lewis listened from the front row. “They took us 90 percent of the way there. We still got that 10 percent in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is: What's called of us in this Joshua generation?”


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Barack Obama, Joseph

Egyptian Coins from Joseph’s Time

Photo: Egyptian Coins



The Jerusalem Post is reporting that archeologists have discovered Egyptian coins bearing Joseph’s image:

Archeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the biblical Joseph, Cairo's Al Ahram newspaper recently reported. Excerpts provided by MEMRI show that the coins were discovered among a multitude of unsorted artifacts stored at the Museum of Egypt.

According to the report, the significance of the find is that archeologists have found scientific evidence countering the claim held by some historians that coins were not used for trade in ancient Egypt, and that this was done through barter instead.

The period in which Joseph was regarded to have lived in Egypt matches the minting of the coins in the cache, researchers said.

"A thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait," said the report.

The discovery of the cache prompted research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet to seek Koranic verses that speak of coins used in ancient Egypt.

"Studies by Dr. Thabet's team have revealed that what most archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many such coins have been found at various [archeological sites], and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape, and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face - just like the coins we use today," the report added.

The same report is being released by the MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute. The following is an excerpt from their news release:

"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through barter.

"The researchers discovered the coins when they sifted through thousands of small archeological artifacts stored in [the vaults of] the Museum of Egypt. [Initially] they took them for charms, but a thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait.

"There used to be a misconception that trade [in Ancient Egypt] was conducted through barter, and that Egyptian wheat, for example, was traded for other goods. But surprisingly, Koranic verses indicate clearly that coins were used in Egypt in the time of Joseph.

"Research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet said that during his archeological research on the Prophet Joseph, he had discovered in the vaults of the [Egyptian] Antiquities Authority and of the National Museum many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh's court."

The news report uses both the words “charms” and “coins.” The reliability of the information in the report is problematic because it is doubtful that coins were used this early in the Ancient Near East.

Daniel McClellan has a post in which he says that the coins in the picture above are not coins but scarabs. Daniel wrote:

As an undergrad I worked for two years gathering images and doing charts and some illustrations for an illustrated introduction to the Old Testament, and I recognize a few of the scarabs in the photo on the left (yeah, they’re scarabs, not coins). I can’t find pictures of all of them, but I did find pictures of the two bigger ones on the bottom left and right

The article says the Qu’ran claims there were coins in Egypt during the time of Joseph, so the article seems to be apologetic aimed at substantiating that claim. If the photo is really of the claimed coinage, however, then it’s a hoax.

Visit Daniel’s blog a take a look at the pictures mentioned in this excerpt from his blog.

Although it would be nice to say that this finding is an evidence for the existence of the biblical Joseph, the evidence provided in this report, coming from a group trying to prove the reliability of the Qu’ran, is very weak and should be taken with a lot of skepticism.

What is needed now is for a group of independent archaeologists to do a scientific study of the findings and publish a report for the impartial evaluation of scholars and other specialists.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Coins, Joseph, Numismatics, Scarabs

Joseph in Egypt: Evidence for an Egyptian Background for the Exodus

Rabbi Leibel Reznick, in an interesting and informative article, “Egyptology in the Torah: Biblical Archeology,” published by Aish.com, says that, contrary to popular view held by many scholars, the Torah provides evidence of contemporary life and customs that reflects life in Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

Egyptologists have expressed disappointment that almost nothing relating to ancient Egyptian life or culture can be gleaned from the Bible. This has lead many, such as Egyptologist Donald Redford of Pennsylvania State University to disparagingly claim, "The Hebrew writer (of the Bible) was not so well acquainted with Egypt as has often been imagined." [2]

For us, the lack of cultural references is quite understandable because the Torah is neither a history book nor an anthropological record of ancient societies but rather it is a guide for everyday life based on human nature and the spiritual loftiness of the Jewish soul and these elements are timeless. However, many Egyptologists have taken a different approach. They claim that the Torah was composed 8-10 centuries after the Exodus and the "Biblical author(s)" had no idea what was going on in ancient Egypt. Therefore, these Egyptologists claim, the Torah had no choice but to remain silent about ancient Egyptian practices.

Not only are they wrong about when the Torah was composed and by Whom, these Egyptologists are also quite mistaken if they think there are no revelations to be found in the Torah reflecting ancient Egyptian life. Let us see for ourselves.

1. "they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph to Egypt (Genesis 37:28). In ancient times, just as in our day and age, prices slowly but steadily increased over the course of time. In ancient Ur, circa 2000 BCE, a slave would cost 10-15 pieces of silver (shekels). During the reign of the Hammurabi dynasty, the price increased slightly, to about 20 pieces of silver. For a while, the price of a slave remained fairly stable but by the last quarter of the second millennium BCE., the price crept up to 30 shekels. During the first quarter of the Assyrian Empire, a healthy slave could fetch 50-60 pieces of silver and by the middle of the first millennium, the price of a slave soared to over 100 shekels.[3] When the Torah tells us that Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver it was an accurate reflection of the price of a slave in Canaan/Egypt at that time period, about 1500 BCE according to our Biblical chronology.

2. The Torah (Genesis 37:36) tells us that the name of Joseph's slave-master was Potiphar. It later tells us that Joseph's wife's name was Asenath (Genesis 41:45). These were in fact Egyptian names in use in Egypt during the time of Joseph, though they were quite unusual and later fell into disuse. Biblical "author(s)" not aware of these obscure ancient names could never have used them.[4]

Torah uses the exact expression the contemporary Egyptians used for the foreman of the servants and slaves.

3. The Torah tells us that Joseph was the overseer of Potiphar's estate. There are many possible titles one can give the chief slave or servant. The Torah chose to call Joseph the one "Over the house" (Genesis 39:4). The Papyrus Brooklyn 53.1446 refers to a chief slave and gives his proper title as the one who was "Over the house."[5] We see that the Torah is using the exact expression the contemporary Egyptians used for the foreman of the servants and slaves.

4- "And Joseph's master took him, and put him in the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined" (Genesis 39:20). Due to the false accusations of Potiphar's wife, Joseph was thrown into a prison. The concept of imprisonment was not widespread in the ancient world of the early Biblical era. In the Torah itself, we do not find any mention of imprisonment being a form of punishment. We do find that the son of Shelomith, who cursed God, was held in confinement, but that was only until the correct punishment could be determined. The actual detention was not a punishment. In the ancient world, those convicted of crimes were generally killed, tortured, mutilated or made to compensate monetarily. The concept of imprisonment was almost unheard of. Egypt was one of the very few exceptions to have prisons. Many of the isolated fortresses that guarded the borders of ancient Egypt also served as royal prisons.[6]

5. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon; and he shaved himself, and changed his garment, and came in to Pharaoh." (Genesis 41:14) Joseph, known to be an interpreter of dreams, was taken out of prison to be brought before the pharaoh to interpret pharaoh's dream. But first, Joseph had to shave to make himself more presentable to the king.

Throughout the ancient Middle East, beards were considered the norm, especially among "Asiatics" such as the Israelites. In fact the longer and more styled the beard, the greater the admiration. The common folk had shorter, trimmed beards. The king was depicted with a long tightly curled beard. The exception to this rule was in Egypt. Egyptians are rarely depicted with beards and those few times that they are depicted with facial hair, it is usually the pharaoh and not any of his subjects. In Egyptian tomb and temple depictions, enemies are often depicted with beards. The Biblical "author(s)" seem to be very aware that proper Egyptian etiquette demanded that Joseph had to shave before entering the presence of the pharaoh, unlike anywhere else in the ancient world.

6. Pharaoh had a dream in which "… behold, I stood upon the bank of the river. And, behold, there came up from the river seven cows, fat and beautiful; and they fed in the reed grass. And, behold, seven other cows came up after them, scrawny and very gaunt and thin, such as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt for badness. And the thin and the gaunt cows ate the first seven fat cows. And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still inferior as before." (Genesis 41:18-21)

You can read the article in its entirety and consult the notes mentioned in the article by visiting Aish.com.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Joseph, Egypt, Exodus

Joseph and the Seven Years of Famine

A group of Israeli scholars are reporting they have solved the biblical mystery of how Joseph preserved Egypt’s unsealed grain stores against invading pests during the seven year of famine and saved the Egyptian people from mass starvation. According to the news report,

The secret lies in the burnt corpse of a 3,500 year old beetle found in a grain of wheat claim researchers (Kislev, Simhoni and Melamed) from the laboratory for archaeological botany in the Life Sciences Department at Bar Ilan University, Haaretz reported on Monday.

The beetle belongs to the highly destructive Rhyzopetha dominica species, commonly known as the Lesser Grain Borer, which invades wheat and barley stored in silos after it has been harvested in the field.

Joseph knew of the Lesser Grain Borer and the beetle's amazing reproductive ability, the team inferred from a biblical description in Genesis 41:48-49. To reduce its migration he isolated the grain harvested in each locality and prevented batches being transferred from one city and community to another.

Sand was also added to the stored grain as a simple method of pest control known and practiced in ancient Egypt, the researchers say.

Sand crystals absorb moisture in the granary and prevent the grain from rotting and decaying. But they scratch away at the beetle's hard body shell causing it to dry up and die.

If this research is confirmed by other independent studies, it will help explaining some of Joseph’s work in saving the lives of the people of Egypt and the members of his family.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Egypt, Joseph