Sure, this can be taken too far, but this example of long nostrils is the exceptional exception. As over years now I have been reading every last footnote in the NASB for what they record as the literal translation, let me say once more that, at least 95% of the time, what they acknowledge to be the literal Hebrew or Greek word inspired by God is superior to their editorial improvement in communicating a meaning lost when the literal is left behind.
One example you might want to use for your argument is Hebrew “kidneys” being replaced by NASB with “heart.” Makes sense if we don’t want to think the way the Biblical authors thought, but if the original is worth studying, I find myself wondering if it would not be better to explain why Hebrew Scripture does not speak of the brain and heart as we do, but of the heart and the kidneys? Here’s an article opening up what we might learn if we humble ourselves to think and consider the original even in this weird usage of “kidney.” But keep in mind that the vast majority of places where the NASB replaces the Hebrew or Greek it idenitifies as “literal,” that literal is (I think) much better. Love,
PS: [quote=“Aaron Prelock, post:10, topic:3975, username:aaron.prelock”]
especially in a language like Hebrew.
[/quote]
But Aaron, why “especially in a language like Hebrew?” Isn’t that precisely the point of argument? Did God inspire His Word to be written “in a language like Hebrew” and is that an integral part of His special revelation, or is Hebrew culture just incidental to inspiration?
I hope you won’t take offense at my making this point since I made the same point a quarter century ago to Vern Poythress who was saying that “adam” was merely the way people “back then” in that “ancient culture” expressed or labelled corporate humanity. To which I responded pointing out that better to think of this as God choosing Hebrew so His Word would have that culture (those cultures, both Hebrew and Greek) habit of male inclusives.
In other words, precisely because we know how language works and that God inspired words, and not merely the meaning underlying those words, I would hope all of us would hold tenaciously to meanings left behind the original Greek and Hebrew words when scholars think they can (I say) cosset us by not translating “pisseth against the wall” or “old wives tales.” Love,