How to find verses in the Holy Bible is not my opinion ... and the Holy Bible is not my book...  It is written by about 40 people borne by the Spirit of God to write the Word of God... they live in different times and in different places.  Mouses started to write the Holy Bible in about 1,417 B.C. and the last book was written in about AD 96 or about 1,513 years from Genesis to Revelation.  God proves that the Holy Bible is His Word and nobody has ever proven that the Holy Bible is not the Word of God.

Anyway, nobody is compelling anybody to believe the Holy Bible.  May God bless you.  SEN

The existing copies of the Holy Bible circulated around the world are versions as could be readily gleaned from their titles and therefore they are free to revise at their own whims and caprices.  The original Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language which was translated into the Greek language by 70 Israelites - the people of God, known as the Septuagint or LXX (Greek Old Testament).  In the 4th century AD, Jerome made his own version from the Hebrew Old Testament which is popularly known as the Latin Vulgate Bible mostly used by the Roman Catholic Church.  From then, nagkabuhol-buhol na ang mga versions.  But nobody succeeded to translate the Septuagint.  I now attempt to do that and I have begun and already published GENESIS & EXODUS (Greek to English) now at http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin

The New Testament was originally writtern in Greek - versions are circulating around the world.  I have translated this already which is entitled THE WILL (A Plain Translation of The New Testament from Greek to English) but as I am poor and no one as yet is helping me financially, I can not print it for wider circulation.

The translation is very much different from the versions that is why even with the hardships that I suffer, I am very patient in doing the translation.  Everybody may see the sample in the preview of GENESIS & EXODUS (Greek to English).  If people before me translated the Word of God as it should be, I would not be suffering from difficulties in translating as I would not have any more reason doing such translations.

May God bless you all.  SEN

TO: arseniajoaquin

I admire your dedication to your beliefs. Your desire to produce a more faithful translation of the Biblical books for the benefit of fellow believers, I think, is laudable.

I admire your confidence as a believer in approaching these texts. Many Christians I know-- had they known Aramaic, Yiddish, Greek, etc-- would still be daunted by the task of making a new translation of the Biblical books because of their fear of botching it.

I also admire your courage in talking about your work here. Broadcasting one's faith in a secular arena such as FilipinoWriter.com is tantamount to setting yourself up as a target.

Though I do not subscribe to the Christian faith myself, still I read and admire the Bible as a literary piece. Thus I am interested in your work. I do not speak the Biblical languages, though, so my knowledge of the Bible comes from the English and Tagalog translations. Yet I have a few questions:

1) In what way have the previous translations of the original texts been insufficient? I agree that the language of the King James Version is seriously obsolete (yet that is the version I most enjoy reading) but there are other more modern versions such as the New American Bible, among others.

2) In what way have you succeeded where generations of Biblical scholars have failed? That is, considering that they did fall short of their objectives in translating the Scriptures.

3) How did you approach the apocryphal books? Did you include them within the body of your manuscript or as appendices? What about the books of the Talmud?

Good day to you.

SQUID VILLANUEVA

She never did get back to me regarding my questions.

I'm very sorry and it's good a friend sent me the url. Thank you very much for your interest.

1) The existing versions circulated worldwide are not translations. Greek words have their corresponding English equivalent and so why should we not use them. There's no need of using our own words changing the words used by God, sometimes adding and worse omitting. Many people including myself are seeking the true Word of God and this fired me up to translate primarily for myself and why not publish them if I could also help other people understand the Word of God?

I have already translated THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT, Fourth Revised Edition, and the translation is entitled THE WILL BIBLE (New Testament). I have already translated also from the Septuagint the first seven books of the Holy Bible and the translation is entitled THE WILL BIBLE (Genesis to Judges). I have done this indicating some additional words in italics just for grammar purposes. I have done this and so it is possible and if this was done by the first translators, I would not have a need to translate them also. The Word of God is sweeter than honey and it is desired by so many people throughout the world and you are a very good example that even if you are not yet a Christian, you read and admire the Holy Bible.

To support my translations, I have also published GREEK and ENGLISH Grammar & Vocabulary and anybody may learn what I have learned that enabled me to translate that they may translate themselves or just countercheck translations. Even the other modern versions did not translate the Holy Bible plainly and that is the big difference between my translation and the versions.

2) Success depends upon one's own perception. For me, I'm so grateful that God called me and gave me this spiritual gift of knowledge of the language that He used to write the New Testament and the Hebrew language used for the Old Testament was translated into Greek by His people - the Israelites.

3) God gave us the Holy Scriptures for us to follow into salvation for God wills all men to be saved and to come into a full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). The apocryphal books and the Talmud are not included in the books that were approved before to compose the Holy Bible. Besides, the Holy Bible now embodies all that are supposed to be done by people in order to be saved. The apocryphal books and the Talmud are no longer necessary for the purpose of salvation.

It's really difficult to translate and we cannot just translate for we need permission from the copyright owner and for the New Testament, the German Bible Society gave me the corresponding permit. For the Septuagint, everybody is free to translate as accordingly nobody claims to be the owner. Getting license to translate is a big problem and so the big Bible Societies form their own pool of scholars to translate allegedly from the manuscripts - not THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT or NEW TESTAMENT GREEK (just 2 well-known) and they save themselves from paying license fees, royalties, etc. to the copyright owner(s). I'm so grateful also to the German Bible Society for waiving all such expenses.

I hope that you will continue being curious in whatever in the Holy Bible - there are firsts who become lasts and lasts firsts. May God bless you. SEN

ARSENIA R. JOAQUIN
http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin
http://ministry-webs.com/ministry/arseniajoaquin/main.html
http://www.cafepress.com/arseniajoaquin

In fact, a lot of the recent bibles are bias and leaves you with questions unanswered. I want to get my hands on books in Greek and Hebrew but... I don't know where to look. Care to share some knowledge?

I have published GREEK and ENGLISH Grammar & Vocabulary - http://www.cafepress.com/arseniajoaquin.280446948 aside from that in lulu.com

It's free to download e-Sword where you have many versions of the Holy Bible. Pls contact me at my email address if I could help you... SEN

ARSENIA R. JOAQUIN
http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin
http://ministry-webs.com/ministry/arseniajoaquin/main.html
http://www.cafepress.com/arseniajoaquin

I will contact you for help. Thank you so much!

Um well, I'd studied Greek and Hebrew only last year. And to tell you frankly, I couldn't figure out what this woman is saying. She wrote it herself that there are already existing copies of copies of copies of copies from the original source. As far as I'm concerned, I trusted some of them versions to enjoy reading the holy writ. Why add more of hers? Well, I have no objection for that really. She can do whatever she likes. But I am wondering why can't she satisfy us with some simple answers of the two-year-old queries asked by Squid? Ummm, again, why!?

...till kingdom come.

Jonas

Very good and I hope that you already understand Greek. I have published GREEK and ENGLISH Grammar & Vocabulary - http://www.cafepress.com/arseniajoaquin.280446948, it's good if you could make some comparison. Best if you could also make comparison between my translations - THE WILL BIBLE (New Testament), THE WILL BIBLE (Genesis to Judges) and the existing versions esp. those which you trust.

Those asked by Squid are already answered... so sorry for the delay. Thanks a lot and may God bless you. SEN

ARSENIA R. JOAQUIN
http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin
http://ministry-webs.com/ministry/arseniajoaquin/main.html
http://www.cafepress.com/arseniajoaquin

. . .Go tell it to the marines while I wait for some answers to said queries..

when you read the Bible passages or contents please try to understand them in the context they were written. the time and place was palestine before the invention of the cellphone. they were jews not christians. many of the deeds, words, meanings, and customs are not translateable to modern times. so if you judge the meanings against the contemporary times as background you will get them upside down!

halimbawa, sa modern terms androgenous ang angels, pero pangalan ng lalaki ang dala nila kasi noong panahong iyon lalaki lamang ang may halaga (sabagay hanggang ngayon sa middle east at maraming part sa mundo ganoon) dahil sa paternalistic system ng lipunan. second-class citizens ang babae. remember na di pwedeng bumoto ang babae hanggang nitong 20th century na...

sabi mo nga, it is not just a --any-- book!

kaya nga nagtatranslate ako dahil iba-iba ang nakasulat. Kapag itranslate natin plainly, ang pagkakaiba lang marahil ay sentence order, hindi yung sinasabi. Sa Greek, ang angel ay aggelos pronounced angelos - masculine, walang feminine so walang babae - ibig sabihin, messenger dahil message yung dala-dala.

Ang Biblia ay talagang hindi ordinaryong libro dahil ito ay salita ng Diyos. Sa mga sinabi ng Diyos doon, walang magsasabi na sila yun o gawa nila yun. Sino nga ba ang mangangahas na magsabi na ginawa niya ang langit at lupa? Etc, etc.? Sabi rin doon, walang bago - there's nothing new, cellphone ay luma yan, na discover lang, itong internet - discovery lang, di ba?

Saliksikin natin sana ang Biblia. Maraming salamat... SEN

ARSENIA R. JOAQUIN
http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin
http://ministry-webs.com/ministry/arseniajoaquin/main.html
http://www.cafepress.com/arseniajoaquin