Translation Evolution
And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. Matthew 3:15 King James Version
Suffer – No one doubts that living languages evolve. Words that used to mean one thing come to mean something else. “Gay” is a good example. The word has almost no connection to its older meaning “lighthearted” or “carefree.” In fact, it has so thoroughly evolved that dictionaries now provide “homosexual” as the primary meaning of the term. But don’t expect Shakespeare to use it that way. If we want to understand how he used the word, we will have to understand his culture and his audience. This evolution is motivation for continual biblical translations (it’s not the only motivation). When you read Matthew 3:15 in the KJV, you will immediately see why newer translations are necessary. Here’s the technical analysis:
Psalm 59:10 advises that ‘the God of my mercy shall prevent me,’ because ‘prevent’ four hundred years ago meant ‘walk in front of.’ And when Matthew in verse 3:15 says that Jesus ‘suffered,’ he means that Jesus consented, just as when Isaiah asks in verse 43:13 ‘who shall let it?’ the prophet means ‘who shall prevent it?’”[1]
We easily understand the reason the NASB translates the same verse: “But Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he *permitted Him.” But some KJV translations aren’t so obvious. Sometimes they are so embedded in our religious culture that we think they are correct even when their words no longer mean that same thing as they did when the committee accommodated King James. For example:
“The word houtos appears throughout the Bible, and its meaning is pretty clearly ‘in this way.’ Four hundred years ago, the word ‘so’ before a verb meant ‘like this,’ or ‘in this way,’ a usage that still persists in a few isolated instances. For example, the English expression ‘so help me God’ asks God to help ‘in this way,’ . . . However, usually the word ‘so’ in today’s English means ‘very’ or ‘so much.’ This is why ‘I’m so happy’ means ‘I’m very happy,’ not ‘This is how I’m happy.’ The modern-English ‘so’ does not mean the same thing as the four-hundred-year-old ‘so’ or the Greek houtos. So the once-correct translation in the King James Version is no longer accurate. It used to mean ‘this is how God loved the world’ (which is what the Greek means) and now the phrasing wrongly suggests that John 3:16 is about how much God loved the world. In short, the common phrasing, ‘God so loved the world’ misses the point of John 3:16, which is: ‘This is how god loved the world . . .’”[2]
What a difference this makes to our usual interpretation of John 3:16! No longer can we plaster it on billboard or hold up signs at football games implying that God’s unlimited concern for us is the foundation of the gospel. No, what this verse really says is that the way God loved the cosmos was to send His appointed Messiah. In other words, it’s not about us! It’s about God.
Topical Index: so, houtos, John 3:16
[1] Joel Hoffman, The Bible Doesn’t Say That (St. Martin’s Press, 2016), p. 76.
[2] Ibid., p. 75.
