I talked to a guy at my work who was learning Hebrew so he could better read the Torah. There are a lot of languages differences in how people would say them back then in a different language and how they say them today. I remember a few examples:
1) The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is better interpreted as Tree of Knowledge of Everything from Good to Evil.
2) There is a story about the Messiah riding a dokney, even a colt. The idea was it was surprising that he would ride on a donkey.. and even moreso on a colt. Three of the gospels writers interpreted this correctly and said Jesus rode on one animal. However, Metthew seemed to have misread this and said that Jesus must have ridden two animals.
3) I heard a discussion about the nakedness in the garden of Eden story. The standard Christian view is that nudity was seen as sinful. One guy I heard who studied this said it was more likely that it was about humans understanding their status. Gods are nakes and animals are clothed in fur. Humans learned they were kind of in between.
4) There is also discussion of what "Son of Man" and "Son of God" mean. To a Hebrew back then, "Son of Man" would be a divine judge or Messiah (because he would appear after the Beasts) while "Don of God" just means someone doing Godly works. To a pagan back then, it would mean the opposite. So if a Jewish person said, "Jesus may have been the son of God, but he was not the son of man" then a pagan may have gotten the wrong impression.
Anyway, I do find it interesting how things look different when language and culture become involved.
1) The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is better interpreted as Tree of Knowledge of Everything from Good to Evil.
2) There is a story about the Messiah riding a dokney, even a colt. The idea was it was surprising that he would ride on a donkey.. and even moreso on a colt. Three of the gospels writers interpreted this correctly and said Jesus rode on one animal. However, Metthew seemed to have misread this and said that Jesus must have ridden two animals.
3) I heard a discussion about the nakedness in the garden of Eden story. The standard Christian view is that nudity was seen as sinful. One guy I heard who studied this said it was more likely that it was about humans understanding their status. Gods are nakes and animals are clothed in fur. Humans learned they were kind of in between.
4) There is also discussion of what "Son of Man" and "Son of God" mean. To a Hebrew back then, "Son of Man" would be a divine judge or Messiah (because he would appear after the Beasts) while "Don of God" just means someone doing Godly works. To a pagan back then, it would mean the opposite. So if a Jewish person said, "Jesus may have been the son of God, but he was not the son of man" then a pagan may have gotten the wrong impression.
Anyway, I do find it interesting how things look different when language and culture become involved.