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Conference yukon::christian_v7

Title:	The CHRISTIAN Notesfile
Notice:	Jesus reigns! - Intros: note 4; Praise: note 165
Moderator:	ICTHUS::YUILLEON

Created:	Tue Feb 16 1993
Last Modified:	Fri May 02 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	962
Total number of notes:	42902

398.0. "Translation woes" by GIDDAY::BURT (Scythe my dandelions down, sport) Wed Feb 09 1994 00:32

Hi all!

I receive a set of Bible passages on a daily basis - today's was one to which 
my reaction was "glurp - maybe the translation is iffy".


 EXO 25:2 "Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me;
 from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My
 contribution.

 EXO 25:3 "And this is the contribution which you are to raise
 from them: gold, silver and bronze,
 
 EXO 25:4 blue, purple and scarlet {material,} fine linen, goat
 {hair,}

 EXO 25:5 rams' skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood,

Porpoise skins????


EXO 26:14 "And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams'
skins dyed red, and a covering of porpoise skins above.

Porpoise skins.

PLEASE tell me it's a bad translation. Please?
Apart from the utter revulsion I feel about the idea of a porpoise skin 
ANYTHING, (other than as the cover of a living, breathing porpoise) where the 
heck would they get the porpoises?

Chele

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
398.1		JULIET::MORALES_NA	Sweet Spirit's Gentle Breeze	`Wed Feb 09 1994 00:45`	2
	My Bible says badger skin. Nothing about porpoises... tho' there may be some purposes. :-)
398.2		ICTHUS::YUILLE	Thou God seest me	`Wed Feb 09 1994 08:38`	10
	The 'badger's skins' were from the A.V. The NIV reckons they were dugongs, or sea cows. I think they're around the Red Sea area... Sounds like a likely overlap for porpoises. I think there are several animal names used in the Bible which it's difficult to identify specifically. Some of the dietary ones, for instance... Andrew
398.3		EVMS::PAULKM::WEISS	Trade freedom for His security-GAIN both	`Wed Feb 09 1994 08:45`	19
	We don't know exactly what kind of skin it was. The NIV says "Hides of sea cows." The word for it is always used in connection with the skins, with some association of being rare or precious. It's used in several places describing some of the trimmings for the temple, Ez 16:10 uses it to describe sandals in a passage describing costly garments. Strongs expanded concordance says: Probably of foreign origin 1)a kind of leather, skin, or animal hide 1a)perhaps the animal yielding the skin 1a1)perhaps the badger or dugong, dolphin or sheep. "Perhaps" shows that the real meaning has been lost. But it being a dugong (sea cow) or porpoise probably makes more sense than it being a badger or certainly a sheep, given the associatoin with rarity or preciousness. Paul
398.4		COMET::HAYESJ	Duck and cover!	`Thu Feb 10 1994 03:46`	4
	The NWT renders the word in question at Ex. 25:2 and 26:14 "sealskins". Steve