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Originally Posted by two4youinswva  Or Greek, depending on the testament. 
This is a pretty diverse and educated group. Wouldn't be surprised if there was someone on here trained in the classics. |
It is not that easy sadly. First you have the language issue. Jesus and most in biblical times spoke in Aramaic but most of the written material is in Greek or Hebrew. So there is translation issues from day 1.
Then there is differences in meaning of words which has changed from ancient times till today as well as translation bias.
Bill, co-founder of LC had two seminary professors who were on the committee to write the NIV version of the bible. They openly discussed the conflict on the committee whether to translated based on "tradition" or "dynamic equivalence" which is what it actually meant in the society at the time. Sadly tradition won. In my view it was mans imposed views over what the text actually said in the culture in which it was written.
Just one common example is what is translated as "adultery". Totally different meaning today. In biblical times only a married women could commit adultery which was the violation of a mans rights over his wives. Totally different than todays definition. It is a good translation of the word, but the meaning today is vastly different.