From the Greek Septuagint text as was used by First Century Christians

Chapter 1

¹ The word of Jehovah came to JonAh (the son of AmitTai) saying: ² ‘Get up and go to the great city Nineveh, and there deliver this proclamation, for cries of their evil have reached Me.’

³ But Jonah got up to flee from the face of Jehovah, to Tharsis. So he went down to Joppa and found a boat that was sailing to Tharsis, paid his fare, boarded, and preceded to sail away from the face of Jehovah to Tharsis.

⁴ Then Jehovah raised a wind upon the sea that created huge swells, and [soon] the boat was in danger of breaking up. ⁵ This made the sailors so fearful that they each started yelling out to their own gods, and those onboard started throwing things into the sea to lighten the ship; but Jonah just went down into the ship’s hold, went to sleep, and started snoring.

⁶ Then the captain came to him and asked, ‘Why are you snoring? Get up and call to your God so He’ll save us and we won’t be destroyed!’

⁷ Then each man started saying to his neighbor, ‘Come let’s throw lots, so we can determine the reason why this evil has befallen us!’

So they threw lots, and the lot fell to JonAh. ⁸ And they said to him, ‘Tell us the reason why this evil has come upon us… what do you do for a living? Where have you come from… from what kind of place and what kind of people?’

⁹ Then he told them, ‘I am a servant of Jehovah the God of the heavens… I worship the One who made the sea and dry land.’

¹⁰ Well at that, the men became very fearful and they asked him, ‘What did you do’ (because the men realized that he was running away)? So he explained [to them what had happened].

¹¹ Then they asked him, ‘So, what should we do to you in order to calm the sea?’ And just as they asked this, the sea rose in a great swell.

¹² And Jonah told them, ‘Just pick me up and throw me into the sea; then it will become calm for you, for I know that it’s on account of me that these great swells have come upon you.’

¹³ However, the men pressed on and tried to reach land… but they were unable, for the sea [kept pushing] against them. ¹⁴ So they yelled out to Jehovah and said, ‘Please don’t destroy us over the life of this man, because we don’t want the blood of the righteous held against us! But for You, O Lord, we will do whatever You want.’

¹⁵ So, they took JonAh and threw him into the sea, and then the sea stood still and stopped tossing about. ¹⁶ So, the men became very fearful of Jehovah, and they made vows to Him and offered sacrifices to Him.

¹⁷ Then Jehovah ordered a great sea creature to swallow Jonah, and he stayed in its belly for three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

¹ Then Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from out of the belly of the sea creature. ² He said:

‘In my affliction I yelled, to Jehovah my God,
And He paid attention to me.
I cried from the belly of the place of the dead,
And then to my voice You did listen!

³ ‘You threw me into the heart, and the depths of the sea,
And I was surrounded by [water].
Then as Your waves and their crests poured upon me, I asked;
⁴ Have I been pushed from Your eyes?
Surely I’ll see Your Holy Temple once more!’

⁵ ‘But water poured all around me,
And it entered my soul…
By the deep I was encircled,
And then my head went under the water.

⁶ ‘I went down through the fissures of mountains;
Into the earth and its bars of the ages.
O Jehovah my God;
Allow my life to ascend from corruption!

⁷ ‘My life came so close to [ending],
And then I remembered Jehovah…
My prayers reached up to You,
In Your Temple most holy!

⁸ ‘To lies and foolish things some pay attention,
And they’ve abandoned all mercy.
⁹ But I will offer You praise with my voice,
And sacrifice in acknowledgment of You.
All that I’ve vowed I will render to You,
For my salvation by You, O Jehovah!’

¹⁰ Then Jehovah gave orders to the large sea creature, and it vomited Jonah out on dry land.

Chapter 3

¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to JonAh a second time, saying, ² ‘Get up and go to the great city Nineveh, to make a proclamation over it, just as I told you before!’

³ So, JonAh got up and went to Nineveh, just as Jehovah had told him (for God considered Nineveh a great city), and it took him three days to get there. ⁴ Then JonAh entered the city, and it took one full day for him to travel through it, as he was proclaiming ‘In just three days, Nineveh will be wiped away!’

⁵ Well, the men of Nineveh believed in God, so they called for a fast and the wearing of sackcloth by everyone, from the least to the greatest. ⁶ And when his words reached the king of Nineveh, he stood up from his throne, removed all his clothes, and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.

⁷ Then a proclamation of the king and his great men was sent throughout Nineveh, saying, ‘The men may not eat [or feed] their cattle, oxen, or sheep… they may not eat or drink at all. ⁸ And the men are to wrap sackcloth around both themselves and their cattle, and they must all fervently call out to God! Each must turn from his wicked ways and from the sins of his hands and say, ⁹ Who knows if God will change His mind, and turn from the anger of His rage, so that we will not perish?’

¹⁰ Well, when God saw what they were doing, and that they had turned from their wicked ways, God did change His mind over the evil that He said He would do to them, and He didn’t do it.

Chapter 4

¹ Well, JonAh was very upset and confused by this, ² so he prayed to Jehovah and said, ‘O Lord; Were these not my words when I was back in my own land? It was because of something like this that I thought about fleeing to Tharsis! For, I knew that You are kind, sympathetic, lenient, and full of mercy, and that You’d change Your mind about doing such evil.

³ ‘And now, O Master and Lord, please take my life, for it’s better for me to die than to live!’

⁴ And Jehovah asked, ‘Has this [really] grieved you so much?’

⁵ Then JonAh left the city and sat down in front of it… he put up a shelter and sat under it, so he could just sit and look at the city.

⁶ Then Jehovah God provided a gourd [plant] that grew up over JonAh’s head to provide him shade (to shade him in this bad [time]). And JonAh became very happy and joyful over the gourd [plant].

⁷ Then, early the following morning, God sent a worm that killed the [plant], so it dried up. ⁸ And just as the sun was rising, God sent a burning wind, which (along with the sun) burned the head of JonAh. So, he became very discouraged and was [willing to] resign from life, for he said, ‘It’s better for me to die than to live!’

⁹ Then God asked JonAh, ‘Are you [really] that grieved over the gourd [plant]?’

And he replied, ‘Yes, I’m grieved to the point of death!’

¹⁰ And Jehovah said, ‘You treated the gourd plant so tenderly, yet you didn’t work hard or feed it… it just grew up during one night, and then the next night it had perished. ¹¹ So, shouldn’t I spare the great city Nineveh, in which dwell a hundred-and-twenty thousand men, who don’t know their right hands from their left… as well as all of their cattle?’

Notes

The Heavens or Sky, the Earth or the Land?

In both the Ancient Scriptures of Israel (OT) and the Christian Era Scriptures (NT), we find all the realm of creation divided into three entities; the heavens (or sky), the earth (the land or ground), and the seas (the waters). Now, in contemporary English, we understand that there is a difference between the heavens and the sky, the earth and the land (or ground), and the seas and waters. However, in both Hebrew and Greek, these fine distinctions that we accept because of our modern technology, can’t be found. So, Genesis 1:1 could literally be translated as, ‘In the beginning, God created the sky and the ground.’

This is accurate, because it was the view of man from the earth. There was the land that he stood on, the sky above him, and the waters or seas over there. There was no technical understanding of the earth as a planet, because men didn’t view the earth as we do today, as a ball in space… it just wasn’t necessary at the time! However, because of these distinctions that we understand so well today, translators must choose the proper words to provide the right nuances in English, in order for readers to grasp the proper meaning of each text.

This is why you’ll find the Greek word ourano translated as both heaven(s) and sky herein, depending on the context. You’ll also find the Greek words ge and ges translated as earth, ground, or land, depending on the context. So, the symbolic words at 2 Peter 3:5, 6, for example, are translated herein as, ‘The thing that they don’t want to understand is this: That the ancient earth and sky were out of the water, but (in obedience to God’s instructions) they stood together between the waters.’ (For an example of the problems created by the wrong use of the words ge and ges, see the linked document Isaiah 24 - Is It Speaking of Armageddon?).

Notice that the ‘earth and sky’ were located ‘between the water.’ So, although other Bibles translated this verse as speaking of the ‘heavens and earth,’ the reference is to the portion of the heavens that are close to the earth… to the sky. Likewise, at Matthew 5:5, where Jesus spoke of the ‘meek’ as inheriting ‘the earth; since he was talking about people receiving an ‘allotment’ on the earth,’ we have chosen to translate ges as earth, not land or ground. However, the words land and ground are equally correct.

And finally, when it comes to the seas (gr. thalassa), there are already distinctions as to different types of waters in the Greek text. For instance, seas are called thalassa and rivers are called potamos (or ‘flowing’). However, notice (in Revelation 20: 13) how the resurrection of the dead is divided between those who died on land and those who were lost in the water, ‘The sea gave up its dead, death and the grave gave up those dead in them, and they were all judged by the things that they did.’

We again find all three of these realms of creation brought together symbolically at Revelation 21:1, where it says, ‘Then I saw a new earth and sky, because the previous earth and sky had disappeared, as did the sea.’

Also, in the case of where EliJah was taken in a celestial chariot, most people think he was taken to (as their Bibles put it) ‘heaven,’ where he went to live with God. This isn’t true, because King JehoRam later received a letter from Elijah (see 2 Chronicles 21:12). So, God had apparently used the celestial chariot to take him into the sky (the proper translation here), where he was then taken to another place here on the earth. For more information on this, see the linked document, The Hereafter.

Use your browser BACK button to return to the text you were reading

Hades: Hell or the Grave?

The Greek word Hades (they pronounced it hah-des) has been translated both as Hell (which is thought of as a place of torture) and as the Grave in other Bible versions (such as the King James). Since one word can’t mean two very different things, which translation is correct?

Hades (like the English word Hell) actually means the place of the dead. However, as pagan Greek philosophy started to develop and creep into Christianity, the later-day Greek view of Hades (a place of torture) was applied to it. Was this a correct application?

An insight into how the ancient Hebrews and the early Christians understood the word can be gained by looking at how it was applied in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Ancient Scriptures of Israel (the ‘Old Testament’ Bible of Jesus’ day). There, the Hebrew word Sheol is translated into Greek as Hades in every instance; yet in each case, these are obvious references to the grave (the place of the dead), not to a place of conscious torture (see Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10).

Another revealing application of the word Hades is found at Revelation the 20:13. It says there, ‘The sea (gr. he thalassa) gave up its dead, death and the grave (gr. thanatos kai ho hades) gave up those dead in them, and they were all judged by the things that they did.’

So, notice that those who die at sea are differentiated from those who are buried in graves (Hades) and in other places (thanatos). Therefore, Hades is better translated as grave.

In the book of Job, another word that is used once in the Christian-era Scriptures and often translated as Hell, is found in two places. That Greek word is Tartarus, which refers to the place where evil gods or angels are sent. For more information, see the linked document, Is There a Burning Hell?

Use your browser BACK button to return to the text you were reading

Why the Name Changes?

You have likely noticed that we are putting some of the letters in Bible names in capital letters. For example, we’ve started spelling such names as Jonathan as JoNathan, Isaiah as IsaiJah, and Eliezer as EliEzer. Why? Well, partly to help with the correct pronunciations of the names, and partly to show some translating consistency.

We all know that the common English pronunciation of Jonathan (for example) is Jon-uh-thun. But did you know that the first part of the name (Io in Greek, Ieho in Hebrew) refers to the name Jehovah, and the second part of the Name (Nathan) means Gift? So, the name was originally pronounced closer to Ye-hoh-nuh-thahn.

In the case of names that end with an iah, as in Isaiah, the last part of the name often includes the name of God. Isaiah, for example, means Salvation [of] Jehovah, and it was originally pronounced Ee-sai-Yah. So, why have we substituted a capital ‘J’ for the letters ‘ie’ in both of the above cases? Well, we recognize that there is an inconsistency here, because there was no letter ‘J’ in Hebrew or Greek alphabets. However, we have the choice of changing all names that start with ‘J’ (such as Jesus, John, Jonah, Joshua, Jeremiah, etc.) to start with the letters ‘Ie’, or for consistency, we can change all the ‘Ies’ into ‘Js’, which is what we have done. Realize that several other Hebrew consonants are commonly mispronounced in English, which no one objects to, so this minor deviation should not be objectionable to the thinking.

Does this mean then that we are setting out a new rule for name spelling? Absolutely not, for centuries ago, a Bible translator first established this rule when he spelled the name Eliou (Greek spelling, pronounced ay-lee-ou) and wrote it as EliJah, because this name is regarded as meaning ‘My God is Jehovah.’

Also notice that where a name ends with an iah, as in Jeremiah (Jehovah exalts), we have often spelled it as iJah, because the I would typically be pronounced as a long E, followed by a Y in Hebrew, and writing it without the I (as in JeremJah) misses this nuance. So, we have rendered it as JeremiJah, which is similar to the way it is often pronounced by modern-day Hebrew-speaking Jews, YeremiYah.

Another important word in names that we usually capitalize is ‘El’ (from the Hebrew Elohe, or God). So EliEzer (which people commonly pronounce Eelai-eezer and means God [has] Helped) should actually be pronounced El-ee-eh-zer. The same is true for the letters Ai, especially in the names of cities, because Ai in Hebrew refers to the word city. So, AiLam (for example) probably meant the City of Lam.

Similar words, such as Bel (as in BelShazzar), Baal, and Beel, refer to ‘the Lord’ or ‘the God.’ Also, the prefixes ‘Ben’ and ‘Bar’ mean ‘the son of.’ ‘Beth’ means ‘the house of,’ ‘Beer’ refers to a ‘well,’ ‘Is’ or ‘Ish’ means ‘Man,’ etc.

Does this mean that we have put all the capitals in the right places? No, for we make no claim to Hebrew scholarship (all our translating here has been from Greek). So, what we are trying to do is provide a better understanding to how these names were pronounced by First-Century Christians.

Use your browser BACK button to return to the text you were reading

Whale or Large Fish?

It is amazing how Bible scholars have labored over the answer to the question of just what type of animal it was that swallowed Jonah. For, although it would seem logical that Jonah would have been able to survive inside (perhaps in the lungs) of an air-breathing whale, it is thought that the word used in this account refers to a cold-blooded fish; so some have concluded that he was in the belly of a large shark or jewfish.

The Greek word that the Septuagint uses for this animal is ketos (pronounced kay-toss), which simply means a creature that lives in the water. The problem with modern scientifically-trained men, is that they view all things by what they were taught in modern schools; and everyone knows that whales and dolphins aren’t fish, they are mammals… thus the dilemma.

However in ancient languages, animal types weren’t classified as they are today. And although we may have adopted some of their ancient words to categorize them, almost all animals were simply grouped into five different divisions; clean animals, wild animals (game), things that fly, things that creep or crawl, and things that live in the water.

So, there was no word for mammal in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. Thus, arguing over whether the Bible says that a whale or a shark swallowed Jonah, is simply ignorant nit picking. We don’t know whether whales live in the Mediterranean Sea; but notice that, after he was swallowed, Jonah mentions being in a place where he was surrounded by water, and that the water was sloshing. This doesn’t appear to describe the conditions inside the belly of a fish.

Use your browser BACK button to return to the text you were reading

Home Page