Another crucial aspect of this project stems from the fact that the Bible, as most people read it, is a translation of texts that were originally written in Greek or Hebrew.  This means that some nuances are inevitably lost in translation, and it also means that the individuals or committees translating the Bible have to choose how to translate many passages where there are multiple possible meanings, the passage is unclear, there are idioms that wouldn’t translate literally into English and retain the same meaning, and so on.  But in doing so, in some cases these translators are making choices that are influenced by the theology of the church or churches to which they belong, and possibly distorting the text in doing so.  Consider for example Matthew 5:22, which is translated in the following ways:

• NIV: “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell”
• NRSV: “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister,  you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.”
• King James: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”

There are several deviations from the text here, which are mostly trivial and in many cases : in the modern translations a word that literally means “brother” is translated as “brother or sister” with the literal Greek described in an annotation; the Greek word ἒνοχος enochos is variously translated as “subject to” or “liable to,” which are both literal meanings of the word, whereas the KJV translates it as “danger of,” which is less literal; some translations leave the Aramaic word raca untranslated, whereas the NRSV translates it as “if you insult.” The passage that is translated as “you/thou fool” adds the word “you/thou,” which is not in the Greek, to convey the sense that the insult is directed at a person, which in the Greek is done using a form of the adjective that does not exist in English. The Greek phrase ῀ος δ᾽ ἆν εῖπῃ hos d’ an eipē_i  appears twice in the verse and is translated most closely by “but whosoever would say” in the KJV, but contains several aspects that make it impossible to translate literally, which I will describe in a footnote for folks who are curious.¹ These are all fairly normal decisions that are unavoidable in translating from one language to another, and for the most part don’t dramatically impact how we should understand the text.  

There is, however, a choice made by all three translations that has a dramatic impact on how the text is read.  The passage that is variously translated as “fire of hell,” “hell of fire”, or “hellfire” literally reads τὴν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός tēn gehennan tou pyros “Gehenna of fire.” Gehenna is a valley near Jerusalem that by the time the New Testament was written had come to have significance as a place associated with God’s final judgment. Viewed from a one angle, translating the passage as “hell of fire” makes some sense, inasmuch as both usages are associated with punishment as a result of God’s judgment.²  On the other hand, there is literally no Greek word in the New Testament that translates as “hell,” and indeed the theological concept of hell is something that has been developed over millennia and been shaped by theological debate, historical exigencies, and the influence of things like Dante’s Inferno.  By translating Gehenna as “hell,” these translations force the reader into an understanding of divine punishment that isn’t actually inherent to the text.

As you may have gathered, I am able to read Greek (somewhat laboriously), and so will do my best to make translation choices clear, particularly in instances where they materially impact the understanding of  core theological contexts like “hell.” For the Hebrew Bible, I am not actually able to read Hebrew, and so generally when I am citing Hebrew scripture I will compare a modern translation against something called the Septuagint (also known by the abbreviation LXX).

Footnotes

[1] Just to list out the words:

• ῏ος hos this is a pronoun that could mean “who”, “someone,” “anyone,” “the one who”, etc.
• δ´d’ this is the shortened form of δἐ de, which is a conjunction that means “and” or “but”, but a peculiarity of Greek grammar is that this conjunction can’t be the first word in its clause. 
• ἂν an this is an untranslatable particle that in Greek serves to heighten the sense of conditionality in some verb tenses and is paired with the verb of this clause to heighten a sense of “would/could”
• εἲπῃ eipē_i this verb means “to say” and takes ῏ος hos as its subject.  It is in a past tense form and is in something called the “subjunctive mood,” which means that the verb is viewed as something conditional: someone could say, or would say, or should say, or shall say.  As previously mentioned this conditional sense is heightened by ἂν an.

So if we were to try to translate this phrase literally it would read something like “who and/but <untranslateable word> said <with conditional force>” or something nonsensical, but could validly be translated as “but who would say,” “and who would say”, “whomsoever shall say,” “anyone who says.” Notably the NSRV fairly dramatically departs from the literal text “who would say to his brother ‘Raca’” with “if you insult a brother or sister” while keeping a reasonable sense of its meaning, and in the second appearance of the phrase changes the verb into the second person in “if you say.” <back to top>

[2] David Bentley Hart’s translation of the New Testament has an interesting and much more educated discussion of possible interpretations for Gehenna in its Concluding Scientific Postscript (p. 543-548 in my copy) <back to top>