Article May 4, 1935 Issue

Bible Notes

"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3:13)—Weymouth (5th edition) translates: "There is no one who has gone up to heaven, except One who has come down from heaven, namely the Son of man whose home is in heaven."

"God sent not his Son ... to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17)—The word translated "condemn" means literally "judge," and need not imply condemnation. So Goodspeed has "pass judgment"; and Weymouth: "judge"; though Moffatt prefers: "pass sentence." It may be noted that the word here translated "saved" is the same as that which is elsewhere rendered "made whole" (cf. Luke 8:48) by the King James translators and "cured" by Goodspeed. So in John 3:17 we could translate: "that the world might be healed through him."

"In the beginning" (Gen. 1:1)—The early Aramaic paraphrases of the Old Testament, which are known as Targums, give some interesting suggestions as to the translation and significance of the Hebrew phrase rendered "in the beginning." For example: the Targum of Onkelos has a word which may be translated "in eternity" (Etheridge: Targums of the Pentateuch: Vol. I, p. 36); while the Palestinian Targum suggests "at the beginning."

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