Traditions – A word study in Greek and Latin
(A response to a question online)
Let me help you with the word tradition the
word in the Greek is Para-dosin. It is two words in the Greek
Para -- is usually translated as: in, near, by, or from. However
the word means beside or alongside implying the source of which
anything proceeds.
The second Greek word is dosin which comes
from the word didomi to give, bestow, or present.
So to say that Paradosin should be translated,
as the word tradition is incorrect. The word tradition would
be a biased interpretation not a translation
And what did the apostles give the Thessalonians?
Traditions of their own making, their opinions and private interpretations?
No time after time they tell us they gave them the gospel, the
word of truth, the testimony of Jesus Christ. And what do they
say about other teachings other traditions? They say they are
other gospels, other gospels then the one that they taught them.
Of interest is the word tradition because it
does not appear in only New American Standard Version. While
I know that you may not be able to look up the Greek you can
go to Bible Gateway and see how many translations have the word
tradition inserted specifically in this verse cited.
The word paradosin
is used quite a few times in the New Testament yet it has miraculously
been given a meaning of "tradition" in this verse.
Let me give you verses that contain this word:
Matthew 4:12 Now when Jesus had
heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
12 |
cum
autem audisset quod Iohannes traditus (Delivered) esset secessit in Galilaeam |
Matthew 5:25 Agree with thine adversary
quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time
the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the
judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
25 |
esto
consentiens adversario tuo cito dum es in via cum eo
ne forte tradat
(Delivered) te adversarius iudici et iudex tradat
(Delivered) te ministro et in carcerem mittaris |
Matthew 10:4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
4 |
Simon
Cananeus et Iudas Scariotes qui et tradidit
(Delivered) eum |
Matthew 10:17 But beware
of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they
will scourge you in their synagogues;
In these verses the word has
been translated in its root meaning: to give. to hand to, and
to deliver to. We can see in KJV the translators going out on their own with the
word “Cast” and “Betrayed”
The translators then tell us that
they have added an attribute to the word, and translate it to
commit and to trust
Matthew 11:27
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
This verse in my mind is key the Father taught
Christ,. Where 40 days in the wilderness, afterward angels came
and ministered to Jesus, from there we get glimpses of Christ
praying all night and getting up and ministering the following
day – Hebrews says with strong crying Jesus made prayer and
supplication. Jesus
taught and demonstrated this to the apostles what Christ taught
and demonstrated to them they taught the Ekklesia.
In other words what we see here is a clear chain of custody
from the father to Christ to the apostles and to the hearers
of the Apostles – it is sometime after this point that there
comes this grand reinterpretation because what was originally
taught was lost and
there came this filling in for God at first it was a little
here and there and some fudging of the facts was done for a
generation or two or three but the darkness grew and the fillers
that once embroidered the edges became the body of the cloth
and the truth became the edges. And by that time more or less
the traditions became the glue that was holding the church together.
Matthew 25:14
For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far
country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
He we see Christ telling his disciples he is
given his servants his goods and traveling to a far country.
Looking back we not only know that this did indeed happen but
we have the ability to see with hindsight what went wrong and
where it went wrong. But this foolish generation would cast
all of Church history to the wind and pretend that they are
righteous and endowed with all truth while in reality they are
steeped up to their armpits in the doctrinal lethargy of our
day.
The word is translated to commit, and to commend:
in
Acts
14:26
And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended
to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
Recommended in the KJV is an utter mistranslation.
In the Greek nobody had recommended anything. And no one had
referred anyone to anything. Plain and simple: They had been given over to the grace of God or They had put them in the hands
of the Holy Spirit for protection, guidance, and wisdom.
Acts
15:40 And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended
by the brethren unto the grace of God.
By this point we can now see doctrinal implications
in this mistranslation Recommended in the KJV is an utter
mistranslation. In this verse now we see that the brethren –
the elders – the priesthood has now the authority to recommend
from within their midst the one or ones that they would choose
– in other words this mistranslation is making a case for the
doctrine of the ordination by men for the purpose of the ministry
And that these men also have some power to
assign people for the Holy Spirit to work with. Again in the
Greek nobody had recommended anything. And no one had referred
anyone to anything much less making the Holy Spirit an agent
of the will of the brethren.
Plain and simple: They had been given over to the grace of God or They had put them in the hands
of the Holy Spirit for protection, guidance, and wisdom.
How is ordination supposed to work? Does the
church recommend to God or does the church select someone whom
God already has his hand on?
The answer unfortunately depends very much on the church
or denomination to which you belong.
John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It
is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost
Acts 7:42 Then God turned,
and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book
of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me
slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the
wilderness?
1 Corinthians 15:24 Then cometh the
end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority
and power
The word Para-dosin
in no way contains the word "up"
in it the word give and yield are not really the same Give
implies free will in my mind and yield implies giving
in unwillingly, or forking over something under duress. The
real problem is when our KJV Pharisees get a hold of these verses
– they preach doctrines from these mistranslations. And their
disciples are force to obey these false precepts even when they
are hanging by the thinnest of verses.
So far we have demonstrated that regardless
of the context the word Para-dosin does not change in meaning.
We are now going to look now at some other translations that
are so far a field of the words meaning we now have to consider
what is going one. Meanings
that are clearly not a translation but interpretation or even
the translator injecting a personal doctrinal opinion or their
denominations doctrinal opinion.
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves
over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
1 Corinthians 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things,
and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to
you.
Para-dosin is used two times in this verse. The first was translated as: “ordinances” and
again this is mistranslation that is used doctrinally. It is
used to support the notion that Paul and other Apostles and
later the Popes have this God given ability to create doctrine
and traditions in and of themselves, and the laity are to keep
what they create. I
remind you again of Matthew 11:27 the clear chain of Custody – From the Father
to Christ, from Christ to the Apostles and from the Apostles
to their hearers. No tampering, or embroidery,
was allowed.
With all that said I will now post the nine
verses that Para-dosin is translated “tradition”
Matthew 15:2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition
of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
Latin
Vulgate 405 AD
2 |
quare
discipuli tui transgrediuntur traditionem
seniorum non enim lavant manus suas cum panem manducant |
Matthew 15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress
the commandment of God by your tradition?
3 |
ipse
autem respondens ait illis quare et vos transgredimini
mandatum Dei propter traditionem
vestram |
Matthew 15:6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free.
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your
tradition.
6 |
et
non honorificabit patrem suum aut matrem et irritum
fecistis mandatum Dei propter traditionem vestram |
Mark 7:8
For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the
tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other
such like things ye do.
8 |
relinquentes
enim mandatum Dei tenetis traditionem
hominum baptismata urceorum et calicum et alia similia
his facitis multa |
Mark 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment
of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
9 |
et
dicebat illis bene irritum facitis praeceptum Dei ut
traditionem vestram
servetis |
Mark 7:13 Making
the word of God of none effect through your
tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things
do ye.
13 |
rescindentes
verbum Dei per traditionem vestram quam tradidistis
et similia huiusmodi multa facitis |
Galations 1:14
And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine
own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
14 |
et
proficiebam in iudaismo supra multos coetaneos in genere
meo abundantius aemulator existens paternarum mearum
traditionum |
Colossians
2:7-9 Rooted and built up in
him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ.
8 |
videte
ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam et inanem fallaciam
secundum traditionem
hominum secundum elementa mundi et non secundum Christum |
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by
word, or our epistle.
15 |
itaque
fratres state et tenete traditiones quas didicistis sive per sermonem sive
per epistulam nostram |
2
Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly,
and not after the tradition
which he received of us.
6 |
denuntiamus
autem vobis fratres in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi
ut subtrahatis vos ab omni fratre ambulante inordinate
et non secundum traditionem
quam acceperunt a nobis |
There are words in the Greek that could
be translated Traditions one word would be Didache – translated
teachings and doctrine, another word Dogma translated ordinances,
and another word Nomos that is translated law(s)
I was praying and God clearly spoke
to me that the word Tradition was an untranslated Latin word
that came from the Latin Vulgate – and as sure as God spoke
to me when I found an on-line version of the Latin Vulgate there
was the word tradition in the exact verb form – in the earlier
verses that were not translated tradition you can see they are
in varied verb forms. Not only that but the Latin means to give,
to deliver, or to bestow.
The word Tradition comes from the Latin
vulgate translated in 405 AD In these texts listed above you
can see other untranslated super words disciple, baptism,
sermon, and epistle.
Now I will ask you a question how is
it that an untranslated Latin word in the exact verb
form from a bible that was written in 405 AD got
inserted in not only every English version in these exact verses
but in all the major bibles around the world in French in German in Dutch in Russian etc.
The word Tradition in every language is a Latin
insert. It is a super word in that it is does not belong to
the language that it was taken from and it is not a part of
the language that it was inserted in. Therefore it is not under
any of the rules of either language so its pronunciation and
meaning can be specially defined. And so a word that would be
a form of: to give to, or to deliver to becomes a new word that
means the teachings created by the apostles and the popes.
And so by inserting this in all bibles they have every
bible saying their practice of making traditions to suit their
current needs is scriptural.
So how did they get in my bible – Bible translation
is a very limited field and when I went to Bible school we were
informed that many times words in places were translated certain
ways due to traditions among the translating community and those
are now carried on in the newer translations. (In other words no body knows
why anymore they just follow what everyone else does.)
Putting these verses side by
side with the Latin Vulgate translation created by St. Jerome
in 405 AD makes this indisputable.
Now this issuance of traditions doctrines
and precepts of men is one of the things that Christ spends
the greatest among of words speaking against in the gospels.
Sometime between 50 and 150 years after Christ's death some
men in the church first began to presumed that traditions man-made
doctrines and precepts were just as good as or better than Scripture
and the words of Christ.
In further examining this concept of traditions
and man-made doctrines and precepts of men we find that the
apostles and particularly Paul says again and again that if
we receive any other teachings words doctrines traditions and
or Gospels that they have given they are to be . . . rejected
and for that fact they say over and over again the men that
had fallen away had devised their own teachings traditions and
Gospels so that there was only one that was true and that all
others were to be rejected.
So that at the time of the Apostles the Apostasy
had begun
and Paul names names and the Apostolic Fathers
name names
If we have gone to
a Gospel that embraces the traditions of men the Doctrines of
men and the precepts of men we have crossed into what Christ
and the apostles clearly rejected and railed against -- how
can we say on the word of men that were not Christ or the Apostles
that they are now good?
I will leave you to come up with the conclusions
of what this means on your own.
1 Timothy 6:3-4 If any man teach otherwise,
and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
4He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings,
evil surmisings,