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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 CustodyFrom 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,