Every Book Inspired by God Is Also Useful

 

2Ep.Ti. 3,16: Πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος καὶ ὠφέλιμος πρὸς διδασκαλίαν, πρὸς ἔλεγχον, πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ,...(t.n.; koine Greek, original text)

I translate: Every book inspired by God is also useful for teaching, for a course under control, for course rectification, for the conduct required to righteous,... .

This is the correct translation of this passage of Paul, having thereby a very obvious interpretation. Up to date however the Greek translators (Maximus, Vamvas, Trempelas, Kolitsaras, Psaroudakis, Aguridis, P. Vasiliadis, Galanis, Galitis, Karavidopulos, Stogiannos, Foris, Hiotelli, Sotiropulos, Kazanakis, and the protestants Filos, Karalis, Ioannidis, and those unknown of the protestant Social and Spiritual Growth Company, and the anonymous millenarists) did not understand this simple verse. They all translate as Maximus did initially, each one with his own words, that "All the Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for control, for correction, for instruction,..."; not because everyone read Maximus, but because they have the same protestant dependence with him. They say nonsense, because they did not realize that the word θεόπνευστος (inspired by God), is an attributive adjective, whilst the word ὠφέλιμος (useful), is a predicative, and for this reason they did not realize either at what place they must understand the implied word ἐστίν (is); that they have to understand it between the words, θεόπνευστος (inspired by God) and ὠφέλιμος (useful), and not before these two. that in this, Paul means, πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος (ἔστι) καὶ ὠφέλιμος..., "every book inspired by God (is) also useful...". It needs not knowledge of the Ancient Greek Language but a simple linguistic reasoning, common intelligence. Because the passage could be equally incomprehensible for them and in its modern greek wording, “κάθε γραφὴ θεόπνευστη καὶ ὠφέλιμη...”, that is "every book inspired of God is also useful...". Moreover they do not even realize the following which are equally simple; that the phrase πᾶσα γραφὴ (every book) means "every writing", "every book", and not "all the Scripture" as it would mean the phrase πᾶσα γραφὴ (every book) with an added article; in the first case the attributive πᾶσα (all, every) is an adjective, in the second it would be a predicative; that Paul and the inspired by God sane authors of the Bible in general would never say that "All the Holy Scripture is inspired by God", because this is the obvious and simply the presupposed, and whoever tells this is like saying that "The God is good and is not bad", or "The whole God is good etc."; biblical authors never say such nonsense; that the phrase πρὸς ἔλεγχον (for controlling) does not mean "for one to give a controlling sermon", but that which we mean when we say in other words "to take control"; that the phrase πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν (for rectification) does not mean "to correct ourselves" or "to correct others", but "for course rectification", "for continuous piloting"; that the phrase πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ means "for the conduct required to righteous", "for christian conduct", and not those nonsense which the translators mean and say. But these mistakes come second in order; the essential is the first.

Even Vellas with his walkons (Ev. Antoniadis, Alivisatos, Konidaris) does not fully understand the correct translation, that he actually has, because he has alternatively both, the correct and the wrong which the others have, and he does not decide definitively which of the two is the only correct. And this happens to him, not because, after accessing the original greek text in the aspect of its ancient Greek language, realized the correct, but because he saw both translations at foreign translations, of which all (t.n.; modern greek translations) without exception depend directly or indirectly, and does not know which translations are correct; since those in German and Italian are correct, whilst those in French, Spanish and English are incorrect. And the others, except Vellas, depend only from the English translation, and only Vellas from both English and German. No one is accessing this passage from the original text in the aspect of its Greek language, nor the Bible in general. Furthermore it is clear that each Greek translator is copying the others. Vellas is researching more than the others, since he looked to a second tiflosirtis (= kind of cheat sheet), though he is not more intelligent neither more knowledgeable of the Greek language. Besides, between us, especially this verse does not need more researching and Ancient Greek knowledge than simple intelligence. It's very simple. Here the general drowning came just in a spoonful of water. All Greek translators, orthodox and heretics, show limited perception. Even when, between the errors the correct is available, they don't understand it, they cannot even distinguish it. But there is a second reason why they do not understand particularly this so obvious passage or even many more equally obvious passages; they do not love this text; they do not respect it. They do not love it as much as, for example, the philologists love their less valuable texts. Their slovenliness is due to this, and I don't mean for their translation work only, but additionally for their overall occupation or rather their involvement in the science of the Holy Scriptures.

 

Studies (Μελέτες) 10 (2010)