THE SWORD VERSE
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
Luke 22:36-38
Several months ago I sent a short statement out to a couple of KJV-Only mailing lists challenging anyone to come up with a more stupid translation of a Bible verse than the one that is below. No one has yet met the challenge. I welcome all attempts. Actually, I find the translation below to be hilarious. Now, a brother did gently rebuke me once for thinking that this example is funny, so I should add that it is only funny because it is so completely dumb that it looks like it came out of a commentary entitled A Dummy’s Guide to Interpreting the Bible. We do need to have a sense of humor, especially people like me. I toil at battling the Bible perverting societies and publishers between 50 to 90 hours per week. I am very serious, intense, sometimes cantankerous, and my wife says that I can be a grumpy old man, even though I’m only 45. It is good to laugh sometimes. If I didn’t, my wife might eventually hit me over the head with a frying pan, and that would be painful. Yes, it is sad that anyone would do something this dishonest with a verse, and it does make me mad, but at the same time, we should be able to laugh at such folly – God does.
Psalm 2:4: He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psalm 37:13: The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.
Psalm 52:6&7: The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him: Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
Psalm 59:8: But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
Proverbs 1:26: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Ecc 3:4: A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
For a good laugh, read how The Message of Eugene H. Peterson has translated Luke 22:38.
…. But he said, “Enough of that; no more sword talk!”
Whenever I present this verse to churches it invariably draws uproarious laughter, as well as it should. It has never been necessary for me to explain what is wrong with this translation. It makes an obvious mockery of the meaning of the verse, and even a child can see that it is a non sequitur, whether or not he knows what non sequitur means. Nevertheless, it is fun to look at the Greek here. The Greek word is hikanos, or ikanos, if you want to pronounce it as the modern Greeks would. The word means enough or sufficient. The meanings provided by Liddell Scott’s Greek Dictionary are: sufficient, adequate, enough, and 2. sufficient, satisfactory. In Koine Greek, it also may mean much, many, very much in the same way that the words enough and plenty are sometimes used interchangeably. In English we might say that we have enough money to go out to a restaurant, or we might say that we have plenty of money to go out to a restaurant. In English we may also use the word ‘enough’ as an exclamation meaning “Stop it!” or “No more!” It has no such meaning in Greek. It is only an adjective.
Aside from Peterson’s rendition, which is the most blatantly incompetent, we have the following similar, but more subtle, attempts at blurring the purport of the verse:
Living Bible: … “Enough!” he said.
CEV: … “Enough of that!” Jesus replied.
TEV: … “That is enough!” he answered.
NAB: … But he replied, “It is enough!”
The Pope endorsed NAB even throws in a footnote that states that Jesus was mad because the disciples were not supposed to take him literally. They assume that the reader will not figure out that there is no actual exclamative in the sentence. Of course, the Catholics who put together this abomination do not want to take anything else in the Bible too literally either, such as calling no man father, having no gods before God, that no man comes to the Father except through the Son, that no one should add or take anything from God’s Word, and so forth. Taking this verse literally might have led some to defend themselves from the thumbscrews, iron maidens, fires, and swords of the Catholic persecutors. It also might inspire some Christians in the socialist and communist countries in which the Catholic Church thrives so well to stand up and defend themselves, their families, and their property.
I’m sure that the reprobates behind such translations, knew perfectly well that this translation makes no sense either semantically or grammatically. Yes, they are not brilliant people, but they aren’t that stupid. They cannot stand the idea that we would be told to defend ourselves, our families, and our Christian brothers and sisters with swords. Not being able to find any corrupt texts that left out the verse, and not being able to find any way to make the word for sword (makhaira) mean daffodil, bottle of Jack Daniels, lace panties, or whatever, they clutched at straws by trying to cancel the verse through perverting the meaning of the word ‘enough’. This is another great proof of how completely dishonest these snakes are, and it also shows that their claim to rely on a better understanding of the Greek is completely false.
John Hinton, Ph.D.
Bible Restoration Ministry
A ministry seeking the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent
Bibles in all the languages of the world.