The Passion [Anti-] Translation

The Passion [Anti-]Translation: was Brian Simmons really translating from the Syriac Peshitta?

Brian Simmons, along with BroadStreet Publishing, claimed in early editions of the so-called ‘Passion Translation bible’, that he had ‘translated directly’ from the original text. For example, The Psalms: Poetry on Fire (2015) was said to have been ‘translated directly from the original Hebrew text’:

Likewise, the first edition of ‘Letters from Heaven by the Apostle Paul’ (2014) was claimed to have been translated ‘directly’ from the ‘original Greek and Aramaic texts’ by Simmons:

as was the first edition of Romans: Grace and Glory (2015):

raising first of all a question of logic:

How can a single letter from Paul have both ‘original’ Greek texts and ‘original’ Aramaic texts? Surely he must have written Romans in either one language or the other?

Continue reading The Passion [Anti-]Translation: was Brian Simmons really translating from the Syriac Peshitta?

Psalm 111.5 in the Passion [anti-] ‘Translation’: does Brian Simmons fear God?

I was alarmed recently to find a quotation from Brian Simmons’ so-called ‘Passion Translation’ on the home page of Kensington Temple, one of England’s larger and more prominent churches. Moreover, the web-site for the ‘Passion Translation’ carries endorsements from many well-known ministers in the United States and elsewhere, including Lou Engle, Chuck Pierce, Bill Johnson, Wesley and Stacey Campbell, James Goll, John Bevere, Patricia King, and Bobbie Houston of Hillsong. Ché Ahn believes that ‘The Passion Translation will be the Bible of choice for the next Jesus people movement’.

These are dark times when prominent Christian leaders such as these have apparently departed so far from the love of truth as to promote these publications which serve to distort and twist the divinely inspired scriptures. They need to be burned or shredded and put in the refuse, not sold to unsuspecting Christian believers, who have been given to believe that they are a valid expression of the holy word of God. Shame on the pastors for leading their flocks astray in this matter of absolute importance! And shame on BroadStreet Publishing for publishing it, Authentic Media for distributing it here in the UK and elsewhere, and for online and digital platforms including Bible Gateway, Logos, Olive Tree and YouVersion for hosting it! What is wrong with you? You must have seen the reviews by men who have sufficient knowledge of the original languages to make an informed judgement about the quality of this so-called ‘translation’.

Continue reading Psalm 111.5 in the Passion [anti-] ‘Translation’: does Brian Simmons fear God?

John 1.11 in Brian Simmons’ ‘Passion Translation’: does τὰ ἴδια mean His ‘own things’ or His ‘own people’?

I am presenting evidence that seems to suggest that the ‘Passion Translation’, so-called, is not in fact a translation from the original languages as it is represented to be. ¹ Yesterday, I examined two of the translator’s footnotes to John 1.10 and today I continue with John 1.11 and its footnote.

Continue reading John 1.11 in Brian Simmons’ ‘Passion Translation’: does τὰ ἴδια mean His ‘own things’ or His ‘own people’?

Notes:

For the record, I have previously presented it to author and publisher, but received no explanation for the errors and blunders in Greek and Hebrew contained in it. I also provided a statement from a named lecturer in Greek at a well-known ministerial training college, to the effect that he had seen my evidence, and had found that the ‘errors seriously erode my confidence in the integrity of the author’s claim to be producing the translation directly from Greek texts.’ ↩

John 1.10 in the ‘Passion Translation’: more evidence that Brian Simmons may not be translating from Greek.

In my last post, I asked, in connection with a footnote to John 2.3 in the 2015 edition of John: Eternal Love, whether Brian Simmons, the supposed translator of the ‘Passion Translation’, was even looking at the Greek text at all. Today, I ask the same question with regard to the first footnote to John 1.10 in the 2014 edition. The second footnote also casts some doubt on whether he is really translating from Greek. I take them one at a time. Tomorrow, I plan to look at the following verse and its footnote.

I give both verses together here, since the Greek text of verse 11 helps to explain a blunder in the first footnote to verse 10:

Continue reading John 1.10 in the ‘Passion Translation’: more evidence that Brian Simmons may not be translating from Greek.

‘Miriam’, ‘Mary’, or ‘the mother of Jesus’? – is Brian Simmons even looking at the Greek text?

I continue to question whether the ‘Passion Translation’ New Testament is really translated from Greek, as is claimed. In this post I look at Brian Simmons’ footnote to John 2.3 in the 2015 edition of John: Eternal Love.

John 2.1-3

1) Καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ γάμος ἐγένετο ἐν Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἦν ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐκεῖ·

2) ἐκλήθη δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν γάμον.

3) καὶ ὑστερήσαντος οἴνου λέγει ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ πρὸς αὐτόν· οἶνον οὐκ ἔχουσιν.

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. ³And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” [NKJV]

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; ²and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. ³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus *said to Him, “They have no wine.” [NASB]

¹On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” [ESV]

In John: Eternal Love (2015), the passage read:

Continue reading ‘Miriam’, ‘Mary’, or ‘the mother of Jesus’? – is Brian Simmons even looking at the Greek text?

Why did Brian Simmons transliterate ἐξηγέομαι (exēgeomai) as ‘hexegeomai’?

I have been considering two closely related questions:

a) Is the so-called ‘Passion Translation’ New Testament actually translated at all, or is it derived from English versions?

b) Does Brian Simmons, who says he is the ‘translator’, lack elementary competence in Greek?

In this post I consider a second example of a mistake in transliteration. Yesterday, I asked how Simmons could have transliterated ἑώρακα (heōraka) in John 1.34 as ophesthe. Today I consider the implications of his transliterating ἐξηγέομαι (exēgēomai) as hexegeomai, as if the first epsilon had a rough breathing ἑ rather than a smooth breathing ἐ . Although this may seem like a relatively minor error, in comparison with the one I examined yesterday, I would like to ask whether it is an error that somebody who has elementary competence in Greek could plausibly make?

Continue reading Why did Brian Simmons transliterate ἐξηγέομαι (exēgeomai) as ‘hexegeomai’?

Why did Brian Simmons transliterate ἑώρακα (heōraka) as ‘ophesthe’?

In my last two posts I have been presenting evidence (here and here) that Brian Simmons, who calls himself ‘the translator’ of the ‘Passion Translation’ New Testament, is less than familiar with the Greek language. I continue with a surprising mistake in a footnote to John 1.34 in the 2014 edition of John: Eternal Love.

John 1.34

κἀγὼ ἑώρακα καὶ μεμαρτύρηκα ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ [NA 28]

"I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God." [NASB]

In the Passion Translation, 2014 edition, the verse and first footnote read:

ἑώρακα is the first person perfect active indicative of ὁράω, ‘I see’, ‘I perceive’, and means ‘I have seen’ or ‘I have perceived’. This must be the Greek word that Simmons is referring to in his footnote.

ἑώρακα transliterates as heōraka;

ὁράω, the lexical form, transliterates as horaō.

Why then does Simmons transliterate it as ophesthe?

I cannot give a definitive answer, but I do have a possible partial explanation.

Continue reading Why did Brian Simmons transliterate ἑώρακα (heōraka) as ‘ophesthe’?

Is the ‘Passion Translation’ actually a translation? (part 2)

In my last post I began to present evidence that seems to betray a lack of elementary competence in Greek on the part of the supposed translator of the ‘Passion Translation’. I say ‘supposed’, because I have reluctantly come to the provisional conclusion that Brian Simmons is not translating at all, in any meaningful way, but rather is working from English versions, while making some use of lexicons to find novel renderings for individual words. I stand to be corrected. I have written to the author and publisher presenting my evidence and have not received any alternative explanation for the gross blunders in the ‘translator’ footnotes. Yesterday I showed that:

ἐλάλησα αὐτοῖς

cannot mean: ¹

spoken these things

but must mean

spoken to them.

Today I draw attention to a similarly glaring error in another footnote just three verses later in John.

Continue reading Is the ‘Passion Translation’ actually a translation? (part 2)

Notes:

The subject ‘I’ appears earlier in the sentence. ↩

Is the ‘Passion Translation’ actually a translation at all?

I spent most of March this year investigating Brian Simmons’ claims to be translating from Aramaic in certain verses of the holy scriptures. I reluctantly came to the conclusion that he did not know the language and was in fact making use of existing English translations from the Aramaic Peshitta. I did my best to discuss the matter with Brian personally before going public with my conclusions, here and here. The only response I had from him was on Facebook, where he referred me to an English translation, and made no reference to the Syriac text, which I had included in the question I put to him about his supposed translation of Galatians 3.1.

It dawned on me gradually, as I was working on the Aramaic text of various verses, and examining Brian’s translator footnotes, that he might not know Greek or Hebrew either. There are many mistakes which I do not think that somebody with even elementary competence in these biblical languages could make. In this post, I share one of these and invite responses.

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Psalm 89 in Brian Simmons’ ‘Passion Translation’: making interpretive decisions for the reader

Psalm 89.27 (28 in the Hebrew bible) reads:

אַף־אָ֭נִי בְּכֹ֣ור אֶתְּנֵ֑הוּ עֶ֝לְיֹ֗ון לְמַלְכֵי־אָֽרֶץ׃

Here are a few translations into English:

Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. [KJV]

I also will make him [my] first-born, The highest of the kings of the earth. ASV

And I will make him the first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth. RSV

“I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. NASB

And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. NIV

Also I will make him my firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. NKJV

I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. NRSV

And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. ESV

The differences between the translations are fairly minor. The NIV has ‘appoint’ rather than ‘make’. Several have ‘my first-born’ rather than ‘the first-born’, but all of these except the NIV mark ‘my’ with italics or square brackets to show that it is not in the original text. The KJV has ‘higher than’ the kings of the earth, rather than the ‘highest of’ the kings of the earth.

In Brian Simmons’ book ‘The Psalms: Poetry on Fire’, however, this verse has been changed into something very different:

I am setting him apart, favoring him as my firstborn son. I will make him like unto me, the most high king in all the earth!

According to Simmons, God seems to describe Himself as ‘the most high king in all the earth’, and say that He will make someone (‘him’) like Himself, particularly in this aspect of being the highest king in the earth. But who is this someone, in the original, and in Simmons’ version?

Continue reading Psalm 89 in Brian Simmons’ ‘Passion Translation’: making interpretive decisions for the reader