The Tortoise Speaks

I finally got around tonight to posting a comment in Rocco Palmo's Whispers in the Loggia blog. I created my blog here (over three months ago!) specifically to post there. I tend to procrastinate.

Not that I am so vain as to think anyone will want to wade through my mutterings, but I plan to collect the arguments I post elsewhere here, and if anyone ever does find a nugget of useful information in what I have written, please feel free to use it, with or without attribution.

Here is what I wrote earlier tonight:

George, with respect, if "for all" were the better translation, wouldn't you expect some translators of the New Testament to render Jesus' words that way? I invite you to look up Matthew 26:28 and Mark 14:24 in as many English translations as you like. Our Lord is consistently recorded as having said that He would (or He does) shed His blood "for many".

Richard, while Latin lacks a definite article, Greek has one, and it does not appear in Matthew 26:28 or Mark 14:24. If you don't mind using a Protestant web site and a Protestant version of the Bible, you can compare the Greek and English side by side here:

Matthew 26:28
http://www.sacrednamebible.com/kjvstrongs/B40C026.htm#V28

Mark 14:24
http://www.sacrednamebible.com/kjvstrongs/B41C014.htm#V24

In contrast, here is a verse where the underlying Greek really does have the phrase "the many":

Romans 5:19
http://www.sacrednamebible.com/kjvstrongs/B45C005.htm#V19

There is very little justification for rendering "pro multis" in Latin and "περί πολλων" in Greek as "for all" or even "for the many". They simply mean "for many".