[note: my more helpful posts are not all showing up on desktop, I only see them load correctly or show up at all on a mobile device. Why?]
When an Empire approaches you and offers to translate your holy book
Tell them “no”.
The British Empire whether it’s Ancient Greece or Castilian Spain, is translating that book to erase your language, not because they love you so much and want to help you.
The constant religious persecution you faced after that, was a part of the plan. Translating your book was Step 1 to help you let go of that, and trade it in for the “National” identity, the regional linguistics.
Whoever was spewing that shit about “Jewish people didn’t speak Hebrew” was blatantly inciting us and lying to us. I am so angry at myself for believing it so quickly. I chose hatred, and I did not do my own research. I see that clearly now. I feel tricked and like I will do my due diligence to apologize and make this right.
Jewish people were definitely speaking Hebrew. And Ancient Greece Britain was like, we love you, let us translate that for you!
Then, they did the same shit that Spain will do to the Arabic language and the Quran. Mistranslate on purpose, to make the religion a bit “crazier”, in a way where no one could notice unless a scholar went over the translations.
And they did. There’s a complaint about the book that Ancient Greece Britain translated. They took the well-known word in Hebrew for “young woman” and replaced it with the word “virgin”.
This translation stuck, for the King James version of the bible. Most bibles throughout time, I guess in the U.S., fixed this translation through the Revised Standard Edition of the bible.
What they didn’t fix was the fact that the Gospel of Matthew was added by the Empire, it’s not holy scripture at all.
The reason they changed the word “young woman” to “virgin” was to be able to write and add the book of Matthew, which explains their future prophet will come from a “virgin”. It was set up, for the part of the story they were going to add.
I read the bible before but not through the lens of empire, and not with a clear understanding of how they operate. I didn't read the bible like it was strategy for someone corrupt, I read it like a story, the way they told me to. Reading it now? I'm...this is really fucking bad.
Why were the rabbis so hostile to the idea? Translating the Torah into other languages was nothing new!
They did this to Jewish people, then they would go onto doing this to Muslim people.
Then, Empires would try to get Jewish people and Muslim people to become enemies.
It's important that we know this, and never buy into this shit.
It's important we figure out genuine, sincere ways to fully support Jewish people and Muslim people.
Find the common ground.
Dragoman (ترجمان)
A dragoman (ترجمان) was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A dragoman had to have a knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and European languages.
Beware the Editio princeps
In textual and classical scholarship, the editio princeps (Latin for first edition) of a work is the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in manuscripts (which had to be copied by hand in order to circulate).
The most accurate timeline of human history will require being assessed and compiled in a thousand different languages
Any timeline I provide from here on out will not be accurate because I am only able to read in English. This adds a higher degree of likelihood that the information will be incorrect, inaccurate, or skewed — and requires even deeper analysis in order to be used as a legitimate, reliable source. Before the point of being able to have untampered film and photo as evidence, most of history relies on key witnesses. Based on behavior of what you can assess from their writing, you have to decide who among those from history, were being more honest than others.
History must be analyzed in the languages it was written in, not the languages it was translated to.