{"id":1683,"date":"2016-03-17T11:13:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T16:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewaywesee.com\/religiondetoxnetwork\/?page_id=1683"},"modified":"2023-12-14T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T20:44:13","slug":"land-and-earth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thewaywesee.com\/religiondetoxnetwork\/mystery\/symbols-signs-types-copies-shadows-and-patterns\/land-and-earth","title":{"rendered":"Land, Earth and the Promised Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANY WORDS WITH ONE MEANING<\/strong>
\nThe concept of “land” is one of the most common themes in the Bible. In the King James version, the Hebrew word “erets<\/a>,” which is translated as “land” 1543 times and as “earth” 712<\/span><\/span> times in the Old Testament. This ranks highly in usage compared to the Hebrew word “elohiym<\/a>” which\u00a0is translated as “God” 2346 times in the Old Testament. We learn from this comparison that it is very important to understand what God means when he uses the words “land” and “earth.”<\/p>\n

Looking at the definition of erets<\/a> we see that it can be translated in a wide variety of ways in different versions of the Bible. Even within in the King James version alone we find different translations from one context to another. It is beyond the scope of this page to discover how erets is translated in other version of the Bible. It is possible, however, to get an idea of how erets is translated by making comparisons within the book of Genesis where we find the number of times erets is translated different ways in four different versions of the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Bible Version<\/strong><\/td>\nHow erets is translated<\/strong>\u00a0in the Old Testament
\n<\/strong>(Note: it does not appear in the New Testament which is written in Greek)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Land\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nEarth<\/strong><\/td>\nCountry<\/strong><\/td>\nGround<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
King James Version (KJV)<\/td>\n153<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a09<\/a>7<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a016<\/a><\/td>\n\u00a024<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New International version (NIV)<\/td>\n121<\/a><\/td>\n77<\/a><\/td>\n23<\/a><\/td>\n43<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Revised Standard Version (RSV)<\/td>\n157<\/a><\/td>\n91<\/a><\/td>\n15<\/a><\/td>\n34<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New American Standard Bible (NASB)<\/td>\n164<\/a><\/td>\n88<\/a><\/td>\n14<\/a><\/td>\n32<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

AUTHORS’ NOTE: We chose to use the book of Genesis for this comparison because it is the book that has the highest incidence of\u00a0 erets. The book with the next highest incidence is Jeremiah. A click on this Jeremiah link <\/a>goes to a page with all scriptures that include “land” in the King James\u00a0Version. Investigation of this page reveals the option for readers to conduct searches in all other books of the Bible by clicking on the “Book” drop down arrow. \u00a0The search can also be changed to include other Bible versions by clicking on “Translation” drop down arrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we learn from this table is that it is far more common to translate erets as “land” than earth, country or ground in these four versions of the Bible. These differences are worth noting because our cultural associations for these four words varies from word to word. That will not seem terribly important until we remember that all these definitions are used to translate one word (i.e. erets). \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The cultural associations individual readers have with land, earth, country and ground can have significant influence on how Bible verses are interpreted — even to the point of gross misinterpretation because the Bible only uses human words that we do understand to symbolically to represent spiritual truths that we do not understand. <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

God chose erets as the word Old Testament writers would use in communicating his message to his people for a reason. It is consistent with the common Biblical pattern where he uses agricultural and physical concepts to communicate spiritual concepts.<\/p>\n

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Symbols, Signs, Types, Copies and Shadows <\/a>and all of its subordinate pages for discussion of the most common physical concepts that God uses to symbolically represent spiritual truths. It is not an understatement to say that understanding these symbols is absolutely necessary to understanding the Bible.<\/p>\n

If it was important to God to use the word erets, it is important to readers to understand what God meant by that word. Gaining understanding of what God means is complicated, and confused by the fact that different Bible translators used personal judgment, and personal biases, in choosing how to translate the word erets.\u00a0 This is important because the biases of the Bible translators can greatly influence how Bible passages are interpreted by readers. So, best we can, we want to get to the real meaning of what God intended.<\/p>\n

The translation process is further complicated by the fact that the word erets has many different meanings in Hebrew<\/a>. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to consider the scriptural context in which erets is used to understand which particular meaning God has\u00a0in mind in each particular scripture.<\/p>\n

The other confusing part of translating scripture is the fact that all words have definite associations for readers in their own culture. Thus readers who do not elect to check out the definitions of a word in Hebrew of Greek will default to their own cultural definitions when interpreting scripture. This can be a big mistake when the Hebrew and Greek definitions include variations that are not found in the reader’s own culture. When one of those subtle variations is the meaning that God intends in a particular scripture does not exist in the reader’s native culture, chances of misinterpretation are very high. It is because these cultural variations exist with respect to the word erets and land that we are making this effort to instruct readers about avoiding such mistakes.<\/p>\n

<\/a>COMMENTARY ON BIBLE MISINTERPRETATION: The reason there are so many different religions is because theologians who made\/make decisions about what words should be used to translate from the original Hebrew and Greek had their own personal ideas about how the original scriptures should be translated into their native language. In addition to their cultural associations with words, they also had theological ideas that influenced their choice of words. It can be said, therefore, that their personal choices had the effect of influencing how each Bible student understands the Bible. The result of this dynamic is that the Bible is not understood correctly by anyone.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When we look at the thousands of Hebrew and Greek words that are translated into other languages by Bible writers with their own cultural perspectives and theological biases, it is easy to understand how different religions reach different doctrinal conclusions even though they are all reading accepted versions of the Bible. It could be said, therefore, that there is not one Bible but many Bibles. And it is impossible to say which Bible is the correct one just like it is impossible to say which religion is the correct one.<\/p>\n

There are several reasons why this problem exists:<\/p>\n