Walking the Extra Mile

John 6:19 (HCSB = Christian Standard Bible /Holman, 2003)
After they had rowed
about three or four miles,
they saw Jesus walking on the sea.
He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid.

John 6:19 (KJV1611 Edition):
So when they had rowed
about fiue and twentie, or thirtie furlongs,
they see Iesus walking on the sea,
and drawing nigh vnto the ship: and they were afraid.

I like the nKJV which says:

At this place:

http://65.66.134.201/cgi-bin/webster/webster.exe?search_for_texts_web1828=furlong

the definition is given:

That would make, if converted to miles:
3&1/8 to 3&6/8.

As with all distances, approximations are welcome
so the meaning is exatcly the same, good enough
for government work.

Here is the Greek term according to Strong's:


G4712
στάδιον
stadion
stad'-ee-on
Or the masculine plural form, στάδιος stadios stad'-ee-os.
From the base of G2476 (as fixed);
a stade or certain measure of distance;
by implication a stadium or race course: - furlong, race.

 

Correct translation? Are you implying there is only one in English? What about "None of the above" as choice? :laugh:

 

comment deleted due to editing problems....A.F.

 

How about: ...when they had rowed about 4.625 kilometers or 5.550 kilometers,...


Robbie Robot says: "must use metric, must use metric (beep squawk squeek)"

............

Stadia (a transliteration) seems fairly obscure to me. I was more familiar with the word in another definition.


Miles and meters are ok but less literal as they are not numerically identical to the original.


The furlong is an obsolete unit but the English reader would be expected to (at least) recognize it as a unit of distance (in contrast to the stadium).


From the online Oxford English Dictionary: furlong:


"...As early as the 9th c. it was regarded as the equivalent of the Roman stadium, which was 1/8 of a Roman mile; and hence furlong has always been used as a name for the eighth part of an English mile, whether this coincided with the agricultural measure so called or not. ..."



A.F.

 

Every time I have read this I have recognized the fact we were being told they had rowed some distance from shore. The distance is not of major importance. It doesn't matter whether the boat was 100 yards off shore, 10 miles off shore or anywhere in between, the miraculous event is that Jesus walked to them on the water. If we focus our attention on the distance rather than on the miracle, we're missing the point entirely. The distance of the boat from shore certainly isn't something to debate in light of the fact that Jesus was able to overcome the physical limitations that restict us as humans.

BTW my vote was "I don't know/don't care" due to the lack of a choice more appropriate to my conviction on the matter.

 

I agree with Keith. The idea is that they had rowed a fair distance from the shore, far enough to not have been easily seen from the shore, and far enough so that the water was too deep to have been waded. No one measured the distence; it was guestimated by a fisherman whose familiarity with the lake would lend a fair amount of accuracy to his guestimate.

As Keith said, the focus should be on the fact that Jesus walked on the surface of the water.

 

So basically any Bible that has a word we don't understand is a faulty translation?

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861613958

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861714350/stadia.html


There I fixed your Bible.

Lacy

 

"Much ado about nothing"

....Shakespeare

 

You brought up "stadia." The word is not in my Bible. My point was, when we feel so free to change/retranslate the Bible when it doesn't really matter, (I can look up "furlong" in the dictionary and the word is still in use.) then what's to stop us from changing it to whatever we like when it really does matter. I just think we should not rush in where angels fear to tread.

Lacy

 

A telescope? You mean 25 or 30 telescopes!

And why would one "row" a telescope?

A.F.

 

Mountains out of mole hills...:sleep: :sleeping_2:

 

The distance that the disciples rowed in the Greek text is 25 or 30 stadia, which is between two and three quarters miles and three and a half miles. Matthew and Mark wrote that the disciples were in the middle of the lake probably meaning that they were well out into it (Matt. 14:24; Mark 6:47). Some scholars wishing to depreciate this miracle have translated the Greek preposition epi as “by” rather than “on.” However, the context and the Synoptics clearly present Jesus as walking on the water, not on the shore beside the water.

 

Well, it is a good thing Jesus showed up or they would have needed a periscope!

 

If I saw someone walking on the sea I might need a stethoscope!:wavey:

Lacy

 

Hmmm...if I saw someone walking on the sea it would probably be too late for a stethoscope to be of any use. Just go get a shovel and bury me 'cause the old ticker would have already ticked its last tock!

:wavey: