Refractory |
Virgins!The most famous mistranslation in the bible is that of Isaiahs hebrew for 'young woman' (almah) into the Greek for 'virgin' (parthenos) - an easy mistake to make (think of the english words maid and maiden to see how it might have happened). This one translators slip was to be wildly inflated to give rise to the whole preposterous legend of Jesus' mother being a virgin. The only competitor to the title of champion constructive mistranslation of all time also concerns virgins. The famous promise of 72 virgins to every muslim martyr is a mistranslation of 'white raisins of crystal clarity'. Now, if only that had been more widely known, how many innocent victims of suicide missions might have been saved? |