Acts 20:35 Support the Weak

I show here an example of translator discretion, how various translations have supplied this subject or that for the verb in English, or in my case have chosen not to supply a subject.  This is a common occurrence when translating the Greek New Testament into English.  Mind you that there is no Greek textual variant here, so a differing source Greek text does not explain the differences among the English translations for this clause.  The Greek verb is an INFINITIVE, preceded by δεῖ (indicates an OBLIGATION or NECESSITY), and there is NO SUBJECT.

The clause in Greek, and a formal equivalent translation:
ὅτι οὕτως κοπιῶντας δεῖ ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τῶν ἀσθενούντων
how with such labor it is necessary to support the weak

Tyndale         how that so laboring ye ought to receive the weak
Genev            howe that so labouring, ye ought to support the weake
KJV                  how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak
ASV                 that so laboring ye ought to help the weak
NKJV               by laboring like this, that you must support the weak
CEV                 how you should work to help everyone who is weak
NASB              that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak
MEV                how, working like this, you must help the weak

Phillips           that by such hard work, we must help the weak
GNB                that by working hard in this way we must help the weak
NIV                  that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak
TNIV               that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak
ESV                  that by working hard in this way we must help the weak
NRSV              that by such work we must support the weak
NABRE           that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak
NET                 that by working in this way we must help the weak
GW                  that by working hard like this we should help the weak

RSV                 that by so toiling one must help the weak

HCSB               that by laboring like this, it is necessary to help the weak
CSB                  that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this
DRP                 how with such labor it is necessary to support the weak

I originally rendered it, “how with such labor one must help the weak,” but I changed my mind for two reasons.  (1), this obligation does not apply to you if you are one of those weak ones that need the support.  So it is better not to supply any of the subjects “you,” “we,” or “one.”  (2) I want to keep an English word that couples with the English infinitive, because the δεῖ applies to the next, following phrase as well, which also begins with an infinitive, “to remember.”  It is necessary both to labor, and to remember.

NLT                  how you can help those in need by working hard

Finally, the New Living Translation is an outlier; here the NLT says “you CAN help those in need.”  That is simply 180 degrees opposite of what the Greek says.  The Greek says it is an obligation or a necessity.  The NLT is this inaccurate extremely often.  I have no tolerance for the NLT at all, and I believe it is my duty from God to urge you to throw away these following translations: The Message, the NLT, the NRSV, and the NAB.

“We Praise Thee”
Pavel Grigoryevich Chesnokov – Choir
(Male Choir, Dmitri Hvorostovsky-Baritone, St.Petersburg Chamber Choir
orthodox church https://youtu.be/ntT2VemnVV8

Global Warming & Climate Change

2 Peter 3:7-13:

⁷and the present heavens and earth by the same word are reserved for fire, kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.
⁸But this one thing must not escape you, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ⁹The Lord of that promise is not loitering, as some consider loitering. Instead, he is being very patient toward us, not wanting anyone to perish, but rather all to come to repentance. ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements be dissolved by burning, and the earth and the works in it will be completely burned up.
¹¹Since all these things are being dissolved, what kind of people ought you to be, in holy ways of life, and godliness, ¹²looking forward to and cheering on the arrival of the day of God, by which it is all melted, the heavens to be dissolved by fire and the elements by burning up? ¹³And we are looking forward, according to his promise, to a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness is at home.
2 Peter 3:7-13, David Robert Palmer translation, Byzantine edition.

Please share this post about Global Warming and Climate Change.

Yahweh has a son.  But, “Far be it from Allah, that he should have a son.”
1 John 5:11,12 And this is the testimony:  God has given to us eternal life, and that life is in his Son.  Someone who has the Son of God has life.  Someone who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 2:22,23 This is antichrist, someone denying the Father and the Son.   Everyone who denies the Son, does not have the Father either.  Someone who confesses the Son, has the Father as well.

We have all heard of harmonizations in the Greek text between the gospels.  But harmonization is not limited to the gospels.  I am working on the Acts of the Apostles right now, and we have a harmonization in Acts 9:5,6 in the Latin text and the Textus Receptus,

“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”  Then, trembling and awe-struck, he said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”  And the Lord said to him,

These words are not found in the Greek manuscripts, but come from Erasmus’ first edition of 1516, which in turn came from the Vulgate and old Latin MS h, which in turn probably came from Paul’s own later recounting of this event, found in all Greek editions in Acts 22:10 and 26:14.