Exterior View Of The Church Of The Resurrection Of Christ

Exterior view of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ

Late 1880s

Why we trying to glorify and place virtue on an act that explicitly a failure of trust and lack of faith in God

We’re not. I recommend reading about the issues and dissent against the Christian faith during the time of St. Irenaeus in the 2nd century to get an idea of what his writings were a response to. He was not saying that Eve was the height of virtue, he was responding to the Romans who accused the holy scriptures of falsehood; accusations of Adam having demonic tendencies to defy God; and accusations of God having created Eve imperfectly, saying that she was created without proper brain function with malicious intent on the Creator’s part.

The quote that I posted was only a part of a bigger dispute. This is not man vs woman.

Yes, I am specifically referring to the Greek word «μενουνγε» (“menounge”) being translated to “rather” when the appropriate—with the evolution of the English language considered—translation of «μενουνγε» is “verily”; as its purpose is to amplify the preceding statement, not negate it as the modern “rather” would.

In the cases you listed of the word “rather” being used in the KJV such as 1 Corinthians 14:1, Luke 12:31, 2 Corinthians 3:8, the source Greek word that became “rather” in the KJV is not «μενουνγε» but «πλην» (“plin”) and «μαλλον» (“mallon”) which respectively mean “however” or “except” and “rather” or “instead”, in which case it was properly translated in the KJV.

The examples I put forth in my original post were specifically for the Greek source word «μενουνγε».

Mistranslation by the KJV, Luke 11:28

27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman called out from the crowd and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”

King James Version

28 But Jesus said, “Yes, rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Eastern Orthodox Version

28 But Jesus said, “Yes, and more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

The Greek word menounge (μενοῦνγε), translated above in the text of verse 28 as “yea, more than that,” but rendered inaccurately in the KJV as "yea, rather," is the same word which occurs in Phil. 3:8, where the KJV gives Yea, doubtless, and in Rom. 10:18, where the KJV gives Yes, verily.

The force of menounge is that it corrects the previous statement, not by negating it, but by amplifying it.

Philippians 3:8 “Yes, without a doubt, I consider all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things. I consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ.”

Romans 10:18 “But I say, did they not hear? Yes, most certainly: Their sound went out into all the earth, Their words to the ends of the world.”

Evangelicals and opponents of traditional Christianity often frame this statement of Christ as proof that His Mother was not holy or deserving recognition, that she was merely a vessel with little importance, and this perspective directly results from a mistranslation of Christ’s words.

Indeed, blessed is she who contained the Uncontainable: Christ our God.

Understand that Luke’s Gospel was originally written in Greek, so perhaps we ought to study the original language that the scriptures were written in to have a better understanding of Christ’s life-giving message.

Smashing of the Church at Easter Night by Ilya Glazunov

Serbia, 16th century

Why Eve Was More Courageous Than Adam

Why did the serpent not attack the man, rather than the woman? You say he went after her because she was the weaker of the two.

On the contrary. In the transgression of the commandment, she showed herself to be the stronger... For she alone stood up to the serpent. She ate from the tree, but with resistance and dissent and after being dealt with perfidiously.

But Adam partook of the fruit given by the woman, without even beginning to make a fight, without a word of contradiction - a perfect demonstration of consummate weakness and a cowardly soul. The woman, moreover, can be excused; she wrestled with a demon and was thrown. But Adam will not be able to find an excuse... he had personally received the commandment from God.

☦︎ St. Irenaeus, 2nd Century