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Translating John 2:15
Here is the Greek, and how various translations have rendered it in English. The issue here is this: did Jesus hit the people or only the animals? Does it change our view of Jesus being a pacifist?

RSV:
And making a whip of cords,
he drove them all,
with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple;
and he poured out the coins of the money-changers
and overturned their tables.

KJV:
And when he had made a scourge of small cords,
he drove them all out of the temple,
and the sheep, and the oxen;
and poured out the changer's money,
and overthrew the tables;

NJB:
Making a whip out of cord,
he drove them all out of the Temple,
sheep and cattle as well,
scattered the money changer's coins,
knocked their tables over...

TEV:
So he made a whip from cords
and drove all the animals out of the Temple,
both the sheep and the cattle;
he overturned the tables of the money-changers
and scattered their coins;

REBrown:
So he made a [kind of] whip out of cords
and drove the whole pack of them out of the temple area
with their sheep and oxen,
and he knocked over the money-changer's tables,
spilling their coins.


First posted 11/12/00; © 2000 John P. Nordin