(c) The word (krisis).
It also denotes judgment, i.e., the process of judging; and in forty-one
passages of the New Testament the translators so rendered it. But in
Matt, xxiii. 33; Mark in. 29; and John v. 29, they deliberately
substituted the word "damnation" for "judgment." With what object?
Plainly, to add emphasis to their preconceived idea of an endless hell.
But does this commend itself as being a fair and consistent way of
dealing with Scripture?
Why,--except that it was too utterly foolish,--not have rendered the
following passages as they did the three just instanced?
"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye ... pass over
damnation ([Greek: krisis]) and the love of God" (Luke xi. 42).
"As I hear, I judge, and My damnation ([Greek: krisis]) is just" (John
v. 30).
"So opened He not His mouth; in His humiliation His damnation ([Greek:
krisis])_ was taken away" (Acts viii. 32, 33).
Seeing that the Greek word is the same in every one of these passages,
is it not very wrong to give it an improper and grossly exaggerated
significance in three texts, while translating it correctly in forty-one
other instances?
Again, it is suggestive that the revisers of the New Testament, in Matt,
xxiii. 33 and John v. 29, have flung away the word "damnation," and in
its place put "judgment" as the proper rendering of [Greek: krisis]. If
the translators of the Authorized Version had done this, one of the
supports of an ancient error would have been knocked down.
(d) The word (krinein).
The word denotes--to _judge_; and eighty-one times in the New Testament
the translators so rendered it. And yet in regard to the same Greek word
which occurs in 2 Thess. ii. 12, they made the translation run:--"That
they all might be _damned_ who believed not the truth."
But why not have been consistent? Why not have rendered 1 Cor. vi. 2, in
this way; since in both passages the verb [Greek: krinein] is the
same,--"Do ye not know that the saints shall damn the world? And if the
world shall be damned by you, are ye unworthy to damn the
smallest matters?"