John 8:44
| 87 | The Irony ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ. The word "αὐτοῦ" (autoû) is a masculine form in ancient Greek. It is the genitive singular form of the pronoun "αὐτός" (autós), which means "he," "himself," or "it." This form indicates possession or association with a masculine noun or pronoun. It is modified in this case by ψεύστης "liar" which is a masculine noun, and not neuter. "A liar" is not an "it". Himself being the liar, he is not the father of "it" but of "himself", the liar. The great irony here is that this text has apparently always been represented falsely to the world as "father of lies". A few translations tried to be honest:
The only woman to have translated the Bible into English, Julia E. Smith, as it happens, gave the most accurate, honest translation there is: "for he is a liar, and the father of him." (Smith's Literal Translation, 1876) Smith's translation was perhaps the most honest of all translations ever done. But the multitude never read or studied her translation or other literal translations. Julia's translation was not read or studied by many due to it being written by a woman in the 1850s, and not published until 21 years after she finished it. Although her "strictly literal rendering" still misses "the Whole", to her credit, she attempted to give the most honest renderings, notably with the distinguishing of the Hebrew incomplete and complete: "And the heavens and the earth shall be completed, and all their army. And God will complete in the seventh day his work which he made, and he will rest in the seventh day from all his works which God formed to make." (Genesis 11:1-2 RBT)
So not having much opportunity to see the literal, accurate words, what did the multitude study, memorize, and believe? In the last few centuries it was the King James "Authorized" Version:
In the last couple of generations:
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