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The KJV of this verse inserts the word "again" after saying Jesus was raised. Why would they say Jesus was raised again?

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Soldarnal
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D. Berry
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3 Answers3

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The language of the KJV here is simply a function of English usage in the sixteenth century - and "again" is not represented in the Greek text, (See Interlinear): "raise again" is a "unit", and you need to take the verb and preposition together to mean "resurrection", as in the Oxford English Dictionary entry:

OED

Note that this is already the language of the 1560 Geneva Bible, well before the KJV appeared:

Geneva Bible

What it does not mean is that he was "raised once, and then raised again", i.e., a second time. Note that more recent English versions do not use this kind of language, but speak simply of "raising" (in the more literal renditions) for the Greek ἠγέρθη [ἐγείρω].

elika kohen
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Dɑvïd
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  • David : I suggested an edit, that "again" isn't in the Greek. I hope I understood you correctly. – elika kohen Apr 19 '17 at 16:14
  • Also worth noting is that the New King James translation has corrected this as well and now reads that Jesus "was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." – P. TJ Apr 19 '17 at 16:27
  • @elikakohen That seems worthwhile - thanks! – Dɑvïd Apr 19 '17 at 18:46
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    @P.TJ Personally, I wouldn't call it "corrected" so much as "updated": there is nothing wrong with KJV (or Geneva Bible) translation -- that's just not current usage. (And another reason why using KJV for "normal" reading is a risky thing these days!) – Dɑvïd Apr 19 '17 at 18:48
  • "Sixteenth century" > seventeenth century. – fdb Apr 19 '17 at 20:30
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    @fdb That was actually intentional -- the language I had in mind is sixteenth century (note date of Geneva Bible); the KJV is seventeenth century, and inherited that language. Perhaps that's confusing though. – Dɑvïd Apr 19 '17 at 21:13
  • David, that's a fair point. Although I wouldn't agree there's "nothing wrong" with the KJV. It has issues as all translations do, but was certainly the best translation at the time and for several hundred years. And I do agree this is more of an update than a correction. – P. TJ Apr 21 '17 at 16:02
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As David has pointed out, “raise again” is a fixed phrase in the language of the Bible translations. We could add that here in Rom 4:25 “raised again” is semantically identical with the Latin Vulgate, which has “resurrexit”, that is: re- (again) + surgo (stand up).

fdb
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1

Interesting comments, and somewhat confusing ... thought perhaps, that there might be a source text variation? There isn't, neither in the Alexandrian or Byzantine source texts (I checked on this, using both the GNTSBL and the RP2005). So then, the topic word, here, is the verb "ἠγέρθη" (#1453, V-API-3S)

ὃς παρεδόθη διὰ τὰ παραπτώματα ἡμῶν, καὶ ἠγέρθη διὰ τὴν δικαίωσιν ἡμῶν.

There is no "again" present in this verse, not even the preposition "ana" (#0303), which can sometimes be employed to provide such a thought; that is, when it's not serving it's more normal reading of "up" ...

0303 GK0324 ana ... up/ each/ again/ away/ back/ prefix re- PREP

And the only reason I mention this preposition is that one of the above replies stated that ...

"raise again" is a "unit", and you need to take the verb and preposition together to mean "resurrection"

But what this has to do (or not do) with what is actually present in this Greek verse is hard to figure out?

So, here's a very literal reading of the Greek in this verse, along with a word by word rendering, following the original Greek syntax (word order) ... Someone, please, point out where, specifically, the thought of "again" is justified?

4:25 which [One], through the beside-fallings of~ours, He was besides-given, and through the righteousness of~ours, He was roused.

which [One] {3739 R-NSM} He was beside-given {3860 V-API-3S} through {1223 PREP} to~the [things] {3588 T-APN} to~beside-fallings {3900 N-APN} of~ours/ of~us {1473 P-1GP} and {2532 CONJ} He was roused {1453 V-API-3S} through {1223 PREP} to~the [one] {3588 T-ASF} to~a~righteousness {1347 N-ASF} of~ours/ of~us {1473 P-1GP}

robin
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