Question: Why does The AV7 Bible use the wording
"
those who" instead of
"he that" or "he who"?
Answer: The word sequence: "he that" is incorrect grammar.
That word sequence appears in 554 verses in the "original" 1611 to 1769
English translation and revisions of the Bible; and the word sequence "he which" occurs in 24 verses.
Many later versions of the Bible have partially corrected this error by
substituting the words: "he who" to replace "he that"
and "he which." That revision, however, corrects only half of the error.
The other half of the error is imposing the masculine pronoun "he"
which is an obsolete relic of ancient male-dominated cultures and language . . . and in most cases, it is simply not an accurate
translation because there is no underlying Greek word that requires the
masculine pronoun "he".
Consider this example in Mark 16:16 in which the correct translation is:
"Those who believe and are baptized
will be saved,
but those who do not believe
will be damned."
Common sense tells us, that when Yeshua-Jesus is quoted as speaking in this
verse (as in many other similar examples), He is not speaking only to male persons as though it were only possible for males to be saved. Rather, it is obvious that He is speaking to or about all human beings, both males and females.
In the Greek source text for Mark 16:16 and in hundreds of other instances
in which that word sequence is found, there is no underlying Greek word
that corresponds to the word "he." The Greek word that is properly
translated as the English word "he" is "autoV," and it appears
177 times in the Greek source text of the New Testament.
In the Greek text of the New Testament, the letter "o" appears 2,567 times
as a stand-alone word. In various circumstances, it might be translated as either "who," "whom," "the," "which," or "this," among other options.
Some describe the Greek word "o" as having a masculine attribute
in some applications. However, even in instances in which that
might be true, that is not a justifiable reason for imposing the
masculine pronoun "he" (as many versions still do) in Mark 16:16 and in many dozens of similar contexts.
The pervasive imposition of masculine pronouns and other masculine gender
wording throughout most versions of the Bible is, in most cases,
not literally accurate, but rather is misleading.
Without question, the Word of God is intended equally for both
females and males.
Some have suggested that the rendering of Mark 16:16 and other similar
passages might be either "All who believe ..." or "Whoever
believes ..." or "One who believes ..." or "Anyone
who believes ..." However, there are problems with each of those proposed translations.
To begin with, those proposed translations are not literally accurate
because there is no corresponding word in the Greek text for Mark 16:16 for
the words: "All", or "Whoever", or "One",
or "Anyone". The use of those words imposes an arbitrary
interpretation that is not in the source text, and can subtly
alter the meaning.
In the AV7 presentation, masculine gender is retained in every instance
where the underlying Greek text and/or the context of a phrase or sentence
requires it.
However, where that is not the case, and where the underlying Greek text does not specifically require a gender-specific word or pronoun to be used, AV7 uses
the wording: "Those who" rather than
"he that" or "he who."