Two Birds One Stone: Translation of "Perfect"
If you’re familiar with my writing you are aware that I served on a few different translation teams for different English Bibles. Sadly, there is never enough time or budget to cover everything! We’ve talked about Genesis 1 and how mistranslated that the first portion of Scripture can be, but today I want to look at the word “tamim” in Hebrew.
Stronges #8549 if you wish to look it up is the Hebrew word for “perfect”, tamim. However, a word in another language from another time cannot be defined by our means and our current understanding of a word. It must be defined by its usage, meaning, purpose, context, and culture. Tamim has never meant “without flaw” but rather it is better understood as “whole”, “complete”, “wholehearted” “sincere, innocent”, or “balanced”.
The first text we will look at is Genesi 6:9 which says,
These are the generations of Noah; Noah was just and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (KJV)
Today’s readers, maybe even yourself, thought that Noah was perfect in the eyes of the Lord (even if it was short-lived). This isn’t even remotely accurate and this translation causes issues in coherency with the rest of Scripture. You could say, perfect isn’t a good translation for perfect. Knowing that ALL MEN are sinful, fallen, fall short of His glory, and deeds are like rags…how does the proper meaning behind tamim sound to you?
Genesis 6:9 (Elder Translation)
These are the records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, faithful among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God.
The idea is that Noah was walking with God in the entirety of his heart. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but FULLY walking with God in heart, mind, and soul.
What gives credence to this translation other than the Hebrew understanding of perfect?
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found grace [favor, acceptance] in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8)
God wanted to be rid of humanity and needed a just man to lead the course. God wanted Noah, a man of justified morality, to build the ark and reestablish human society on a Godly base. The biblical account testifies that he performed his responsibility as well as any man could. This compounds in Genesis 7:1, in which the Lord says to Noah, ". . . I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation." As God says in Isaiah 66:2, "But on this one will I look [have favor]; on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." Noah was this type of man.
The Second Bird
If you’re like me your mind jumps over to the New Testament and Jesus’ words requiring us to be perfect which for many years has been taught as a sort of unreachable standard by Christ to show that we need Christ. As good of a sentiment as that is, it’s incorrect to draw that from the original manuscripts. The New Testament concept of perfection, found in the Greek word téleios (Strong's #5056), is similar to tamîm. Matthew 5:48: "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." His desire is that a Christian be completely committed to living God's way of life, maturing in it until he can perform the duties God entrusts to him both now and in His Kingdom, you know be sanctified. In tandem with this prospect of spiritual growth toward completion, téleios is well translated as "mature" in I Corinthians 2:6, and in Hebrews 5:14, it is rendered as "of full age." Thus, showing that a better understanding is that Christ desires us to be complete in Him through our faith (fully sanctified).
Matthew 5:48 Elder Translation
”Therefore, you shall be complete in your faith, just as your Father in heaven is complete.”
Jesus preludes this verse by saying that we should love our enemies entirely as we love ourselves. What does he say the most COMPLETE form of love is? To lay down your life for a friend. What is the SUM of all commandments? To love the Lord your God with your entire self (complete self).
This should not be seen as an attack on the idea that God wants man to be perfect because I think the whole of Scripture teaches us that it was Adam’s shortcoming that put into motion the need for a truly perfect Savior. Rather, this should show that our translations of Scripture are still in the process of becoming better and better. We should desire to fully understand the original intent behind the words and refrain from imposing our definitions to translated words.