What does the Word "Literal" actually Mean?

[@soraidypalacios8906]

You are so great and i appreciate your support and help

[@nuccirossi]

Thank you Dr. Mounce!!

[@bismillahrabbani9006]

Oh my God! I feel the same way about the word, "literally". Everyone is saying it now days and I refuse to use it for that reasons.

[@johnclhugyugihjbvgbkj9729]

Opps, typos sorry

[@RennsportRacer]

My pet peeve is the incorrect usage of the word literal. I hear many young people say something like “it was a literal book store” or “it was a literal nightmare.” That is not the same thing as saying “it was literally a book store.” An inanimate object cannot be literal.

[@richstrobel]

On my way to the airport in Orlando before Thanksgiving I heard a woman say they had been literally stuck in traffic. She wasn't the Mother but the Grandmother. The misuse of that word gets old.

[@upthechels626]

Keep up the videos! Love them.

[@amyself6678]

Yes a literal transation is often hard to do and ends up with weird sounding result, which is because language structures vary and some phrases also don't translate, but this has to do with languages and is not about "literal" meaning found in the defintion which is red herring/straw man argument. This is NOT A GOOD ARGUMENT ABOUT BIBLICAL TRANSLATION, it is like saying, "See you idiots don't understand this 1 definition of literal, so therefore impliedly without real debate agree to letting translators do whatever they want and we gotta trust they are being unbiased". Shockingly, I think people WOULD AND COULD accept a bad-sounding bible if it was explained this is the truest translation of the inspired Gospel writers' Greek words - - why are we not trying this with people who so-called want to follow the Bible, are we that doubtful of the words or of people - - scholars should push this and work with people not run away screaming out of aesthetics ??? Some would say if those gospel writers were spiritually guided so their words shine and seem right and holy to early Christians then you must be literal not just tell our modern less holy and often corrupt translaters to go ahead and guess and then never tell people this.

[@jazzmonk5670]

👍👍

[@larrykreeger7464]

Are you saying that they shouldn't call a translating philosophy literal but that they should call it formal equivalents.

[@bettertvreceptionwithfoilf7100]

In the King James Bible, Matrix has replaced womb. There are mufflers, tires, and hoods in the Bible. Jesus is wearing a girdle around his paps. Strong men are able to produce breast milk. Unicorn has always simply meant rhinoceros or oxen, though both are different animals. Paul robbed other churches according to 1st Corinthians 11:8 Proverbs 26:10 now states that God rewards the fool and the transgressor. Does God really reward fools and transgressors? 1st Corinthians 11:4 is instructing to follow another Jesus and another teaching. So if someone comes along teaching another Jesus, according to this passage you would do well to follow them. James 1:25 no longer talks about being a doer of the word. Now you need to be a doer of the work. Frying pan isn't in the Bible but Fryingpan is, in the 1611. I guess I'm 1611, frying pans were so popular they made it into a compound word? Why would mortgaged be in the Bible? How come suburbs is there? Stuff? Stuff is there many times. The crippled man at the pool was now told by Jesus to pick up his couch, not his bed. Couch. I've been observing these changes since 2015. Problem is, I can't get anyone else to talk to me about it.

[@johnclhugyugihjbvgbkj9729]

Literally, like, legit, as if, etc. Ok, I know you don't mean the crutch word. Just Jacob's fun, good vi.

[@kentschmidt2328]

Sorry, but there are literal/word-for-word formal equivalents of many common words. What bothers me, Dr. Mounce, is the arrogant tone of your video. Please check your pride at the door, for we all know where it leads. I do have a copy of one of your Greek textbooks, and I appreciate your dedication to teaching. I don't think I would take a class from you, though, if the attitude exposed here is used in your classroom.

[@mikemoore1537]

Excellent...thank you!

[@gilmai]

You're making a lot of hay of this one word! You are right of course that no translation is word for word. And you are right that word for word does not always communicate meaning more accurately. But like it or not, the word "literal" has become a term of art in the field of translation, short hand for "formal equivalent." While no translation is exactly word for word, some are more or less word for word and "literal" is a handy way of denoting this. Your crusade against the word "literal" is really a crusade against a translation philosophy that prefers form to meaning. Banning "literal" or changing the way it is used won't change that underlying preference. You are just going to have to keep doing the hard work of educating people on the realities of translation and making a case for meaning based translation. There is no easy fix here.