Bible Study Dragon or I

[Gendou Ikari]

I'm a little bit confused about this translation difference:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea (KJV)

And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. (NIV)

They both mean completly different things, so which translation is right.

 

[Imagican]

What is the difference that you see in 'sea shore' 'beach' 'sand' etc...? Is not the sand of the sea in which you can stand upon, the same as a beach or sea shore?

Don't get me wrong. I firmly adhere to the belief that many other translations 'take away from' the original. Oft times the translations are not only there to clarify, but to change the meaning of scripture completly. There are those that are so unaware that they will insist that all these 'new' translations do is remove the 'thee's' and 'thou's' but this is NOT the case.

 

[cubedbee]

Some manuscripts have the Greek word for "He" in this verse, other manuscripts have the word for "I". Doesn't change the meaning of the verse though.

If you go with "I", like the KJV, then I refers to John and this describes what he's saying, consistent with the rest of the chapter.

If you go with "He", then it clearly refers to the dragon which is talked upon in both the preceding verse (12:17 where he's going to make war against the remnant of the woman's seed) and the subsequent verse (13:2 The dragon gives his power to the beast that just rose out of the sea)

So it comes down to whether 1) John stood on a beach while he saw a vision of the dragon giving his power to the beast OR 2) The dragon in John's vision was standing on the beach while it gave his power to the beast

I struggle to see any theological implications in the answer to which is "correct"

 

[Gendou Ikari]

It may not make much difference to most Christians but to me it has some impact. Why? Because I believe that the Beast is me, it is you. It is our carnal nature or our evil nature.

(A) If it is I than the sand could represent spiritual weakness. Like building your house upon the sand.

(B) If the Dragon is standing upon the sand then I have to rethink the whole thing.