An embarrassing but instructive experience on my LDS mission in the Switzerland Zurich Mission occurred in my early days when I wanted to cite Job 19:25-26 to an investigator to support the concept of a physical resurrection. It was one of the first times I used my German Bible (the Luther translation) in answering a question. The KJV verse is a nice fit with LDS doctrine:

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

But when I opened my German Bible and began reading it, I found it didn't say the same thing at all. It was almost the opposite!. The Luther translation says that even though my skin and flesh will be destroyed, I will see God. Nothing about seeing God in the flesh - but apparently without the flesh:

Aber ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt, und als der letzte wird er über dem Staub sich erheben.

Und ist meine Haut noch so zerschlagen und mein Fleisch dahingeschwunden, so werde ich doch Gott sehen.

Turns out the Hebrew passage is actually quite difficult to translate. One can make a case that the text means "apart from" the flesh, or even "not in" the flesh.

Several nice KJV snippets that sound LDS don't always keep their flavor in translation, and that's not always because the other translations are necessarily worse.
Continue reading at the original source →