Why do some Bible teachers translate apostasia as 'departure' instead of 'falling away'?
Some translate apostasia as 'the departure' because the same Greek word is rendered 'depart' eight times in the New Testament, and early English versions such as Tyndale and Geneva used 'departure.' The Amplified footnote and Greek scholar Kenneth Weiss likewise prefer 'the departure' over 'falling away.'
Les explains that the Amplified Bible expands Greek words with several English words in footnotes. For apostasia, its footnote gives 'the departure' instead of 'a falling away.' He notes that early translations—Tyndale, Geneva, and several others through the 1500s—also translated it 'the departure.' Kenneth Weiss, a respected Greek scholar at Moody Bible Institute, makes the same distinction in his book, saying 'the departure' is better because the same Greek word rendered 'falling away' in the King James is translated 'depart' eight times in the New Testament. Read in that light, the day will not come except a departure first.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
More Questions
What did Dr. Kenneth Weiss teach about apostasia?
Dr. Kenneth Weiss, a Greek scholar at Moody Bible Institute, also taught that 'apostasia' is better translated as 'the departure'.
How did early English Bibles translate apostasia?
Almost all early English translations of the Bible from the 1500s, including Tyndale and Geneva, translated 'apostasia' as 'the departure'.
How did early English translations from the 1500s translate apostasia?
Early English Bibles, beginning with Tyndale and continuing through sixteenth-century translations like the Geneva Bible, translated apostasia as 'the departure.'