Lunatic or epileptic?
Lunatic or Epileptic?
Matthew 17:14-15 in the King James Bible we read: "And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for HE IS A LUNATICK, and sore vexed..."
This man's son was possessed of a devil, which caused the lad's mental illness. Jesus then casts out the devil and the boy is cured in that very hour. The word correctly translated as LUNATICK is the Greek word from which we get the word "moon" or "luna". Thus in English we have the lunar cycle. Lunatick means literally "moon-struck", and has to do with mental illness or madness. It is not the physical affliction of epilepsy.
Bible versions that correctly translate this word as Lunatick are the Vulgate in 425 A.D, Wycliffe 1395, Coverdale 1535, Bishop's Bible 1568, Geneva Bible 1599, Wesley's translation 1755, Webster's 1833, the Douay-Rheims, Rotherham's Emphasized bible 1902, Darby, Young's, the KJV 21, Third Millenium Bible, and Green's Modern KJV.
Also agreeing with the correct King James Bible reading of “lunatic” are the Spanish Sagradas Escrituras 1569, the Spanish Reina Valera 1909, 1960 and 1995 - “lunático”; the Italian Diodati of 1649 and the 1927 Riveduta - “lunatico”; the French Martin 1744, the Louis Segond 1910 and the French Ostervald of 1996 - "lunatique". Luther’s German bible of 1545 and the 1905 Elberfelder both have “mondsuchtig” or “moonstruck”.
The NASB is interesting in that from 1960 to 1973 it translated this word as "for he is AN EPILEPTIC", with a footnote telling us that the word literally means moonstruck. But then in 1977 and again in the 1995 Update, the NASB now reads "he is a LUNATIC".
Versions like the NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ESV tell us he was “an EPILEPTIC”, while the NIV says: “he has seizures”. Big Hint - Epilepsy is not caused by devils but lunacy can be. Even the 2002 paraphrase called The Message got closer to the truth than the NKJV; it says: “he goes out of his mind. The King James Bible is always right.
Will Kinney
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