Translating the Bible

God commands believers to love Him. In my opinion, being commanded to love is a nonsense. Love is an emotion that happens, not something that can be commanded. A counter to this from a Christian suggests that God doesn't command love, and that the problem occurs in translation.  Let's look at an example verse; Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" CONCLUSION Commandment is the correct word. For Matthew 22:36-40 we see the word “Commandment” is used in every major version of the Bible. Vine suggests “precept” could be used. Strong does not. This gives us 5 options: 1) Every major English version of the Bible is wrongly translated and should use the word “precept” 2) “Precept” and “Commandment” mean the same thing so it doesn’t matter which word is used 3) Vine is wrong to suggest the Greek word “entole” means “precept”. 4) We don't know which word to use because the Greek source for the gospel of Matthew is itself a translation (Jesus didn't speak Greek). 5) The whole exercise is academic. A precept to love is just as nonsensical as a commandment. In my opinion, option (3) is the right option if one believes Jesus is God which is certainly the intention of the Gospel authors. However, if one believes that Jesus is just a human, apocalyptic preacher (as per Bart Ehrman), then precept is a better word because a human being is in no position to issue divine commands. However, options (4) and (5) are also true. First of all, let’s look at how this appears in each version of the bible. Luckily we have the biblehub website which does this for us: http://biblehub.com/matthew/22-36.htm All 24 major Bible versions use the word “commandment” (although 2 use “command” which is the same thing). If we refer to Vine’s entry for Commandment  we see that under the entry for “Commandment” he makes no reference to Matthew 22:36. So in the meantime let’s go to the ancient Greek text which is the basis for the English Bibles we read today. Luckily again, the ancient Greek text is on the internet http://bibletranslation.ws/trans/mattwgrk.pdf and verse 22:36 (see page 70) looks like this… Äéäάóêáëå, ðïίá ἐíôïëὴ ìåãάëç ἐí ôῷ íόìῳ; The 3rd word - ἐíôïëὴ - is the one that appears as “commandment” in the Bible. And now back to Vine’s!  Under “Commandment” Vine states... entole (ἐíôïëὴ, 1785), akin to No. 3, above, denotes, in general, “an injunction, charge, precept, commandment.” It is the most frequent term, and is used of moral and religious precepts, e.g., Matt. 5:19… etc. Note the cross-reference to Strong’s Concordance (1785) and that tells us this… Phonetic Spelling: (en-tol-ay') Short Definition: an ordinance, injunction, command Definition: an ordinance, injunction, command, law. So, Vine suggests “precept” is appropriate, but Strong’s does not. Strong is very clear that entole means an ordinance, injunction, command, law. Vine not only suggests the word “entole” means “religious precept” he also equates it to commandment. Let’s compare the definitions of precept and commandment… Precept: A general rule intended to regulate behaviour or thought. Commandment: A divine rule, especially one of the Ten Commandments. They are different things, so it's not correct to use the words precept and commandment interchangeably.  Let’s look at the verses which follow Matthew 22:36, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. So is Jesus referring to rules from God (commandments) or general rules (precepts) intended to regulate behaviour or thought? I suggest that depends on whether one believes Jesus is God or just a human, apocalyptic preacher. Either way, Jesus also refers to "Law" which again makes commandment seem the best word.