"Miserable" Is Not a False Friend in the KJV.

In one of his “false friend” videos, Mark Ward attempts to prove that modern versions do a better job than the KJV of translating I Corinthians 15:19. The KJV translates this verse as:
 
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
 
The NKJV translates it as:
 
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
 
Ward claims that pitiable is a better word choice here because miserable has supposedly changed over the years to mean something different today than it meant when the KJV was translated in 1611. Unfortunately for Ward, his attempts to prove this claim failed miserably (pun intended). Every single piece of evidence he presented actually argues against him.

Strike One
 
Ward began by looking up the Greek word ἐλεεινός (eleeinos) in the BDAG lexicon and noting that “the most respected New Testament Greek lexicon gives miserable as a possible translation of this word.” A swing and a miss. Ward’s own favorite lexicon says that the KJV is correct. In fact, the very bottom of Ward’s screen reveals something rather interesting about the BDAG entry for this word.

The BDAG lexicon doesn’t just say that miserable is an acceptable translation for the Greek root word eleeinos. It also adds a note about the specific form of this word which was used in I Corinthians 15:19. That passage uses the word ἐλεεινότεροι (eleeinoteroi), and the lexicon notes that this form of the word should be translated as “most miserable” just as we find it in the KJV.
 
Strike Two
 
When his favorite lexicon failed to confirm his claim, Ward moved on to a different argument by looking up miserable and pitiable in “a contemporary dictionary.” Ward likes to use the American Heritage Dictionary for this step in his process even though it is nowhere near the most commonly used contemporary dictionary. That honor goes to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which so vastly outranks the American Heritage Dictionary in popularity that the two don’t even appear on the same charts. But let’s set that aside for now and consider the screen shot Ward shared from his American Heritage Dictionary.

Notice that there are five definitions listed for this word and none of them are marked as archaic or obsolete. Ward quoted the first definition without even mentioning the others and concluded that this definition doesn’t fit the meaning of the Greek word eleeinos. Ward then moved on to the American Heritage Dictionary definition for pitiable and identified what he views as the key difference between the modern uses of these two words. “Pitiable . . . focuses not on how I feel—this is key; get this—but on how others regard me.” According to Mark Ward, the important difference between the words miserable and pitiable is that the former focuses on how the subject feels about himself while the latter is focused on how others feel about the subject. But how does that fit with the other four definitions of miserable according to the American Heritage Dictionary? It doesn’t. Ward just made that part up in a desperate attempt to avoid yet another swing and miss.
 
Strike Three
 
Having convinced himself that “there is a difference in contemporary English between the two words miserable and pitiable,” Ward proceeded to his third line of reasoning by taking his viewers to his holy grail of dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). In that vaunted tome of knowledge, Ward found that the very first definition of miserable is a perfect fit for the Greek word eleeinos that was used in I Corinthians 15:19.

Ward excitedly exclaimed that miserable “could mean in 1611, ‘living or existing in a state of external distress or misery; that is in a wretched condition.’” He even pointed out that this definition differs from his made-up modern definition because it’s not focused on how the subject feels about himself. It’s focused on a state of being, on the reality of the subject’s wretched condition “regardless of how you feel about it.” But Ward claims that miserable no longer has that definition in our modern culture. Or, at least, that’s what he tried to claim—just before he added the reluctant caveat of: “I have to acknowledge that this sense has been available up through modern times.” Ward had to admit this because the OED says that the first definition of miserable is still in use today. According to the OED, this word has not changed its meaning at all. It still means the same thing today that it meant when it first appeared in English literature all the way back in 1422.
 
One Last Chance
 
This brings Ward to three strikes, but let’s give him an extra swing of the bat to see if he can at least get on base. So far, we’ve focused on Ward’s attempts to prove that miserable is the wrong word to use in I Corinthians 15:19. Maybe he would do better if he tried to prove that pitiable is the right word. Ward tried to do just that at the end of his video. He claimed that “contemporary translations go with pitiable because . . . it focuses on that state of external distress or misery, the wretched condition, rather than on the feeling of misery.” Ward got a whole lot closer to hitting the ball with that swing than he did with any of his previous attempts, but he still missed. Remember how Ward explained the difference between miserable and pitiable? He said that miserable “focuses . . . on how I feel,” and he said that pitiable “focuses . . . on how others regard me.” Ward even stressed that “this is key.” He claimed that the most important difference was who was doing the feeling. Now, compare that with his claim that modern translations use pitiable because it’s focused on a state of being rather than a feeling. Yep. Another swing, and another miss. Strike four, and he’s out.
 
The Clincher
 
I hope you’ll excuse me enjoying a little humor at Ward’s expense. I’m sure he’s doing his best to find evidence to support his view of the KJV, but the simple fact of the matter is that he is way out of his league. Ward talks a big game, but when it comes down to it, he’s just not ready to put his money where his mouth is. He thinks that he’s ready to play in the big leagues just “because I have the OED and access to it.” He sounds like a kid who receives a new glove for Christmas and then brags to his friends that he’s ready to play in the World Series.
 
Throughout the entire video, Ward repeatedly emphasized his claim that the Greek word eleeinoteroi used in I Corinthians 15:19 has nothing to do with the emotions of the subject of the sentence. First, he claimed that this word is focused on the emotions of outside observers and then he claimed that it is focused on the actual state of the subject regardless of anyone’s emotions. In reality, however, both claims are wrong.
 
The word eleeinoteroi does encompass the wretched state of being that we would be in if there were no resurrection from the dead, but it goes much further than that. A similar superlative form of this word was used by Homer in his work Odysseus. Homer used the word ἐλεεινοτάτῳ (eleeinotato) to describe the weeping of Odysseus while the bard Demodokos sang about the fall of Troy. Homer elaborated further and illustrated the weeping of Odysseus as:
 
“He wept as a woman weeps when she throws herself on the body of her husband who has fallen before his own city and people, fighting bravely in defense of his home and children. She screams aloud and flings her arms about him as he lies gasping for breath and dying, but her enemies beat her from behind about the back and shoulders, and carry her off into slavery, to a life of labor and sorrow, and the beauty fades from her cheeks.”
 
Homer’s vivid depiction provides us with a full understanding of the word eleeinos. It doesn’t just refer to a wretched state of being, and it doesn’t just refer to a condition that is pitied by others. A proper definition of this word encompasses both of those perspectives, but its primary focus is on the feeling of misery experienced by the subject being described. Ward opened and closed his video criticizing a preacher who interpreted I Corinthians 15:19 as a depiction of men who feel miserable, but that is exactly what the word eleeinoteroi means in that verse.

Click here to read about more words that are not "false friends" in the KJV.