long-suffering toward them?”—Luke 18:2-8, Kingdom Interlinear Translation.

Furthermore, in the apostle John’s vision recorded in the book of Revelation, John saw the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work they used to have, crying out: “Until when, Sovereign Lord holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?” The answer they received shows that there is a definite time for the vengeance to be carried out, namely, when “the number [would be] filled also of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed as they also had been.”—Rev. 6:9-11.

The Scriptures reveal that this execution of vengeance begins on Babylon the Great, then proceeds to come upon the “wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies.”—Rev. 19:1, 2, 19-21.

APPOINTED EXECUTIONERS OF VENGEANCE

The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s Chief Executioner of vengeance. The apostle Paul comforts Christians with the words: “It is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you, but, to you who suffer tribulation, relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength.”—2 Thess. 1:6-9.

Christ’s apostles and other overseers in the Christian congregation

The apostles were appointed under Jesus Christ to care for the Christian congregation and to protect it from uncleanness and loss of Jehovah’s favor. In harmony with his God-given authority, the apostle Paul wrote to the congregation at Corinth, which was experiencing divisions and troubles from “false apostles”: “We are holding ourselves in readiness to inflict punishment for [literally, “to avenge”] every disobedience.”—2 Cor. 10:6, Kingdom Interlinear Translation; 11:13; 13:10.

Other older men in the congregation, though not having special apostolic powers, were appointed as judges to throw wicked persons outside, where they faced destruction from God’s execution of vengeance upon the wicked. (1 Cor. 5:1-5, 13) The Scriptures show that Jehovah first judges his own people, then those not his own. (1 Pet. 4:17) Therefore the Christian who takes up unrighteousness, as, for example, fornication, is in danger, “because Jehovah is one who exacts punishment [literally, is the “avenger”] for all these things.”—1 Thess. 4:3-6, Kingdom Interlinear Translation.

Those appointed to care for the congregation were authorized to carry out “vengeance” to the extent that they could take steps to bring about justice and to reestablish the congregation in righteousness before God, by correcting the wrong that had been done. This the governing members of the Corinthian congregation did, after Paul corrected them, so that Paul wrote in his second letter to them: “What a great earnestness it produced in you, . . . yes, righting of the wrong [literally, “avenging”]!” These men showed godly repentance after Paul’s first letter and cleared out the wicked man therein referred to, doing all they could to right matters before Jehovah. (2 Cor. 7:8-12, Kingdom Interlinear Translation) However, those men were not authorized to carry out on the wrongdoer the full penalty demanded by justice—full vengeance in putting him to death, as had been the prerogative of the judges under the Mosaic law. (Lev. 20:10; Heb. 10:28) They merely expelled such bad persons from the congregation, ‘handing them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.’ (1 Cor. 5:5) If not repentant, such would eventually receive full justice for their misdeeds in everlasting death.—Heb. 10:29, 30.

Rulers

Governmental rulers, whose duty it is to see that justice is carried out, may be the ones to execute vengeance upon evildoers, including any Christians who break the laws of the land that are in harmony with what is right and consistent with the authority allowed those rulers by God. In such case, these rulers are indirectly executing God’s vengeance, as the apostle Paul writes: “For those ruling are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the bad. . . . it is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing what is bad.”—Rom. 13:3, 4; 1 Pet. 2:13, 14; compare Genesis 9:6.

IMPERFECT MAN’S TENDENCY TO SEEK VENGEANCE

It is a tendency of fallen, imperfect men to seek vengeance upon those who do them injustice, or upon persons whom they hate. The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife is in danger of retributive vengeance from the husband, as the Proverbs say: “For the rage of an able-bodied man is jealousy, and he will not show compassion in the day of vengeance. He will have no consideration for any sort of ransom, neither will he show willingness, no matter how large you make the present.” (Prov. 6:32-35) Nonetheless, vengeance taken by a person upon his own initiative is usually carried out in uncontrolled anger, and is to no good purpose, but brings God’s anger against the avenging individual.—Jas. 1:19, 20.

Enemies of God and of his servants

Those who hate God have ‘breathed forcibly’ (as is the basic meaning of the Hebrew word) against God’s servants, seeking to wreak vengeance upon them. This is not a true bringing about of justice, but a desire or action due to their hostility toward what is right and righteous, and to get rid of those righteous ones whose words and course of action convict them of wickedness. (Ps. 8:2; 44:15, 16) In some instances God’s servants have been killed with the perverted idea that justice was being carried out. (John 16:2) In executing this claimed or supposed “vindictive justice,” they have not pleased God, however, but, rather, have stored up vengeance for themselves. Jehovah at times used the nations, such as Babylon, to bring his own vengeance on his people Israel when they broke their covenant with him. (Lev. 26:25) But those nations, on their part, acted because of hatred and malice, expressing their own vengefulness, and for this Jehovah, in turn, took vengeance upon them.—Lam. 3:60; Ezek. 25:12-17; see AVENGER OF BLOOD; CITIES OF REFUGE.

VENOM

(venʹom).

Poisonous fluid secreted by certain snakes and some other creatures. (Num. 21:4-9; Deut. 8:15; Acts 28:3-6) One Hebrew word for the venom of reptiles is hhe·mahʹ (Deut. 32:24), also used to denote “rage,” “fury” and the like. (Deut. 29:28; Ezek. 19:12) It is from a root meaning “to be hot” and may allude to the inflammation or burning sensation associated with the bite of a venomous snake. Another Hebrew word (roʼsh or rohsh) is applied to the “poison” or “venom” of cobras, “poisoned” water, grapes of “poison” and a poisonous plant.—Deut. 32:32, 33; Job 20:16; Jer. 8:14; 9:15; 23:15; Lam. 3:19; see POISONOUS PLANT.

Though some animal poisons may seem to be only for protection or killing, of interest is this statement by H. Munro Fox in “Animal Poisoners”: “In some cases we know that poisons play a role in the functioning of the body of the animal which manufactures them. In many instances this may be the real raison dʼêtre [reason for existence] of the venoms, quite apart from any protective value. The poisonous spittle of snakes, for example, has work to do in the digestion of the snake’s food.”

FIGURATIVE USE

The lying, slanderous statements of the wicked, so damaging to the victim’s reputation, are likened to the deadly venom of the serpent. (Ps. 58:3, 4) Of slanderers, it is said, “The venom of the horned viper is under their lips” (or, “behind their lips”), even as the viper’s venom gland lies behind the lip and fangs of its upper jaw. (Ps. 140:3; Rom. 3:13) The human tongue, misused in slanderous, backbiting, false teaching or similarly harmful speech, “is full of death-dealing poison.”—Jas. 3:8.

VERMILION

See COLORS.

VERSIONS

Translations of the Bible from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into other tongues. Translation work has made the Word of God available to hundreds of millions of persons unable to understand the original Biblical languages. The early versions of the Scriptures were handwritten and were therefore in the form of manuscripts. However, since the advent of the printing press many additional versions or translations have appeared and these have generally been published in great quantities. Some versions have been prepared directly from Hebrew and Greek Bible texts, whereas others are versions of earlier translations.

The Scriptures have been published, in whole or in part, in more than 1,400 languages. From the standpoint of language coverage, this means that 97 percent of the earth’s population would have access to at least some part of the Bible. An account of versions or translations of the Scriptures will be enlightening and will engender gratitude to Jehovah God for the wonderful way in which he has preserved his Word for the benefit of mankind’s millions.

ANCIENT VERSIONS OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES

Extant today are over 1,700 ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures, written in Hebrew (with the exception of a few Aramaic sections). Extant also are many manuscripts of old versions or translations of the Hebrew Scriptures in various languages. Some versions were in themselves translations of earlier versions from the Hebrew. For instance, the Hebrew Scripture portion of the Old Latin version was rendered from the Septuagint Version, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. However, some ancient versions of the pre-Christian Scriptures (the Septuagint Version, Aramaic Targums, the Syriac Peshitta Version and in the Latin Vulgate) were made directly from the Hebrew and not through the medium of a version in Greek or some other language.

Samaritan “Pentateuch”

After the deportation of inhabitants of Samaria and the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 740 B.C.E., pagans from other territories of the Assyrian Empire were settled there by Assyria. (2 Ki. 17:22-33) In time they came to be called “Samaritans.” They accepted the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures and in about the fourth century B.C.E. they produced the Samaritan Pentateuch, not really a translation of the original Hebrew Pentateuch, but a transliteration of its text into Samaritan characters, mixed with Samaritan idioms. Few of the extant manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are older than the thirteenth century C.E. Of about 6,000 differences between the Samaritan and the Hebrew texts, by far the majority are unimportant. One variation of interest appears at Exodus 12:40, where the Samaritan Pentateuch corresponds to the Septuagint.—See CHRONOLOGY, page 335.

Targums

The “Targums” were free translations or paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic. They likely assumed their present final form no earlier than about the fifth century C.E. One of the principal Targums, the “Targum of Onkelos” on the Pentateuch, is rather literal. Another, the so-called “Targum of Jonathan” for the Prophets, is less literal, being a paraphrase on the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve so-called “Minor Prophets.” Extant today are Targums on the Pentateuch, the Prophets and, of later date, the Hagiographa.

“Septuagint Version”

The Septuagint Version (often designated LXX) was used by Greek-speaking Jews and Christians in Egypt and elsewhere. Reportedly, work on it commenced in Egypt in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.E.), when, according to tradition, the Pentateuch thereof was translated into Greek by seventy-two Jewish scholars. Later, the number seventy somehow came to be used, and the version of the Pentateuch was referred to as the Septuagint, meaning “Seventy.” The other books of the Hebrew Scriptures (by various translators whose style varied from quite literal to rather free rendition) were gradually added until translation of the entire Hebrew Scriptures had finally been completed during the second century B.C.E. and perhaps by 150 B.C.E. Thereafter the entire work came to be known as the Septuagint. This version is often quoted by writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Apocryphal writings were evidently inserted in the Septuagint Version sometime after it was first completed.—See APOCRYPHA.

One of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Septuagint Version is Papyrus 957, the Rylands Papyrus iii. 458, preserved in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, England. It is of the second century B.C.E. and consists of fragments of Deuteronomy (23:24–24:3; 25:1-3; 26:12, 17-19; 28:31-33). Also of the second century B.C.E. is Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 6, consisting of the Septuagint Version of portions of Numbers and Deuteronomy. Another manuscript, of the second or first century B.C.E., is Papyrus Fouad 266 (possessed by the Société Royale de Papyrologie du Caire), containing parts of the second half of Deuteronomy according to the Septuagint Version. In various places therein the Tetragrammaton (YHWH in English) of the divine name is found in a form of Old Hebrew characters right within the Greek script.—See JEHOVAH, page 886.

The Septuagint Version has thus been preserved in numerous manuscripts, many fragmentary, others fairly complete. Notably, the Septuagint Version texts are preserved in the three famous uncial manuscripts written on vellum, the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209 and the Sinaitic Manuscript, both of the fourth century C.E., and the Alexandrine Manuscript of the fifth century C.E. The Septuagint Version as found in the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209 is almost complete; much of that in the Sinaitic Manuscript has been lost and that in the Alexandrine Manuscript is rather complete, though lacking parts of Genesis, First Samuel and Psalms.

Later Greek versions

Early in the second century (perhaps about 130 C.E.) Aquila, a Jewish proselyte of Pontus, made a new and very literal Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Except for fragments and quotations thereof by early writers, it has perished. Another Greek translation of the same century was produced by Theodotion. His was apparently a revision of the Septuagint Version or some other Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, though he considered the