But what if “eighth day” in English refers to a different day than it does in Hebrew?

We find something similar in Modern Hebrew/Modern English. In Modern Hebrew, erev means “evening.” Because yom rishon means “Sunday,” erev yom rishon means “Sunday evening.” Most of the other days work the same way. But even though shabat means “Saturday,” erev shabat doesn’t mean “Saturday night,” it means “Friday night.” Surely a translation from Modern Hebrew into English shouldn’t translate literally, but rather should find English that refers to the right day, no? (“Saturday night” is motza’ei shabat, “exit of the Sabbath.”)

-Joel

And just to be clear: I have met nonbelievers who consider the Bible illogical because they assume an exclusive counting, in which Friday to Sunday is not “three days.” So translating it as “two days later” is important. I just think Mack Powell of the Christian band Third Day may feel strange about this translation trend.

The Good News Bible is floundering, and it seems that the only one that got it right almost all the time is God’s Word. CEV also made a mistake in this place.

By the way, it would not be good to translate “on the third day” with “on the second day”. In most contexts, the correct translation would be two days later.
As an example take the first time “on the third day” appears in the Bible, i.e. Gen 22:4.

CEV says “three days later” – wrong!!!
God’s Word says “Two days later” – right!!
Most others keep to the tradition which is not English:
“On the third day”.

When you come to Gen 31:22, lo and behold, GW still says “two days later” – Bravo!
NET, NLT, GNB, and CEV all say “three days later”. Why the change of heart?
Why are so many getting it wrong? I guess because they honestly think that “on the third day” actually is supposed to mean “three days later.”

Gen 42:17-18 is interesting. Here GW says:
Then he put them in jail for three days. On the third day Joseph said to them,…

This is a context where “on the third day” may be used, because it refers to the third day of a given period. “On my third day in hospital” does refer to two days after I was admitted. “My third day in prison” is two days after I was committed. But, the problem is the the previous sentence which says that he put them in jail for three days. That is not very clear to me. If they were to stay in jail for three days, then in terms of English they would be released on the fourth day, but in terms of Genesis and Hebrew, they would be released on the third day.

In Lev 7:16 “the third day” can also be used, so it depends on context. For any translator “context is king”.

I say stick with “eighth day” and stop trying to over translate.

It’s a matter of accuracy of translation for English speakers. If “eighth day” communicates one day more than a week to English speakers then it is not an accurate translation. Translating accurately is not over translation.

This issue can be easily resolved by asking a large number of speakers of English, from a variety of backgrounds, including those who are not familiar with Jewish inclusive counting, what “on the 8th day” would mean to them. Would it mean one week later, or 8 days later?

We should never had to modify English to create accurate translations for English speakers. Each language is capable, on its own, of accurately translating the Bible, without having to be modified.