Divers, Diverse, Diversities
Divers, Diverse, Diversities
dverz, d-vurs, d-vursi-tiz: Divers meaning various, different in kind, is now obsolete and used only as a synonym of several, i.e. more than one. The distinction between divers and diverse in the King James Version seems to be that the former is the wider term, the latter being restricted to the meaning of different in kind, while divers is also used to express difference of number. the Revised Version (British and American) retains diverse in all instances but changes divers nearly everywhere, except where it has the meaning several. Compare Mat 24:7; Luk 21:11; Heb 9:10, and others. It is hard to understand why the Revised Version (British and American) retains divers as a translation of , poiklos, in Mat 4:24 Mar 1:34, et al., because poikilos certainly cannot have the meaning several but different in kind, and the idea expressed in these passages is not that some of the people had several diseases but that different people had different kinds of diseases. The same is true in Heb 13:9 where divers does not refer to number but to various kinds of teaching. Heb 2:4 and Jam 1:2 rightly change the reading of the King James Version divers to manifold.
In other passages the Revised Version (British and American) changes divers to diverse, and Thus renders the idea of the original text different in kind. Compare Deu 25:13 f; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23. Other passages are changed the better to render the original text: Deu 22:9, two kinds of seed; Jdg 5:30, dyed; 2Ch 30:11, certain men; Mar 8:3 and Act 19:9, some. the King James Version reads. in all these passages divers. the Revised Version (British and American) changes the King James Version Heb 1:1 at sundry times and in divers manners, an expression often found in Old English, to by divers portions and in divers manners.
Diversities is found twice as translation of , diaresis, literally, distribution (1Co 12:4), but the Revised Version (British and American) changes the King James Version, 1Co 12:28, diversities to divers kinds, as translation of , gene, kinds.