Thread:Eddiefunny/@comment-32769624-20190919120048/@comment-5175866-20191003135155

I think the thing to emphasize with the list though is only the things that are important enough/unique enough. It might be good idea to do a list and then have separate articles for major things, but it wouldn't really be helpful to have a list of plants mentioned once in passing or with no real relevance to the biblical text. You may use your discretion on this- i'd say just focus on what matters more than being comprehensive.

I use multiple translations. I use ESV and NIV for reading. I am also taking an introductory Greek course in college right now and I imagine I will be studying original languages (whether Greek or Hebrew) for years to come. For wiki content, a more literal translation will be better than a more paraphrased translation since there will be more precision. Oftentimes the problem is we do not know for certain if a word will mean "rhino" or "unicorn", hence different translations will have different things. The Hebrew word for rhino or unicorn could literally mean "one-horned animal" (just using this as an example, not saying it actually does) so its somewhat ambiguous as to if that is a rhino, a unicorn or something else. Leviticus 11 is probably the most prominent example. One thing I am learning in Greek and that many times there are multiple different ways to translate something that is ok.

Unfortunately, the only thing I can suggest there is to consult commentaries and some original language resources. I'd recommend Bible Hub which has many free commentaries, interlinear and lexicons. You do not need to know any original languages to use these resources and they can help explain some of the nuances for you. Even before I started taking Greek, I have used some of those resources to get more precise information beyond what a translation can provide. Fortunately, the cases where plant/animal translation is ambigious, it is usually a smaller detail and not something that will cause theological error.

Focus on the more important stuff- don't stress about the little details or including every little animal and plant. The animals and plants that matter the most should have more certainty and better resources compared to the animal mentioned once in a levitical list.

In Christ, Superdadsuper, Sr. Content and Community Manager (Bible Wiki) 13:51, October 3, 2019 (UTC)