The Petra Zone

The second Bridge in Kenaniah is musically brilliant.

What a power album....war!!!!!

It is a great song and also a great CD. I feel John was really starting to show off his chops. These songs had more of an edge then anything Petra have ever done up to this point.

Totally! I heard this album when it first came out... it's got to be the best album for its time it fits so well. It's one of those albums were you can listen to every song without skipping.

One of the interesting points is that Kenaniah was a real man and Chief of the Levites. He was one of the best musicians of his time... and Petra is one of the best Christian Bands of our time... Interesting point: He was a levite during King David time. King David was a real warrior... And the Kenaniah song is in the This Means War! Album...

SCJ-7 wrote:Interesting point: He was a levite during King David time. King David was a real warrior... And the Kenaniah song is in the This Means War! Album...

I wonder if Bob realizes that.

One wierd thing is in the Bible Kenaniah is spelled Chenaniah

executioner wrote:One wierd thing is in the Bible Kenaniah is spelled Chenaniah

I think that depends on your particular translation. In the NIV, it is spelled "Kenaniah". To my knowledge, neither Bob nor any of the guys in Petra have ever been KJV only.

Strong's gives the pronunciation of this word in the Hebrew as "Kĕnanyah", so I think "Kenaniah" is a perfectly good way to spell it.

BTW, the name means "whom YHWH defends", or "YHWH establishes".

Jonathan wrote:I wonder if Bob realizes that.

I would be rather surprised if he did not.

Daniel wrote:Totally! I heard this album when it first came out... it's got to be the best album for its time it fits so well. It's one of those albums were you can listen to every song without skipping.

Me too. I bought it on cassette. It was sooooo cool. Even the case, and the artwork was awesome.

I ordered the T-shirt. I wish I could still wear it.

TMW! cover art is by far my favorite out of all the Petra albums.


BTW Not all NIV translations have it spelled with the "K" I have a Student Bible I got as a 13Th birthday gift that is NIV and it is spelled with the "Ch". The KJV does have it as "Ch" also.
I admit the NIV and others are alot easier of a read over the KJV, but the KJV adds so much more color to the stories then any of the other translations.

I'm quite partial to the KJV - in my experience most of the modern translations don't just modernize the english, they seem to dumb it down just a bit - I miss the grandeur and flow of the KJV. I do prefer the KJV/NKJV as far as source documents go. And of course, we all know that the KJV is the Bible that Paul used.

1 Chronicles 15:22 (King James Version 1611 Edition):

"And Chenaniah chiefe of the Leuites was for song: he instructed about the song, because he was skilfull".



1 Chronicles 15:22 (New International Version - The New Student Bible 1992):

"Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing: that was his responsibility because he was skilfull at it."


My humble opinion: It's possible.. that Bob Hartman used the NIV Version because it was more simple to understand by the young people... Of course, the only one who really know why Kenaniah was used instead of Chenaniah is Bob...

By the way, Kenaniah is one of the best song of the album.

The KJV is probably one of the most flawed translations of the Bible. I'll stick to my ESV.

SCJ-7 wrote:1 Chronicles 15:22 (King James Version 1611 Edition):
It's possible.. that Bob Hartman used the NIV Version because it was more simple to understand by the young people... Of course, the only one who really know why Kenaniah was used instead of Chenaniah is Bob...

Possible, sure. Although Bob did use the KJV in at least some of his MPTY devotionals, and several of the band members would quote from KJV from time to time.

The KJV is probably one of the most flawed translations of the Bible. I'll stick to my ESV.

Wow. That's certainly an interesting opinion. I've heard good things about the ESV (though I have noticed a strong tilt towards a certain theology by most folks I know using it, and by some of the translators), but I've rarely heard even proponents of modern versions call KJV 'most flawed'.

separateunion wrote:The KJV is probably one of the most flawed translations of the Bible. I'll stick to my ESV.

The KJV is the beautiful one of all translations. All others are just too contempary and at times seems to lose the true meaning to what the author is saying. I do read other translations sometimes to get it simplifed I guess you could say, but I always end up back with my KJV for its richness.

executioner wrote:

separateunion wrote:The KJV is probably one of the most flawed translations of the Bible. I'll stick to my ESV.

The KJV is the beautiful one of all translations. All others are just too contempary and at times seems to lose the true meaning to what the author is saying. I do read other translations sometimes to get it simplifed I guess you could say, but I always end up back with my KJV for its richness.

KJV is based on the Textus Receptus, which is not the most accurate Greek / Hebrew manuscript of the Bible. Why KJV feels like it's very rich is because the translators left all the matters of interpretation open. It's a literal translation of Hebrew/Greek into English, which creates quite unnatural English. Nowadays it might feel rich and deep but that could be caused by being raised with KJV.

The KJV never shows you the true meaning, because it leaves everything open to interpretation. That's because the Hebrew/Greek idioms that have been literally translated don't have a fixed meaning in English. So they created idioms in English which still don't make sense in ordinary English. E.g. holy of holies is a literal rendition of a Hebrew expression meaning simply 'most holy'. Saying 'holy of holies' instead of 'most holy' doesn't make a translation richer or deeper, it just shows that the translators don't work up to modern translation standards.

Anyway, back to TMW: I recently communicated with the guy who directed the artwork for TMW. He said the picture of the man was based on an old engraving of a man who was praying in the middle of a city. Unfortunately he didn't have access to this original engraving anymore and couldn't tell me where to find it. He has a site with more of his artwork. I can't remember the name of the site, but you might be able to find it with a Google search.

Hey everybody, if you want to debate the merits of the various Bible translations, there's a whole thread for that. Let's do it over there. Here's the thread:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3309

My humble opinion: It's possible.. that Bob Hartman used the NIV Version because it was more simple to understand by the young people... Of course, the only one who really know why Kenaniah was used instead of Chenaniah is Bob...

My guess is that he didn't want people reading the title of the song and pronouncing the "Ch" the way it is pronounced in "Church" or "Chair", and then hearing it pronounced with a "K" sound. That would have been confusing.

"Chenaniah" was merely a transliteration of the original Hebrew chosen by the KJV translators based on the English of their day. To transliterate that same Hebrew into modern English with a spelling that makes more sense in today's language seems perfectly reasonable to me. I say use the "K".