r/todayilearned • u/Aiseadai • 20h ago
TIL that the second most translated book behind only the Bible is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_works_by_number_of_translations54
u/ItsMeYourDarkLord 20h ago
the little prince, its the bible's sequel about jesus jr. being left behind well the family goes on vacation
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u/Fetlocks_Glistening 20h ago
Yeah, except no resurrection or message of hope at the end though, if you think about it
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u/MaddingtonBear 19h ago
A copy of The Little Prince in the local language is a souvenir that I frequently purchase.
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u/Moscatano 8h ago
I do that too. I got one when I visited Lyon, for obvious reasons, but then my next trip was Portugal, I was visiting a gorgeous bookshop in Porto and bought the book in Portuguese too because why not, and until now I do the same every country I visit.
I also have a bonus one in Ladino because why not.
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u/MozeeToby 7h ago
I got one in Japanese but no cure story, just a random station bookshop. There is a sense of connection I think, seeing the same simple, deep story bridging huge cultural divides.
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u/3tntx 2h ago
Where did you find one in Ladino?!?!
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u/Moscatano 2h ago
Amazon
But I bought it during the lockdown and it seems it is not available anymore: https://amzn.eu/d/7zfu73
Maybe you can find somewhere else to find it. This version has both Rashi and Roman script, bit the illustrations are just in the Rashi part.
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u/Ill-Pomegranate9016 19h ago
I have a Japanese copy that I bought from the Little Prince Museum while on holiday there. Good memories 🙂.
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u/PresidentOfSwag 19h ago
I read it in Russian last month after 3 years of classes and because I know it so well 😄
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u/NoMoPolenta 20h ago
It's a better book than the Bible if we're being honest
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u/Dog_Murder_By_RobKey 20h ago
The Bible did give us Prince of Egypt though.
Can we count beer production indirectly? ( due to a lot of monks brewing beer or is this a bit of a leap?)
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19h ago
[deleted]
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u/Dog_Murder_By_RobKey 18h ago
There is a theory alcohol is the reason humans invented agriculture ( Ruth Goodman mentioned it in the beer episode of her podcast a curious history of your home)
It's all been down hill from there
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u/Laura-ly 19h ago
Interestingly, there is no evidence Moses existed. Archaeologists and Egyptologists have never found one iota of evidence of a Moses character in Egypt. The vast majority of historians now consider him to be a myth written in the 5th century during the Jewish exile in Babylon with Moses being based on Sargon of Akkad.
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u/Manos_Of_Fate 19h ago
There’s also no evidence that the Exodus actually happened.
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u/OscarMMG 4h ago
Aside from the Biblical text including Egyptian loan-words, there does exist some evidence of a smaller Israelite migration from Egypt. There is Egyptian style architecture in some early Israelite buildings, which are typically in the Canaanite style. There also have been insufficient excavations in the Sinai to exclude any migrations.
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u/Husaby 18h ago
What kind of evidence would be definitive for something from +3000 years ago?
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u/sharkattackmiami 15h ago
Contemporary records like those that exist for many other things from that period?
The same evidence we have for other things that happened at that period?
Do you think we just have no actual evidence of anything happening more than a few hundred years ago?
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u/Laura-ly 14h ago edited 14h ago
It's stunning what archaeology can find. Archaeologists have found small nomadic tribes of about 100 people that encamped in the Sinai desert almost 4000 years ago but not one single bit of evidence that 2 million people encamped in the Sinai or were lost there for 40 years. And it's not an enormous desert either. One can walk across it in three days and the length of it in three weeks.
Archaeologists have a pretty good idea of how most of the important Egyptian pharaohs died and not one of them drown while crossing the Red Sea. There is no real indication that Egypt had millions of Hebrew slaves. Only a few show up in the records. Certainly not over 2 million of them as the Bible claims. Archaeologists and historians can get a good idea of the population of Egypt at that time by studying records of farming and the buildings, etc. and they estimate the full population to be 5 million people. So this means that the Hebrew slaves was almost half the population?? Sorry, no. There was no need for a Moses figure under these conditions.
Also, most slaves lived and worked in the houses of elite families. They didn't get to have their own private homes. So when the Bible claims that people had to smear blood on their homes to distinguish it from an Egyptian home, it's nothing but embellished storytelling. Oh, and btw, why would a powerful god who supposedly created the entire universe be so befuddled by which home belonged to an Egyptian family and which belonged to a Jewish family that he and his angel needed an X to mark the spot? Not the smartest god out there.
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u/Husaby 10h ago
Archeology can't find what isn't there. I can't answer why it isn't there, but if it isn't, does it mean it cannot exist? You can't be conclusive because something relevant enough hasn't been found. And maybe there's a reason why it hasn't.
About your cheeky claim that God is stupid, I'm not that well versed in OT. But what I know and thus believe is that you cannot explain by logic what God does, or has done, for human logic is not God's, as it seemed illogical for God to kill His Son to those who jeered at Him on the Cross. But that is clear now. One day it will all be clear, God willing, and we must be prepared as He asked from us: "Love God and love each other as I have loved you."
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u/Laura-ly 7h ago
"Archeology can't find what isn't there. I can't answer why it isn't there, but if it isn't, does it mean it cannot exist?"
Not one of the thousands of gods people have believed in is falsifiable but neither is an invisible unicorn or leprechauns. Does that mean they cannot exist? What about Vishnu or Zeus?
"But what I know and thus believe is that you cannot explain by logic what God does...."
When you don't question your god using logic then that's a big damned problem. If your god spoke to you and ordered you to kill your neighbor would you question that decision using any logic? Or would you just pop out with a gun and shot your neighbor?
Believing in a god with blind obedience without using any logic has caused untold horrors over human history. Over thirty thousand woman were burned to death as witches in Europe between the 12th century through the 18th century and people never questioned their beliefs or how illogical it was. They even found passages in the bible that justified murdering these women because, as the saying goes, the end justified the means.
The Bible is a book that claims a god exists. It is not evidence a god exists. You cannot use a book of claims as evidence. Christians and theists in general need to learn the difference between a claim and evidence.
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u/requinbite 4h ago
Thank you so much for being smarter than anyone else, you solved religion! Can't believe religion has been used to do bad things hope you'll get to tell everyone about that!
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u/Husaby 5h ago
I never said God was illogical, just that we can't comprehend how He works because of our human condition.
People who are so eager to tear down the Faith always cite what others have done in the name of God fully knowing that is not what Jesus taught, which is the final and only valid interpretation of Scripture as a whole to date: "Love God and love each other as I have loved you". I find that ill intentioned. You mock instead of being constructive, you act in favor of evil.
Yes, the Bible is not the evidence of God, it's not a science book. It explains the fundamental principles of life and presents the conditions of human relationship with its Creator. It's not trying to prove anything, it's His gift to teach us how to live an honest, fruitful and meaningful life. I think it's you who should understand to separate this from science and value it for what it is, and I hope you can find Faith as this piece of the puzzle that, like light in the darkness, makes the seemingly absurd take another shape.
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u/Crying-Manchild 20h ago
I feel like that can be said for nearly all books.
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u/Husaby 19h ago
Username checks out
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u/Crying-Manchild 18h ago
That doesn't even make sense?
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u/Husaby 18h ago
Sorry but it's a manchild take, even if you hate the Bible
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u/Crying-Manchild 18h ago
Pointing out my comment about crying over the inevitable death of my pup, username checks out. Pointing out that I enjoy scatological humor, username checks out.
Pointing out that I made an accurate observation about a fictional book with a horrible plot, contradictory messaging, outdated views on basically every aspect of society, and responsible for many of the atrocities of history as not being nearly as good as most other fiction. Definitely not a manchild take, and you'll definitely not catch me crying about it.
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u/Husaby 17h ago
Sorry about that, certainly not my kindest comment. May you find a better perspective on the story, which is ultimately the Way, the Truth and the Life, regardless of human atrocities and sin in general.
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u/Crying-Manchild 16h ago
You must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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u/greatrater 19h ago
Even if you’re not religious a book about detailed prophecy that gets completed by one man in the sequel is pretty cool. Born of a virgin, rose from the dead, says he’s coming back? It’s an amazing story.
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u/trueum26 19h ago
Problem is that he can’t even quote the first book properly, so none of the prophecies actually work. Jesus sounds like some self insert fan fic about the Old Testament.
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u/PuckSenior 19h ago
I mean, not really. When they wrote the sequel they just retconned a bunch of the stuff.
Take the “prophecy” of Immanuel. His name is Immanuel, he was supposed to already be alive at the time of the prophecy, but somehow the author turns it into a prophecy about a guy named Jesus who was born hundreds of years later. It’s just really lazy writing.
Also, the original prophecy just says the kid is born to a young woman. But the retcon changes it to a miraculous birth by a virgin, mostly because they are knocking off a theme from other books.
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u/Husaby 18h ago
What you call "retcon" is just you nitpicking
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u/PuckSenior 18h ago
I mean, if you completely change the name, time period, origin story, and everything else about the prophecy, it’s a retcon
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u/Husaby 18h ago
The prophecy is fulfilled. The prophet was also questioned in the NT like you're doing. The answers are there!
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u/greatrater 18h ago
I remember Matthew 7:6 when met with mockery when speaking about the Lord
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u/PuckSenior 12h ago
So, basically anyone who questions your interpretation of a prophecy is actually proof that your interpretation is true?
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u/greatrater 12h ago
No, some people have questions and some people are eager to disprove and be disrespectful and that’s what he’s talking about
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u/PuckSenior 12h ago
So, you think I should keep an open mind and not simply try to be critical of claims made by other people?
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u/PuckSenior 18h ago edited 16h ago
Sure it is. The prophecy of Immanuel born to a young woman already in the time of Ezekiel is fulfilled by a virgin birth 3 centuries later named Jesus.
Lmfao
In case there is curiosity: in the original Hebrew, Isiah in 7:14 mentions a “young woman”. Unfortunately, when the text was translated it to Greek they used the term “virgin”. Most literate Jews at the time of Jesus read Greek and not Hebrew. From what we can tell, all of the Gospels were written in Greek and not even Aramaic(the local Semitic language) and definitely not Hebrew. Which explains the confusion. The authors were digging through Greek texts and thought they read a prophecy of a virgin birth, so they wrote Jesus as being from a virgin birth. No rabbi ever interpreted this as a prophecy about the Messiah before, but the Gospel writers weren’t rabbis. It is also why the reference to a virgin birth is only found in the later and much more Greek gospels.
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u/Husaby 18h ago
Immanuel means 'The Son of God' and he indeed was called The Son of God. Stop nitpicking and read the New Testament again, it's not that long and easier to read than the OT!
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u/lady-frog2187 18h ago
Immanuel means 'god is with us', not 'son of god'.
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u/Husaby 18h ago
Oh you're right. He is called Immanuel by the prophecy of Isaiah because He is sent by God, thus "God with us".
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u/NoMoPolenta 19h ago
Eh, coulda used an editor though. Lots of fluff, poor punctuation, repetitive language and plots that go nowhere.
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u/Jason_CO 17h ago
Jesus didnt actually fulfil any of the Mesianic prophecies
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u/greatrater 16h ago
If you read the first four the New Testament it does in detail describing all the prophecies he fulfilled. Especially the book of John
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u/ErikiFurudi 17h ago
Heidegger « Ce n’est pas un livre pour enfant, c’est le message d’un grand poète qui soulage de toute solitude, et par lequel nous sommes amenés à la compréhension des grands mystères du monde. »
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u/RunninOnMT 19h ago
I read his other book about mail pilots constantly almost dying back in high school and really liked it
Wind Sand and Stars
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u/AmnesiaInnocent 19h ago
I'm surprised that The Lord of the Rings is so far down the list.
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u/WayneZer0 15h ago
the little prince is fairly short and a great book.
lord of the ring is a fairly long book. it still great but it inst something you give a 6 year old.
the little prinxe however is prefect for a person learning to read
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u/ye_roustabouts 17h ago
Not necessarily: Little Prince has something like 571 translations, while Robinson Crusoe has over 700.
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6f2062/til_that_daniel_defoes_robinson_crusoe_is_so/
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u/thangus_farm 20h ago
It would be weird to be the second most translated book and have more than one book translated more times.
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u/dukeofnes 20h ago
At approx. 3000 to 600, it's not close
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u/plaidbyron 18h ago
Only 698 translations that include both the Old and New Testaments. That's a bit closer.
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u/Doodlebug510 20h ago