Myth #3:         "OK, maybe the Hebrew terms in the Old Testament translated "repent" had noting to do with turning from sin, but the Greek words used in the New Testament for "repentance" are unquestionably related to turning from sin!"

Fact:               In the Greek New Testament, the word most frequently translated "repent" is some form of the Greek word "metanoia."  The Greek word "metamalomai" is also translated "repent" within the New Testament.

When the Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek, they frequently translated the Hebrew words "nacham" and "shuv" with the Greek words "matanoia" and "metamalomai."  If these Greek terms inherently "carry with them the concept of turning from one's sins", then either God began turning from His sins when the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, or the Jewish scholars who translated the Septuagint were imbeciles.  Since neither of these is likely, the assertion that these Greek terms "carried with them the concept of turning from one's sins" is not only wrong, it is manifestly impossible.  Sadly, this sophistry is nevertheless proclaimed with zeal and sincerity from pulpits and even chairs of theology across the globe.

As noted above, Plutarch, the Greek historian, wrote of two criminals who "spared a child, and then afterwards, repented and sought to slay it."  If the Greek word for repentance "carries with it a turning from sin," than the Greek historian Plutarch did not understand his own language!