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Imagine a world 500 years from now.  Petrol has long since run out, but the folklore memory of it still lingers. 

Parents tell their children of a distant past when this substance was abundant, when one could put petrol in a car and it would run for miles. 

Other parents tell their children of a time when one could put 'The Petrol' in the car and it would run for miles. 

  1. What is the difference between 'petrol' and 'The Petrol'? 
    Why the definite article 'the'?
    Why the upper case 'P'?
  2. What if we also caught the second group of parents going back through old literature and, everywhere that 'petrol' was mentioned, having it changed to 'the Petrol'?

That takes us to the present day; and some modern day translations of the Bible.

Fact:     The expression 'holy spirit' occurs 88 times in the New Testament. 

Fact:     46 of those times it occurs without the article 'the' in the original Greek.

               For a good listing of these instances, click here

Fact:    Some English translations of the Greek New Testament, sponsored by Trinitarian denominations, insert a 'the' in every instance even where it did not exist in the original.

bulletWhy have these English translations inserted the word 'the' ?  (See question 2 above)