The doctrinal statement for my church and my denomination state that the word of God is divinely inspired and that the original manuscripts as they were originally writen by the original authors (called autographs) are infallible in all matters that they address. It's interesting that they have to stipulate that the autographs are inspired and infallible. Why the distinction?
Translation.
I'm not the person to give a history of how the scripture has been preserved down through the ages, but it's really an amazing thing to read and understand. From meticulous monks huddled over parchment counting letters and syllables, with seemingly ridiculous rules about ends of lines and ends of pages, and all of that... it's a remarkable thing. It gives me a lot of confidence in reading the Bible that I'm reading what was intended to be written.
But it's not the same. Words don't translate well. The well-worn biblical example of the English word love can be translated by several different greek words with different shades and implications... all of which make a difference. It doesn't render the scripture unreadable or incomprehensible, it simply removes some of the shades of the original language.
That's why language is so important. No bones about it... I'm a language freak. I think language is this amazing gift from God. But like any other gift, it's a stewardship. We have to use it wisely. Another side benefit of my love for language is that I have a very real understanding that language is imperfect. Words aren't enough to convey all the meaning. That's why so much gets all jacked up in e- mails. Language requires a life to give it context. So in effect, we can't be separated from our words, we're all language. We're all speaking, all the time, even when we're not saying anything.
But do the words we say and the lives we lead speak clearly, or do we get lost in translation? This is never more important than when it comes to issues of faith. Matt Singleton asked the question of me, and it forced me to think about it and really take a look at it. The problem is that I grew up in a church culture, so most of the time I'm not even 100% aware of when I use the words that may not be understood.
This is just the beginning. Everything is still loose ends right now. But I want to delve into this more deeply in my brain. I also want to hear all of your thoughts on this issue. When has language (verbal and non-verbal) gotten in the way of understanding God? Think hard, reach deep, let it fly.
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About Me
- Jason Powers
- As the self-proclaimed and happy-to-meet-you Small Group zealot at River City Community Church, my hope is that this page will make you laugh, learn, grow, smile, and most of all cherish the role you’ve been given to play in the Family. I believe Small Group leadership is the most strategic role in the local Church.
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3 comments:
This reminds me of the story of the Tower of Babel. For those who may be unfamilar: man had decided to get together and build a tower so that they could climb to heaven. They got busy and after some time, the tower was very tall. God, watching this, was not pleased so he scrambled man's language so that they may not understand each other and then he scattered them across the earth.
There are those that believe in the absolute writings in the Bible and because we are such a diverse group of individuals that make up this world, we all have our own interpretation of it. There are those that believe the stories in the Bible are lessons, a sort of guide book on how to behave, to the best of our ability. There are those that believe the Bible was not written by the hand of God but rather a person or a people that, as educated as they could be back then, wrote the Bible on what they thought was their interpretation. I think the Bible is probably one of the most misunderstood of writings. And I'm going to link it with the Qua'ran, (Koran)here also because the people that follow Islam have misinterpreted that also.
Here lies the problem then. So many ideas of what a person thinks the Bible (Qua'ran) is telling us. In my lessons of in Christianity, I have always heard 'love'. God loves us. He loves us so much He sent his only beloved Son to save us. He gave us free will to choose. When I read about the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, preaching their gospel of hate I have to wonder how did they get detoured off the loving path? How could anybody hate another, the way they do the homosexual, that they preach violence, destruction, death? Who gives them this right? They are no better then those that have misinterpreted the Qua'ran and are running amuck in this world committing atrocities towards mankind. This is the word of God? I don't think so.
And then, there I go, I'm interpreting the word of God in what I think. Well, this is how I feel about it. I feel good, knowing that God loves me. It's a wonderful feeling. And this is a bad thing? NO. To go around, destroying others, that makes you feel good? I can hardly think so. I would think it makes you hateful. And THAT, is the word of the devil. he is laughing hysterically with glee that he has stolen these people to him and makes them have lost their way towards God. Love is a good thing. Hate is just evil.
God is the Kingdom. He gave us the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He tells us that for whatever we do to the least of our brothers, we are doing to God. How can this be misunderstood? But it is.
I may add more, as others post their thoughts.
In Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis book, he articulates this idea well and insists that "everyone is working off SOME type of interpretation". Even if we agree that the scriptures are infallible, we must recognize that we are not. We read these words (most of us) without any knowledge of the original language.
I would also suggest that it makes a huge difference when and where we are reading it. We are not first century Eastern Jews. We don't know that culture. And language is deeply tied into culture. They say the hardest things to understand in learning a new language are the idioms, metaphors, and colloquilisms. A big chunk of language and communicating goes along with this. (i.e. Are we literally supposed to cut off what causes us to sin?).
So there is this scriptural interpretation issue that I think gets abused a lot, but even more than that is this issue of "Christianese" language barrier.
How do people outside the church have any idea what we are talking about?
What do these words mean:
grace
salvation
worship
praise
peace (i.e. "give us a peace about this...")
bless
I find my own and christian conversation littered with these phrases that are so packed with meaning and used so frivolously.
I think this is a problem. Good post Jason, thanks for going down the path with me.
ElaineMI:
Good to hear from you again, but I want to challenge your thinking and say, how do we know God loves us unless we can trust the Bible as being accurate?
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