Biblical Illiteracy and Bible Babel
13th May 2012
“If you are tired of your mother’s old Bible, which printed the words of Jesus in red, you can choose a more trendy Green Bible, with all the eco-sensitive passages printed in green ink. If you are a feisty woman unfazed by possibly misdirected allusions, then maybe you would like the Woman Thou Art Loosed edition of the NKJB (New King James Bible). If you should be a high-end of the TV-channel charismatic, there are ‘prophecy Bibles’ coded in several colors to justify your eschatology of choice.”
And that’s before we get to the super-trendy editions like the Common English Bible, which renders Psalm 122:1 (“I was glad when they said unto me/Let us go to the Lord’s house”) as “Let’s go to the Lord’s house.” This is not just dumb; as Dr. Jeffrey points out, is also “verges on a grotesque secularism at the level of ‘Let’s go to Joe’s place – he has the biggest TV.’” And lest you think Jeffrey exaggerates, please note that the CEB renders “Son of Man” as “the Human One.” Yuck.
Muslims famously insist that people who read the Koran must read it in Arabic, and they seem to be on to something there. I feel that anybody who wants to start talking about ‘what the Bible says’ ought to learn Greek first — it’s not that hard, certainly not as hard as Mandarin, which is pretty fashionable these days — but that’s me.
May 14th, 2012 at 07:39
We might toss Hebrew and Aramaic into the mix of languages necessary to learn, also.
I’m reminded of a (probably apocryphal) story of a women who objected to the school foreign lanugage requirement for her child. She reportedly said, “The Bible is written in English, and if it’s good enough for God, it’s good enough for my child.”
One can only stare in horrified wonder.
May 14th, 2012 at 12:50
Nope. Greek gives you all you need.