Weekly Message
Tom Seymour
January 26, 2014
Song Of Solomon: 12b Of
making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The
Word Of God
The
word “book” or “books” occurs frequently throughout the bible. These references
pertain to a number of different books, but not the one we know as the Holy
Bible. That book, actually a collection of numerous books, or scriptures, was
not yet codified and established in ancient times.
The writers of the books of the bible
never considered that their efforts would be forever contained, as a part of a
whole, in one collection, a collection that would shake the foundations of the
world and persist until the end of time.
But the bible as we know it has the
stamp of official authority in that it contains only the oldest and truest
prose, taken from the original manuscripts and translated from the original
tongues. And, of course, there were several original tongues in the bible,
prominent among them being the Greek. In order to faithfully translate the
ancient manuscripts to English, or any other language, scholars necessarily had
to be conversant in the ancient languages.
For so many years, the bible was
written in Latin, which meant that only church officials could read it, because
laymen were mostly illiterate. And so the priests were keepers of the Word of
God. In time, the bible was copied to the language of the land, English, making
God’s word available to everyone. This occurred amid much strife and turmoil.
Today, we have countless versions of
the bible, translations of the same original manuscripts. Which one a person
uses depends upon which one resonates with him or her. What’s more, the
translations just keep coming. As biblical scholars and researchers learn more,
or feel that they have learned more (there is a difference and we’ll discuss
that in another message), existing editions are revised and offered anew. It’s
hard to keep up with the plethora of new translations of holy scripture.
So do these new editions of the bible
in fact supplant older versions? And is one so much better than another as far
as faithfully imparting the Word of God? After all, every bible is translated
from the same basic sources.
The answer to this is probably, but
not necessarily. The King James version, for instance, was for many years, “the” bible. But, as the committee that
put together the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the bible says, “…the
King James (KJ) version has serious defects. By the middle of the nineteenth
century, the discovery of many biblical manuscripts more ancient than those
upon which the King James version was based made it apparent that these defects
were so many as to call for revision.”
Sorry to drop another question, but
this last bit begs the question of the KJ’s validity. Is the KJ version wrong?
No, it is not. The revisers changed some small things, but nothing in the way
of fundamental doctrine was affected. The original truths of the original
manuscripts, reflected in the various bibles offered throughout the ages,
remains unchanged.
So any authorized bible tells the
absolute and honest truth of the ancient scriptures and reflects God’s word and
actions. The only variable in this equation, then, is the reader. People, me
included, are reluctant to embrace change. We stick doggedly to our old ways.
Furthermore, some, no, many, Christian denominations parse scripture and
extract, often out of context, that which suits their needs. This results in a
list of “don’ts,” mostly things that the bible does not necessarily condemn.
Dancing comes immediately to mind. Some churches condemn it, others dance in
the spirit.
As an example of picking something out
of the bible and wrongly following it, I recently spoke with a friend
concerning the 10 commandments that the Lord gave to Moses. My friend mentioned
that he has determined to keep the commandments, including Commandment 4, which
in his KJ version, reads: “Though shall not make to the any graven image, or
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Commandment 5 continues:
“Though shall not bow down thyself to them…”
“I went through my house and took down
all my pictures,” he said. I told him that pictures or artwork was not what the
fourth commandment was directed toward. He disagreed.
However, the NRSV version makes this clearer:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. You shall not bow town to them or worship them…”
It’s
easy to see how my friend misconstrued this commandment. He took “graven” for
“engraved” and applied it to any representation of anything. That’s not what
the commandments address, however. They specifically, at least in the NRSV
version, say not to make an image of something and than worship it, as opposed
to worshiping only the one, true God, the Lord. My friend missed Commandment 5,
the commandment that resolves questions in Commandment 4, even in the KJ
version.
Different denominations do this all
the time and it only harms their witness as Christians. The bible-preacher who
isolates verses against drinking conveniently forgets other verses that tell us
drinking is okay as long as it is not done in excess. In fact, Paul tells us
not to allow people to deceive us regarding food and drink, since such
prohibitions are only to make themselves feel righteous. The Lord does not look
at people according to whether or not they eat seafood or pork barbecues or
whether or not they drink beer and wine. Jesus drank wine and appears to have
very much enjoyed it.
So here is the gist of the matter, as
I see it according to the light that God has given me. Look at scripture, no
matter what version of the bible it is contained in, according to what it
really says and not how that version says it.
Of the making of books there is no
end. But of the reading and understanding of scripture, there is only one way,
and that is the correct and true way, uninfluenced by personal feelings, dogma
or politics.
