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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
In the last week or so, I was part of an online discussion about the Bible. As you might expect, it became—erm—heated. One person in particular dismissed faith as “junk” and called any belief in God or the supernatural “fairy tales.” Another tried to tell the rest of us what we could and couldn’t believe. As you might guess, that didn’t go over very well with some of us. The person who tried to tell the rest of us what we ought to believe also had some words about particular versions of the Bible, specifically the New International Version: “[T]he NIV is just cheap hack version of the Except nobody is trying to make anyone “forget.” The NIV—and most modern translations—removes verses and sometimes entire passages that aren’t in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts from the main text, and puts them in footnotes—or sometimes brackets [like this.] They’re still there, just relegated to a more appropriate place. In that respect, if anything the NIV is more accurate—better—than older versions. The suggestion that the missing verses are result of some sinister plot strikes me as the stuff of conspiracy theories. And since we don’t have the original manuscripts we don’t know—in fact we can’t know—for certain what they actually said. Anything scholars have available today is centuries removed from the original. Even before the earliest manuscripts were written down, the stories of faith were passed from one generation to the next as oral tradition. What were the original versions of those stories? We simply don’t know. In the well-known passage 1 Corinthians 13, which is often recited at weddings, Paul wrote, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (vs. 12, NIV). He doesn’t say that we have perfect knowledge, or that what he’s writing is a perfect revelation, even though his writings were considered “scripture” by some Christians even at the time (2 Pet. 3:16). Instead, he says, “we know in part and we prophesy in part,” (vs. 9, NIV). John wrote, “No one has ever seen God,” (John 1:18a, 1 John 4:12a NIV). Instead, he wrote, people had seen God indirectly by seeing Jesus (John 1:18), and God is revealed in us when we show love (1 John 4:18). Rev. Mike Slaughter, former pastor of Ginghamsburg Church, just north of Dayton, Ohio, wrote about “Bible idolatry.” This is his term for putting our commitment to the Bible above our commitment to God, placing the authority of scripture above the authority of the One who inspired it. The attitude of folks who “worship” a specific version of the Bible is similar. But no translation is exclusively “the Word of God.” Our focus should be on what the Bible has to say rather than how it says it. For example, the KJV and some newer translations have Jesus say, “‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’” (Matt. 4:19). Some other versions translate it as something like, “‘I will send you out to fish for people.’” (NIV). But I like the rendering of the Lexham English Bible: “‘I will make you fishers of people.’” To me, it’s an ideal compromise, keeping the original idiom while eliminating the gender specific use of the word “men.” The important thing is that we’re all supposed to be “fishers of people,” with our nets in the water and the patience and persistence of born fisher people. In the end, it matters less which Bible we read than whether we read it and apply its message to our lives. I can’t say I have “the truth” with absolute certainty but I have something that works for me. Ultimately, that’s what we have to offer, something that works for us, and we should offer it whenever we can. In the process, we just might “catch” someone for God. “Now as he was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, throwing a casting net into the sea (for they were fishermen). And he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Matt. 4:18-20 LEB.) Copyright © 2019 by David Phelps
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