This post isn't about weight loss. I'm very sick this week, my weight is up, and when I am able to get back to it, I will get back on the straight and narrow. I promise. My doctor and his nurses were impressed that I am still within 20 pounds of where I was at my Biggest Loser check-up last May.
When I am lying around doing not much of anything, my mind tends to race. One of my facebook friends (and college classmates) posted a link about how horrible the publishers of the NIV are for releasing a fourth corrected version, and about how all the modern Bible versions have caused 21st century Christianity to descend into a morass. And on many levels, my friend is correct. There are versions that are translated from faulty manuscripts (including the NIV), and there are versions that are translated with sketchy methods (also including the NIV). But staunchly defending the "Authorized Version 1611" is asking for trouble, because the logic of doing so defies logic (intentionally redundant). The AV 1611 is written in an English that in many ways, is foreign to us. The average English-speaking person would be hard-pressed to make out Psalm 23 without already knowing what it says. The AV 1611 also included the Apocrypha, a collection of books that almost no one outside of the Catholic church would even consider to be scripture, much less interpreted correctly.
Those that would argue in favor of the modern translations usually argue from the standpoint of them being more easily understood, from the standpoint of churches that use them are alive and seemingly thriving, and from their massive popularity, especially among younger people. Bibles have been made into comic books and canteen/tin-shaped devices, and every other way has been tried to make it "cool" to carry a Bible with you.
I read from the King James Version (1769, not 1611 - word spellings were standardized in 1769); I study from the King James Version; I teach and preach from the King James Version. I have reasons for doing so, because of not only how I was raised, but because of the several studies I have done on my own.
And then I run into Romans 1:20 - "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Ask any 5-year old to draw a picture of "outside" - you will probably get a pretty standard-looking landscape of a blue sky, a yellow sun, white clouds, a green tree, and green grass (unless you live in West Texas or one of those other states, which have their own unique beauty). If I can take the liberty of paraphrasing a little (OK, a LOT), I see God saying this: "If all I gave you was a starry sky at night, rolling clouds, incredible sunrises and sunsets, trees that rustle in the wind, majestic mountain peaks, and a world full of unexplained mysteries, then I've given you enough information to know Who I am, what I expect, and how much I love you." In a nutshell, that's exactly what God told Job after 39 chapters of Job's wondering, "Why:"
Even in our enlightened age, there is evidence of God in the things we are discovering. A report came out late last week that said that currently, humanity has produced 295 exabytes of information. To break it down more simply, if every bit of information we have on computers and other storage devices were all burned onto CDs, the stack of CDs would reach past the moon, or enough information for every person on the planet to have 15 personal libraries. Pretty impressive, right? Not so fast. That is only equal to approximately 1% of the amount of data in the DNA of a single human being.
Do Bible versions matter? Of course they do. But I have a sneaking suspicion that God is interested in more than who has the smartest scholars on their side to support their position. I think His questions for us will be more along the lines of, "how much did you love Me, and did you love others as you would love yourself"?
Sound familiar?
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