Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!porthos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Who do you say Christ is? (and other questions) Message-ID: Date: 15 Sep 89 09:02:42 GMT Sender: hedrick@porthos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 46 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article jeffjs@ihlpb.att.com (Jeffrey Jay Sargent) writes: (actually our moderator appended): > ... It appears >from Dave Mielke's quotation that he is using a translation based on >those late manuscripts of the Vulgate that the NIV footnote is talking >about. --clh] For the record (I probably should have said so earlier) all my quotations come from the (old) King James translation. It is a translation which I have come to trust to a very high degree, even though it contains a few small errors, and even though the English used in it is of a much older variety than is in common use today. It is the one which is the closest to being a word for word translation from the original, and we must remember that even the original text in its original languages neither was nor is easy to understand. Each verse in the Bible, in addition to giving us accurate historical information, and in addition to teaching us great moral truths, and in addition to giving us God's commandments, also gives us at least one, and often many, spiritual truths. God has insured that the phrases as they appear in the original text, say precisely what He wants them to say. Any attempt to rephrase these verses to make the meanings that the translator can see easier to understand is done at the risk of obscuring, if not entirely loosing, those meanings which God has hidden and not yet revealed to the translators. We would do far better if we placed our trust in the teaching power of The Holy Spirit, rather than in the fallable wisdom of a human translator, when it comes to the interpretation of the Scriptures and the accompanying revelation of divinely inspired truth. Any attempt to clarify the perceived meaning of a verse by changing its wording all around is done at the risk of making that verse less effective, and perhaps even causing it to teach a lie. The King James translation appears to be far less guilty of this sin than others. In John 14:26 Jesus tells us "But the Comforter, {which is} the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.". Proverbs 3:5 says "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.". Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014 856 Grenon Avenue Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 6G3