Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: smith_c@ncsatl.uucp (Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Translation/Interpretation (Was: I Corinthians 7:1) Message-ID: Date: 30 Oct 89 03:56:22 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: National Computer Systems, Atlanta, GA Lines: 19 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Regarding the discussion on translation of Scripture and how it's often difficult to call something the Word of God that simply doesn't translate well if at all, I have some questions. In terms of interpretation, first of all, there are different kinds of Scriptural meanings: Literal (the meaning of the human author), deeper meanings intended by God but clearly not intended by the human author, and deeper meanings that some "things" possess (like persons, places, objects, events) that God intended to foreshadow certain things (like manna in the desert foreshadowing the Eucharist). I'm just curious if future "revelations" on the intrinsic meaning of certain passages (which currently elude us) will be prophetic in nature in some profound way. *sigh* Perhaps I'm being overly mystical here. It just doesn't make sense to me that God would want certain passages of the Word of God to be completely unintelligible. Does there have to be a reason for everything? Perhaps its very unintelligibleness is a "typical sense" problem foreshadowing or echoing or mirror-reflecting the mystery of God. What do you think? -- gatech!ncsatl!smith_c GO AGAINST THE FLOW!