Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Translation (and still "Re: I Corinthians 7:1") Message-ID: Date: 10 Nov 89 07:34:37 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Services Lines: 29 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) writes: > >For the record, I not only freely, but also thankfully, admit that I >have very few, if any, earthly qualifications that would give >credibility to the positions I hold. I ask you, though, where the Bible >teaches that great earthly knowledge is the key to its understanding. 1 I shall endeavor not to become abusive or uncivil in this reply. God give me strength. Mr. Mielke, if no earthly knowledge is necessary for you to understand just what God wants you understand when you read the Bible, then why do you need a translation at all? I should think that you could simply read the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and let the Spirit make sense of it for you. Once you deny that you (your own frail human self) are doing *any* of the interpretive work, there is no *reason* to have a Bible at all! I am not intending to be sarcastic; this is the actual (absurd) consequence of the argument you present. I cannot understand how anyone, given of God the miraculous (literally!) tool that is the human intellect, and its unprecedented and miraculous ability to actually ALTER THE FUTURE by FREE ACTS OF WILL, could sit smugly by and say "My intellect is irrelevant to my understanding of God's will". Please accept these words in the spirit of love in which they are intended. David M. Tate