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Kierkegaard wrote to read the bible as if it were a letter from one you loved- that implies a few things; from a loved one who asked you to do something, you would do it immediately, and probably you would not get out a bunch of word studies and such to interpret what the loved one said. God knows all the "additions", word changes and such, so its present form in the form you are reading it is the form meant for you at that moment-for good or ill.
The reason one wishes to arrive at an absolute understanding, which is not possible, is that one does not want to do, or one does not want to accept what is says. The modern opposite of faith is doubt, that metaphysicalizes the whole thing and makes it all a mental problem, the real opposite of faith is sin, and this is "offense", which one is warned against over and over. This offense makes the bible point to an existence problem rather than pure mental. One is in the truth when one acts the truth in existing, as Jesus did-to deny oneself-now it is all about knowing truth as a mental exercise.
Kierkegaard wrote to read the bible as if it were a letter from one you loved- that implies a few things; from a loved one who asked you to do something, you would do it immediately, and probably you would not get out a bunch of word studies and such to interpret what the loved one said. God knows all the "additions", word changes and such, so its present form in the form you are reading it is the form meant for you at that moment-for good or ill.
The reason one wishes to arrive at an absolute understanding, which is not possible, is that one does not want to do, or one does not want to accept what is says. The modern opposite of faith is doubt, that metaphysicalizes the whole thing and makes it all a mental problem, the real opposite of faith is sin, and this is "offense", which one is warned against over and over. This offense makes the bible point to an existence problem rather than pure mental. One is in the truth when one acts the truth in existing, as Jesus did-to deny oneself-now it is all about knowing truth as a mental exercise.
God could have had the Bible written in any language He wanted to, or he could have created a brand new language!
But, He didn't. He chose to have it originally written in Hebrew/Chaldean and Greek, with some Aramaic. Since that was His choice, don't you think we should consider the words He used in those languages to determine what it is He's saying? After all, He chose those specific words to impart a specific meaning and when we don't bother to find out what those words mean, we miss a lot of what God is telling us.
Not particularly-English was not spoken then, nor modern German, etc, etc , etc. God could not put it into English. When I studied Greek many years ago, the guy said no language can be put into another: exactly, as language is developed in cultural context. Our culture is nothing like ancient Greece (and of course there were variations within cultures like today). For example, the word for boat, if I remember, is ploion; but in Greek the word was the "true" thing and the actual "boat" was the appearance of the "real" which was the word (language as ideality, now I imagine we think the boat out there in the water is the real thing and the word merely a signifier; this definitely has affect on how one thinks and views reality, let alone on the concept of god itself), or as the result of Platonic forms; I don't know about those other languages, how cultural influences, thought, etc, affect the spoken and written word there. With a good translation one doesn't miss anything-it is theological ignorance, bias, selfish desire, self worship, megalomania, etc, that one misses stuff-he who does not work does not eat-lazy minds miss the stuff. The truly important things, it seems to me, are pretty simple and straight forward; after all the ignorant and stupid must get access to this as it isn't just for Phds and such. However, nothing is given to a human mind in completeness-it takes a life time, so if it is important to you to learn all these languages you should.
Some people have to have the "gift" for translating in order for me to get the English, but even so all translations are approximate; that is why, I suppose we have so many translations, you can be sure that theologies, philosophies, and ideologies of the translators figure into word translations (phenomenology has gone through all this)-and you will do the same when it comes time to select a word (god is made in the man's image, and god will be as you want him, it is rare I think, to find someone who lets god be who he is in himself, that is why the K reference above in my previous post, to show one who "allows" god to be god-he does the words in actuality). One has to depend on god to speak through the translation one has (even if "original language", as original language doesn't get you the truth; that is being gnostic and thinking one has the truth within one and the truth is text rather than a guy; a man gets nothing except it come from above), and some are better than others to be sure and one should get at how the translation was done before buying (that I am not saying one should do); after all if god can speak through a jackass, he can speak through a crummy reader's digest translation.
What Christ demands from one to be a follower is very difficult, and if one does not comply-not just knowing but acting; ie, one is offended at needing to become hated by the world, hate one's family, hate worldly honors, be killed by those who are thinking they are doing religion a service, suffering for Christ (not sickness, financial setback, etc), etc, one can have no part in Him, ie, without this existential truth-a getting the idea into action, one misses the eternal and finds oneself in hell, as one attempts to get into heaven by another door. This difficulty, being too difficult, needs to be eased, as Jesus was a muddlehead in demanding this (the early church understood directly and had to leave all to be a follower). Culturally, ours is one of ease and comfort or laziness with an elected president (many want a position with out the work) and so our god is like us, and we then translate him out like that (that is why now everyone goes to heaven without even trying), so one needs translations that make following Christ easy and comfortable, rewarding, and such; if one works at the words of the bible long enough, one can get it to say so, or whatever.
Usually the more "wooden" the text in translation the better-this I was told by Phds, and by wooden they meant not in an easy flowing style, the easier to read in your language the more slop, so one can use an English with Greek above each word-this I would recommend, although one must remember a lot of "original" had no punctuation originally, nor were there "logical" word orders such as "subject, object, verb" etc. The text carries the meaning I suppose, not just a single word. That is why one usually attempts to jive different parts of the book. It is good that the gospels are different even when depicting the same pericope. This is not a defect but gives more insight to the events to aid understanding.
Thrillobyte is probably having problems because he is listening to voices that are outside the Bible. By you encouraging him using yourself as an example is to encourage him to push him farther away from where his help will come from.
No Ilene...I take you exactly in context of what your new found enlightenment professes.
I DID NOT encourage Thrill to do anything and you know it. I said that very thing in the original post. I was simply stating my experience and letting Thrill know that he's not alone in how he feels right at the moment. The Bible is not the only way to know God and if you had any experience with Him outside of the pages of a book you would know that. Go to a mountaintop and sit there all day. If you can't experience God that way, then you've got some major issues with your theology and your spiritual walk. It IS possible to "claim" to know God and not know Him at all.
Thrillobyte is probably having problems because he is listening to voices that are outside the Bible. By you encouraging him using yourself as an example is to encourage him to push him farther away from where his help will come from.
No Ilene...I take you exactly in context of what your new found enlightenment professes.
Twin the problem with fundamental christianity is it's hearing voices out of the bible.
The scriptures says truth came by Jesus Christ, not by Moses, it was the law that came by him(Moses) ? Jesus Christ who is not a bible said He IS the truth.
Jesus Christ never said the bible was the truth, He said the scriptures testify of Him.
Truthfully, I'm ready to file the Bible away in my bookcase for good and just trust Jesus to do what is just and right far as the disposal of my soul is concerned.
I find it very interesting and ironic that those who would critisize you for doing that with the bible will refuse to see that trusting Jesus is all the faith a person will ever need and at some point will tell you to trust Jesus as the ONLY way.
I DID NOT encourage Thrill to do anything and you know it. I said that very thing in the original post. I was simply stating my experience and letting Thrill know that he's not alone in how he feels right at the moment. The Bible is not the only way to know God and if you had any experience with Him outside of the pages of a book you would know that. Go to a mountaintop and sit there all day. If you can't experience God that way, then you've got some major issues with your theology and your spiritual walk. It IS possible to "claim" to know God and not know Him at all.
Did you encourage him to stay in the writen word....no.
It is becoming obvious that you are drifting further away ... now the Bible is "pages of a book".
No Ilene.. I wouldn't know that the Bible is only good for using in arguments to trap Jesus in his words. (which is what ultimatly is the motive behind the "love" innuendo accusational message of UR)
Twin the problem with fundamental christianity is it's hearing voices out of the bible.
The scriptures says truth came by Jesus Christ, not by Moses, it was the law that came by him(Moses) ? Jesus Christ who is not a bible said He IS the truth.
Jesus Christ never said the bible was the truth, He said the scriptures testify of Him.
And the NT writers admitted that what they wrote was scriptures, not some opinion pieces that are subjected to liberal's version of Christianity of bleeding heart unfair accusations of God.
This song immediately came to my mind right as I was reading your post. I'd never heard this particular version of this song, so I was delighted when I went looking for the song on Youtube... Bless you
I NEVER click on videos in posts, but I did this time because of who posted it and because I knew who the singer was. I loved it! Thanks, Heartsong, I enjoyed it very much.
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