Faith Venture

“It should be easy. Here it is in black and white. How can people argue about it?”

He was in a Bible study class composed almost entirely of people who went to church regularly but who had never read the book.

He was reading in one English translation. Had he but lined up say five English translations, there may have been 2-3 different words in that passage. They may or may not have changed the meaning very much. But the nuance of the verse could have changed.

He also fell victim to the fallacy that should have been overcome by high school English classes. Unfortunately, few high school courses actually teach one how to read.

There must be hundreds of phrases and sentences taken from the Bible that altered the course of history that were completely out of context of the meaning. As I type these words several flash through my brain.

Humans so easily fool themselves into thinking they have completely arrived at understanding and wisdom, when in reality they are creatures in the process of growing. We have so much hubris as to think we know more than people who have spent their entire adult lives studying ancient Greek. And I have read some of those who still discuss the meaning of one word Paul used in a certain place. I started to learn New Testament Greek and then thought “How do I expect to learn enough in a few months to be better than scholars who have devoted 30 years to the study?”

Back to the question. It is easier if we devote time and curiosity to exploring the complete paragraph or letter. It helps to have a guide who can lead us through the logic of the Greek in the passage which is different from the logic we use in English. I am currently refreshing my knowledge of German and learning Spanish. (I should be doing Irish Gaelic and Welsh given I have grandparents from each heritage.) Each of these has its own logic. And the brief introduction to Gaelic shows me another set of logic principles. 

I return to my thought about time and curiosity along with humility. As soon as we say we don’t know everything, then the work of learning begins.

This entry was posted on December 15, 2023 at 10:27 am and is filed under Disciplines, Learning, Study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.