29 January 2012

Revelation 22:19

If one studies different editions of the Holy Bible, one will notice that some translations of some verses differ from others.  Sometimes this difference is minor, sometimes fairly distinct.  But Revelation 22:19 is almost exactly the same in every known translation.  There is no possible ambiguity:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book.

Folks, that's the long and the short of it.  While we may translate the Bible to the best of our ability, in order to bring the word of the Lord to as many as have ears to hear, we are not to alter the meaning of Scripture in any way.  It's one thing to make an honest error in translation, but this is far from an honest error:

"'Father' and 'Son' Ousted from the Trinity in New Bible Translations," by Hussein Hajj Wario for the Yahoo! Contributor Network, January 27 (thanks to CGW):
A controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations, which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words "Father" and "Son" from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for "producing Bibles that remove "Father," "Son" and "Son of God" because these terms are offensive to Muslims." Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last recourse because meetings with these organizations' leaders, staff resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native national Christians concerned about the translations "have failed to persuade these agencies to retain "Father" and "Son" in the text of all their translations."
Clearly, they fail to appreciate the far-reaching ramifications that Christians not only may dare, but are commanded to call on the Creator of the Universe as "Father." That fundamentally re-wires one's relationship with God and describes a unique intimacy and bond of love that ought not be squandered to score short-term points.
I am a new Christian.  I'm not a hundredth of the Biblical scholar that many of my compatriots are.  Deciding who's going to Heaven and who's going to Hell, is far above my pay grade.  But I'm pretty sure that if these publishers value their immortal souls, they might want to think long and hard about what they're engaged in.

Just a suggestion.

1 comment:

  1. I'm...not a christian in a way anyone would acknowledge. My religion kind of starts with me being a godsent savior and spirals into craziness and heresey from there.

    But fuck that idea. And fuck anyone that thinks giving offense is more wrong than cutting off little girl's clits. These bastards can't even come edit my copy of Dune without my permission, let alone a holy book.

    ReplyDelete

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