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Teach Us to Pray

March 27, 2025 — Leave a comment

I struggle with prayer.

Our Father who is in heaven

When you Pray “Say”

If you read the KJV you’re reading things the Biblical authors DID NOT WRITE.  It’s not that it’s translators were in some secret conspiracy to deceive the masses.  They weren’t.  They were working with the best copies they had at the time.  But these copies had errors – errors which entered the text over 1400 years of hand copying hand copies.

The vast majority of these errors were small and unintentional.  If you’ve ever tried copying a lengthy handwritten document you may have experienced some of the following.

  • errors caused by sight.
  • errors caused by hearing and transcription.
  • errors caused by lapses in memory.

But some copyists intentionally changed the text – a fact that later copiers could not rectify because all they had was the copy in front of them.  It’s similar to the errors created and passed on in the game of telephone.  The famous 4th century Bible translator Jerome said,

“They write down not what they find but what they think is the meaning, and while they attempt to rectify the errors of others, they merely expose their own.”

These copyists made

  • spelling and grammar changes
  • harmonistic alterations
  • factual corrections
  • conflations
  • and even support for certain doctrines

The later is clearly evident in 1 John 1:7 where the King James reads,

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

It’s great proof text for the trinity.  The problem is that no church writer quoted it when the doctrine of the trinity was being hammered out in the 3rd and 4th century.  The reason: no manuscript contained these words until the late middle ages.  It’s an insertion and not at all what John wrote.

And it’s not the only one.

Give us this day our daily bread

The King James Version may sound poetic but it’s not easily understood by the vast majority of modern English speakers.  And it’s not just because of the thees and thous.  You may have heard some of these words.  But can you tell me what they mean?

abjects, afore, agone, amerce, artificer, bethink, bewray, botch, bray, by and by, caul, chargeable, concupiscenece, coping, cotes, cumbered, dissimulation, doleful, durst, emerods, fan, felloe, firkin, froward, gainsay, grisled, holden, holpen, ignominy, lade, lees, lucre, minish, mote, paps, paradventure, platted, quick, remission, requite, shambles, sheepcote, slow bellies, superfluous, thitherward, twain, unction, wimples, wont 

OK, I’m sure you could get close to their meaning if you read them in context.  But are you sure its the right meaning and not just your faulty guess?

You can learn a lot about the English language from reading the King James Version.  But is that the point of reading the Bible?  To broaden our vocabulary?  I don’t think so.

The dedication to the King James version is the same love Catholics have for language of Latin.  It’s traditional.  It’s what we’ve always done.  But stop and ask yourself does it still work?  Is it helpful?  Or are the people in the pews just hearing someone speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:19).

There are better versions available!  

It’s perfectly acceptable to read the King James Version IF nothing better is available.  I’ve often read it when it was the only Bible I could find.  But that’s not often the case today!  There are two other translations, the NASB and the ESV which are based upon more accurate manuscripts and that use the King James Word-For-Word method of translation.  While the New KJV attempts to modernize some of the KJV’s language it still does not address the underlying manuscript issues.

What do you think?

In Bible, Life
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Colored Cubes

The Bible’s 4 Building Blocks

March 27, 2025 — Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered why there so many different versions of the bible?  Which one should you choose?  Here are 4 things every Christian needs to know about the Bible.  The Bible is composed of four essential elements or components.  These are the building blocks of the Bible.  Each step is essential in building on top of each other.

First Block: Canon

The Bible isn’t a single book.  Its a collection of many books written by various authors over the course of a 1,000 years.  The word for this collection is canon.  A canon is a rule or a standard.  The Bible, both Old and New Testament, is a set of books which form the basis for the Christians rule of faith.

Among various versions, The number and ordering of these books is fairly consistent.  But there are some differences.  Most notably in the Old Testament.  For instance the Jewish Bible and the Protestant Old Testmament are roughly equivalent.  The Jewish Bible has 22 books while the Old Testament has 39.  The difference is largely due to the way various books are divided.  Instead of 1 and 2 Samuel, for instance, the Jewish Bible simply has Samuel.

Second Block: Text

Matthew 17:21, 18:11, 23:14, Mark 7:16, 9:44, 9:46, 11:26, 15:28, Luke 17:36, 23:17, John 5:4, Acts 8:37, 15:34, 24:7, 28:29, Romans 16:24, and 1 John 5:7.  Look up these verse in a NIV and you might be suprised to discover that there not there. What’s wrong?  Look at the ending of Mark (16:9-20) or the story of the Woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-12 and you may be surprised to discover to find a bracket with the words, “the earliest manuscripts don’t contain…”  With regard to its numerous copies, we must admit that the Bible has been altered over the years. Changes have entered into the text.  But this does not mean that we cannot hold our Bible with confidence.  For the bible we hold in our hands is not based on any one text but is combination of the bests text that we now possess.

Third Block: Translation 

This is probably the number one reasons bibles differ today.  What do you value most in a translation?  You want to understand it, right?  But you also want it to be accurate.  Well often in translation these two desires can be difficult to balance.  Words have semantic meanings in our cultural that may not have complete overlap in another culture.  We aim to get at the best possible overlap.

The need for new translations arises from the imprecise nature of current transtions and the change in language over time.  For instance, the King James Version (KJV)), published in 1611, has lost much of its power because many of its words are no longer used or understood today.

Fourth Block: Interpretation

Last but not least there must be someone to read and interpret the book.  The bible does  not force an interpretation upon those who read it.  It can and often has been misunderstood.  But all interpretations are not equal.  There are principles that can be used in order to close to the right meaning of scripture.  Its not an answer book (like a car manual) or how to book.  Its interpretation can be a bit more subtle then that.  The best analogy that I have found is to compare it to the first four acts of a five act play.  It shapes the way our characters play but does not rigidly define it.  “The bible says, I believe it that settles it.”  Should a Christian get a tattoo.  There is room for interpretation, adaptation for a changing culture and environment.

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Revelation is for Worship

January 16, 2017 — 2 Comments

I’m not a fan of the Left Behind series. I read the first novel in 1995 before any of the other books came out. After that, I began buying each one with a plan to binge read the whole series when it was finally done. But I never did. By 2003, I began to see that the series misses Revelation’s true meaning.

I know Left Behind is a work of fiction but it’s also based on a real way of interpreting Revelation known as Dispensationalism which sees Revelation, for the most part, as a literal series of near future events. The events occur largely within a seven year period know as the tribulation which begins with a rapture or catching away to heaven of all true believers. After the seven years, Christ returns to earth and reigns for another 1,000. I grew up in a church that taught me to read Revelation and the world with this eye and we watched the news for signs that seven year period was about to begin. But by my early twenties as a history major, I started asking a question no one I knew seemed to be asking. What did Revelation mean for the first recipients? Was it really intended as gibberish for 2,000 years until someone could at last match times with signs?

It was then that I came to see the key to Revelation is really simple. Revelation hinges on a repeated pattern. Five times, the book ushers readers to the throne of God where angels and people of every ethnicity sing songs of thanksgiving and worship to God and Jesus. John describes the first worship scene in chapter 4 and then goes on to describe the effects of Jesus’ breaking of seven seals. The sixth seal leads to a second scene of worship. In chapter eight, the seals give way to the blowing of seven trumpets which yet again ends in a scene of worship. The pattern goes on. The key to Revelation is worship ands it’s intended effect is worship. In fact, Revelation has been called the Psalms of the New Testament because no other book contains the number of worship songs. What we try to solve as a mysterious puzzle was meant more as a hymnal. And as we stain our brains to get it to fit the specifics of our current world issues, we miss it’s intended effect of moving our emotions and turning our hearts to God.

Revelation is not so much about the future as it is a series of symbolic visions of our past, present, and future. The imagery which occurs between each of Revelations worship scenes is in fact indicative of the same time period. Like the metals and beasts of Daniel 2 and 7. Revelation repeats again and again from Christ to the end of time… from Christ to the end of time… from Christ to the end of time. And in all this John shows that all our pain and suffering is being worked by The One Who Suffered for a redemptive end. And again and again, it leads us to worship.

In Bible
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Is Jesus Jehovah?

May 23, 2016 — 4 Comments

Toni knocked on my door yesterday. She’s a five-foot, 80-year-old woman with a warm grandmotherly disposition. As I opened the door, she gave me a big smile and said, “Well Hello, Matt! I’ve moved, but I wanted to make sure you had someone calling on you.” She then introduced Greg – a much taller gentleman in his late 50’s. “Have you read the booklet I left you? Do you have any questions?”

I love talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses. There’s a great deal about them I respect. They’re willing to suffer for their beliefs. They read the Bible. And though they distort some essential Christian truths, there are some things they get right more than the average Christian. Many Christians, for instance, have this idea that our only goal in life is to go to heaven when we die. And while this is true, it’s not the entire picture. The Bible points beyond this intermediate state to renewed bodies in a new heaven and new earth. JWs get that right.

But I can’t just let the JWs off on their false teachings.

Toni and I (and occasionally Greg) ended up talking on my front porch for more than an hour. The topic at first rotated around the JW’s less controversial view that consciousness ceases at death.

She opened her Watchtower magazine and turned to the section answering the question “What happens When you Die?” She then pulled out her gray New World Translation (the distinct “Translation” of JWs) and read from Ecclesiastes 9:5. “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.” She next turned to Genesis 2:7, “God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” And from there she jumped to Genesis 3:19, God’s curse for sin, “for you are dust and dust you shall return.” Toni tried to convince me that these verses prove consciousness ends at death. The soul was created with the body and ceases to exist when the body dies.

“No,” I said. “It’s not that clear. What about other passages which indicate that consciousness continues after death, apart from the body – like when a very dead and disembodied, Samuel appears and speaks to Saul in 1st Samuel 28?

“That wasn’t Samuel. It was a demon,” she said.

“Really,” I asked. “because 1st Samuel doesn’t say that. It says it was Samuel that spoke to Saul. I think you’re mistaken in your interpretation.”

The conversation continued in a friendly manner like this for some time. Toni would offer a proof text on a given topic which appeared to undermine some Christian teaching. And I’d counter with another text which undermined her argument.

“The Bible doesn’t disagree with itself,” She chastened with a smile.

“No, it doesn’t,” I said returning the smile. “But it’s not clear in the way you make it out to be.”

But the intermediate state isn’t my concern. I think JWs are wrong on this issue but there are genuine Christians who hold to this idea, and I wouldn’t cease to call them brothers and sisters because of it.

As our conversation continued, I told Toni and Greg, “There are many things I really do admire in your teaching and practice. But there’s just some major issues you totally get wrong and are deal breakers.”

“Like what,” She asked. She had tried to stay away from the topic of trinity.

“Well the Bible says that Jesus is God,” I said.

“How can that be?” She replied. “Jesus said, ‘the Father is greater than I.'”

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe Jesus is God in the same sense God the Father is God. For them, he’s a lesser deity, the first created being through whom God created everything else. And they detest any suggestion that Jesus is Jehovah (God’s name by which He revealed Himself to Moses and the Israelites).

This is where there New World “Translation” fits in. In it, they’ve attempted to erase any proof that Jesus is God. For instance, they’ve changed John 1:1 “and the Word was God” to “and the Word was a god.” And they’ve altered Jesus words in John 8:58, “before Abraham was, I am (which is the meaning of God’s name, Jehovah, in Hebrew) to the much less specific, “before Abraham was, I was.”

But the Bible’s more than a list of unconnected verses, a fact they often fail to forget.

“Can I see your Bible,” I asked?

She handed it to me. I turned to Isaiah 9:6 and handed it back to her.

She read aloud: “For a child has been born to us, A son has been given to us; And the rulership will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

She looked up at me. And somewhat hesitantly said, “Yes, I believe he’s talking about Jesus. But that doesn’t mean Jesus is Jehovah. Jehovah said he would not give his glory to another (Isaiah 42:8).”

“Precisely,” I said. “Can I see your Bible again?”

She handed it back to me. I turned to John 12:36 and read,

“Although he (Jesus) had performed so many signs before them, they were not putting faith in him… The reason why they were not able to believe is that again Isaiah said: ‘He has blinded their eyes and has made their hearts hard, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn around and I heal them.’ Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory, and he spoke about him.

“Who is John referring to,” I asked. “Whose glory did Isaiah see?”

“Jesus,” she replied.

“Right,” I said. “And what passage is John referring to when he quotes Isaiah, “He has blinded their eyes and has made their hearts hard…? Isaiah 6:10, I answered.

I turned to Isaiah 6 and handed the Bible back to her.

“Now in that passage, whose glory did Isaiah see?

She started reading from verse 1. “In the year that King Uz·ziʹah died, I saw Jehovah sitting on a lofty and elevated throne, and the skirts of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were standing above him… And one called to the other: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory.”

“Whose glory did Isaiah see,” I asked.

Toni closed her Bible and tucked it under her arm. “Well there’s a lot we could talk about, but we really have to be going.”

No joke! It was that quick!

“No, no, no,” I said. “Let’s do another one.”

I reached out and tried to take the Bible from under her arm. She held it there tightly before releasing her grip.

In Bible
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Repeated Words Packagage Mark’s Introduction

February 28, 2016 — 1 Comment

It’s time to take a closer look at Mark’s arrangement of scenes! So throw out graphic divisions, like chapter and verse, as indications of the book’s plan and listen instead to what Mark says! Mark wrote specifically for hearers and weaves his organization into the very words of his story.

Let’s start by reading Mark 1:1-15. Hear any repeated words?

“Gospel” and or “good news”
“Messenger” or angelos in Greek, which is the same word for Angel.
Wilderness
The phrase “baptized by him (John) in the Jordan”
Spirit

Now consider where they occur!

The words in the first section are repeated in the last. And the ones in the second are repeated in a third. It’s A-B-B-A sequence. Though on the surface the story unfolds in a linear progression, the repetition creates an underlying pattern which packages these scenes together and, in turn, point to the start of a new unit.

Do you hear more repetitions in the scenes that follow? Mention of Jesus preaching in Galilee and the naming of Peter, Andrew, James and John? Where do they occur? Concentrically around Jesus’ ministry in the synagogue. It’s an A-B-C-B-A pattern. Once again, the echoes signal to a listening audience the units beginning and end.

Mark creates still a third sequence in the five stories after that. Echoes appear at the outer limits, in Jesus’ cleansing of the leper and his healing of the man with the withered hand. In both stories we find the phrase “stretched out his (your) hand” and the mention of Jesus becoming “angry.” Now most translations of Jesus encounter with the leper still say Jesus was moved with compassion. But the majority of scholars today have come to the conclusion that Mark originally said angry. And that incidentally finds a correspondence in the later scene when Jesus becomes angry at the religious leaders. Echoes within these five accounts also occur in the second and fourth stories, the story of Jesus forgiving the paralytic and the account of the disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. In both scenes, Jesus uniquely cites his authority as the Son of Man. Again these echoes appear concentrically around a center, Jesus’ calling of Levi, and are packaged together in A-B-C-B-A sequence.

Its here at the end of the third sequence where we encounter Mark’s inciting incident, the first indication of a plot to destroy Jesus. But Mark further emphasizes this narrative turn by packaging these three sequences together, revealing in this turn a termination to this larger unit.

We see this in the expressed parallels between the beginning of the first sequence and the end of the third. In chapter 3, Mark summarizes the effects of Jesus ministry, stating that people came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Three of these place names (Jerusalem, Judea, and Jordan) appear in a remarkably similar summary of the Baptist’s ministry at the beginning of the gospel, though we don’t hear them mentioned elsewhere together. And it’s here we find another parallel. Immediately before Mark introduces John the Baptist, he tells us that Jesus is “the Son of God.” A title which we’ve already seen is extremely significant though its only repeated three times in this form. The first is here in Mark 1:1 and the last, the centurion’s climatic statement in Mark 15. Which leaves the summary of Jesus’ ministry in Mark 3, as the only other instance. Which further suggests a connection between this summary and Mark’s beginning. Though these parallels, Mark has packaged these sequences together and brought this section to a close.

The termination of these three sequences simultaneous with the first mention of a plot to destroy Jesus marks this point as major turning in the narrative. In the next episode, we’ll explore where the turn leads and how Mark builds his story to the next major point.

See you then.

In Bible, Gospels, Stories, Video
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