It’s Christmas. I’m Inspired! – Part 1
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” [Luke 2:13-14, KJV]
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” [Luke 2:13-14, NASB]
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” [Luke 2:13-14, NIV]
As a kid back in the days before the American Revolution (ha ha), I grew up on the King James Version of the Bible (KJV). The first quotation of Luke 2 above was repeated from memory every Christmas, at the reenactment of the Christmas story in my parents’ church. I knew those words by heart, let me tell you. They rang out true and pure, with no adulteration attached. By no means should a single word ever be changed or the syntax be rearranged. Heresy ‘twould be!
It never dawned on me to wonder why it would be heresy. Go figure, why don’cha. I mean, when the Holy Spirit inspired the Christmas story (as well as all the rest of Scripture), there were no English words included! The original manuscripts of the Old Testament were penned in Hebrew, with a small part in Aramaic (a language akin to Hebrew). The New Testament originally was penned in koine Greek (aka the Greek used by the everyday average Joe at the time).
So why, then, by the reckoning of some folks, is it heresy if the Bible is translated differently than old King Jamie authorized? I’ll give you a hint. It begins with a “t” and ends with an “n”, and in-between come the letters “raditio”. Did you decipher the hint okay. You see, it’s much easier on our noggins to learn something when we’re young, taking it at face value because we are taught it by the adults, and nevermore wavering a hairs’ breadth to the right or to the left of it. “Twould be heresy!
Once upon a time, oh, say around 1991-ish, my family and I attended a little startup church in Massachusetts, a couple of blocks from our house. The pastor was a kindly young soul, a self-starter who ignored formal education in favor of knowing it all without having to learn first.
I mean to be kind, honest I do, dear friends. But more harm is done amongst Christians by well-meaning folks who figure the Lord just needs them so desperately to be a teacher of the Bible. It doesn’t occur to them to check and see if the Lord gave them a speaking gift in the first place, or whether He called them to a preaching/teaching ministry. No need to bother the Lord with that. I’ll leave Him in peace and just take care of the matter myself. Uh, it doesn’t work that way! We will continue this in our next post.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my books Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” [Luke 2:13-14, NASB]
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” [Luke 2:13-14, NIV]
As a kid back in the days before the American Revolution (ha ha), I grew up on the King James Version of the Bible (KJV). The first quotation of Luke 2 above was repeated from memory every Christmas, at the reenactment of the Christmas story in my parents’ church. I knew those words by heart, let me tell you. They rang out true and pure, with no adulteration attached. By no means should a single word ever be changed or the syntax be rearranged. Heresy ‘twould be!
It never dawned on me to wonder why it would be heresy. Go figure, why don’cha. I mean, when the Holy Spirit inspired the Christmas story (as well as all the rest of Scripture), there were no English words included! The original manuscripts of the Old Testament were penned in Hebrew, with a small part in Aramaic (a language akin to Hebrew). The New Testament originally was penned in koine Greek (aka the Greek used by the everyday average Joe at the time).
So why, then, by the reckoning of some folks, is it heresy if the Bible is translated differently than old King Jamie authorized? I’ll give you a hint. It begins with a “t” and ends with an “n”, and in-between come the letters “raditio”. Did you decipher the hint okay. You see, it’s much easier on our noggins to learn something when we’re young, taking it at face value because we are taught it by the adults, and nevermore wavering a hairs’ breadth to the right or to the left of it. “Twould be heresy!
Once upon a time, oh, say around 1991-ish, my family and I attended a little startup church in Massachusetts, a couple of blocks from our house. The pastor was a kindly young soul, a self-starter who ignored formal education in favor of knowing it all without having to learn first.
I mean to be kind, honest I do, dear friends. But more harm is done amongst Christians by well-meaning folks who figure the Lord just needs them so desperately to be a teacher of the Bible. It doesn’t occur to them to check and see if the Lord gave them a speaking gift in the first place, or whether He called them to a preaching/teaching ministry. No need to bother the Lord with that. I’ll leave Him in peace and just take care of the matter myself. Uh, it doesn’t work that way! We will continue this in our next post.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my books Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
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