Bulletin Article for March 15, 2020        

Lost in Translation

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19" My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. "(James 1:19-21  NIV)

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                 Look… I don’t have a personal crusade against the King James Bible. Its influence and memory are indelibly written in the foundation of Western Civilization—something for which we should all be very grateful. However, my appreciation of this human translation is mitigated by the fact that, as a child, I just did not understand it! I grant that there are obvious hurdles one must cross in order to read any version of the Bible. The Bible has its own specialized vocabulary and its events take place in a world most modern readers never experienced. So it is necessary for anyone who reads (let alone studies) the Bible to acclimate themselves to these preconditions in order to understand it. Somehow, as a child, my (admittedly) small, immature and inexperienced brain found Elizabethan English a bridge too far. When I would read a verse like James (1:21) it not only made no sense to me but might (if caught in the right mood) illicit a bit of a giggle. “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness…” (Really? Superfluity of naughtiness? An adolescent boy’s mind could really find a laugh in just that one phrase!)

And there’s really no reason to laugh! Indeed, if we all understood the serious nature of this verse (and many others) we might see why it needs an update. The English Standard Version, translates this verse as, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness…” In my mind, the New International Version translates this verse even clearer: “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent…” All around us, the world is engaged in wickedness and evil. As disciples of Christ, we are called—not just to guard against it but—to rid our lives of it, to stop the “overflow of wickedness and evil” that too easily floods into our lives. Our lives are a bucket in a cesspool and we must keep the top of the bucket above water level—or the sea around us will “flow over” into our lives. We are holy to the Lord and the world, with its attitudes of suspicion, acts of cruelty and greedy subterfuge, has no place in our lives. Rather, our goal is to listen carefully to the rest of James (1:21) where we are told to “...humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” (1:21)                                        mp