09-01-2004, 05:59 PM
[quote="Dave"]Some nice teaching ooze! Thanks <!-- s
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Your welcome! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->
You know I think I gave up on the idea of a perfect text. As a matter of faith I beleive that the Gospels in their origianl form were perfect. But I don't think we have an absolute perfect text out there. the reasoning behind this is basically concerning the infallibility of humans. The reason is simply this, if being a Protestant you might cough at that the thought of Papal Infallibiity, then likewise you should also have a problem with scribal infallibility when it comes to copying and translating as well. As a former student, researcher I know even trying to be as accurate and professional as you can be, you still make mistakes. Not to mention you have to make some decisions, like which way to render a word, kind of based upon your set of information, and what "it looks like the author is trying to say". And if you have a restricted or limiited set of information that simply is going to skew your work a bit.
So anyway I beleive that God has pererved the basic message of the Gospel really in all of the transaltions. The problem really is in theology. Or better yet, I would put it "in hair splitting theology". Where people are going to make all kinds of interprettations based, upon just one passage, or one word, or even a punctutation mark.
that is kind of where we get into problems. I think the passage "About seeing through the Glass darkly" applies to some areas of theology. It's hard to udnerstand it. I do think things like Peshitta, East Syrian customs, Jewish traditions etc. are a helpful tool to making the Bible more clear at least in some areas.
Persoanlly one verse that gives me problems is the verse about Christ casting the demons out of Legion. You know the Greek says the demons went inside the pigs. While the Aramaic, says Legion at least according to LAmsa attacked the pigs. then in the next scene in the next verse, Legion is all better. He somehow lost the demons.
You know if you look at the verse there is some implications that they went inside the pigs, and I understand that is a minority meaning of the Aramaic word.
Anyway the story seems to be easier to understand and explain at least for me in the Greek version. I don't think the Greek is att odds with the Aramaic. But they seemed to pick a word or an interpretation that seemed to make the most sense or was the most plausable and went with it.
And of course you have some other things like the term agape. As they say here love is love in Aramaic there is no brotherly love vs. sacrifical love in Aramaic unlike greek. And people here also point the way the two loves are often used interchageabley.
But that isn't to say when the word Agape was chosen over the popular term Eros in the Greek that there wasn't any kind of a message there. I think, the early Chrisitans were making a statement that Chrisitan love should pure, sacrificial and not more paganized as far as being based around beauty, the love of pleasure etc. And I think that is a good message, and is vey true.
So anyway I don't see this as arriving at a perfect answer. But simply an attempt to try put things in a better, more accurate, context. And I think that kind of is what being a "Berean", or a disciple is all about. You don't ever exactly arrive, well at least not as you are on this Earth. But you basically are always having "to study to show yourself approved".
--><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->Your welcome! <!-- s
--><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->You know I think I gave up on the idea of a perfect text. As a matter of faith I beleive that the Gospels in their origianl form were perfect. But I don't think we have an absolute perfect text out there. the reasoning behind this is basically concerning the infallibility of humans. The reason is simply this, if being a Protestant you might cough at that the thought of Papal Infallibiity, then likewise you should also have a problem with scribal infallibility when it comes to copying and translating as well. As a former student, researcher I know even trying to be as accurate and professional as you can be, you still make mistakes. Not to mention you have to make some decisions, like which way to render a word, kind of based upon your set of information, and what "it looks like the author is trying to say". And if you have a restricted or limiited set of information that simply is going to skew your work a bit.
So anyway I beleive that God has pererved the basic message of the Gospel really in all of the transaltions. The problem really is in theology. Or better yet, I would put it "in hair splitting theology". Where people are going to make all kinds of interprettations based, upon just one passage, or one word, or even a punctutation mark.
that is kind of where we get into problems. I think the passage "About seeing through the Glass darkly" applies to some areas of theology. It's hard to udnerstand it. I do think things like Peshitta, East Syrian customs, Jewish traditions etc. are a helpful tool to making the Bible more clear at least in some areas.
Persoanlly one verse that gives me problems is the verse about Christ casting the demons out of Legion. You know the Greek says the demons went inside the pigs. While the Aramaic, says Legion at least according to LAmsa attacked the pigs. then in the next scene in the next verse, Legion is all better. He somehow lost the demons.
You know if you look at the verse there is some implications that they went inside the pigs, and I understand that is a minority meaning of the Aramaic word.
Anyway the story seems to be easier to understand and explain at least for me in the Greek version. I don't think the Greek is att odds with the Aramaic. But they seemed to pick a word or an interpretation that seemed to make the most sense or was the most plausable and went with it.
And of course you have some other things like the term agape. As they say here love is love in Aramaic there is no brotherly love vs. sacrifical love in Aramaic unlike greek. And people here also point the way the two loves are often used interchageabley.
But that isn't to say when the word Agape was chosen over the popular term Eros in the Greek that there wasn't any kind of a message there. I think, the early Chrisitans were making a statement that Chrisitan love should pure, sacrificial and not more paganized as far as being based around beauty, the love of pleasure etc. And I think that is a good message, and is vey true.
So anyway I don't see this as arriving at a perfect answer. But simply an attempt to try put things in a better, more accurate, context. And I think that kind of is what being a "Berean", or a disciple is all about. You don't ever exactly arrive, well at least not as you are on this Earth. But you basically are always having "to study to show yourself approved".