J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Archive of "Scripture" Category
Messing with our theology
My seminary professor said something several weeks ago that I can’t stop thinking about:
"Nothing has messed with my theology more than reading my Bible."
Romans 12 is messing with me…
Recently, I was listening to a CD and heard someone reading the familiar words of Romans 12 in a fresh unfamiliar language. I am not sure what the translation was, but it struck me to the core. The Holy Spirit used this fresh language to help the words jump off the page and into my mind for the day.
I had to stop the CD, rewind it and listen to these phrases again. (I’ve bolded some of the language that was riveting)."…have profound respect for each other...(v. 10b)
"…work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit..." (v. 11).
"…bless those who persecute you. Never curse them. Bless them." (v, 14).
"…Treat everyone with equal kindness…Never be condescending." (v. 16).
"Make real friends with the poor..." (v. 16).
Each one of these phrases could be pondered for weeks.
I’m grateful that Scripture has successfully messed with me.Jonah has been messing with me
Been hanging out in Jonah recently, trying to see the deeper story beyond the familiar story of simply a whale (I mean, big fish).
Jonah is a fascinating book: ever notice that in the entire book, the only one who is stubborn and who has a hard time repenting and changing and turning from his ways is…Jonah?
I’m amazed by this Old Testament prophet of God, appalled by his complaining spirit, disturbed by his arrogance – and convicted that oftentimes I am him.As I’ve been hanging out in Jonah 4 I’ve been struck by his response to God at the end of the story.
Ever notice how Jonah is angry at the compassion of God (4:4, 9, 11)? Ever notice how we are prone to do the same in any given week?God, forgive me when your compassion is so great and deep and widespread that my pride gets in the way and becomes ungrateful.
Was Solomon a Christian?
We’ve been hanging out in the book of Ecclesiastes this fall and its been fabulous.
This Sunday morning I teach on Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
Sunday evening I teach on Ecclesiastes chapter 9.
I’m digging the words of Professor Solomon.Here’s a question I was asked last week by a thoughtful young woman. I thought I would throw it out to you all and see what you thought about it. I’d be interested to hear what you think:
"After reading Ecclesiastes, do you believe that Solomon was a Christian?"
Sleeping with Hagar
Genesis 16:
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2
so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go,
sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3
So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took
her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his
wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.In chapter 15 Abram exerts an amazing amount of faith in trusting a God he hardly knew. And God honors Abram with dramatic blessing. Father Abram. The man we look to for inspiration in our faith.
He’d seen God show up in dramatic fashion.And the next chapter, instead of relying in faith upon the Living God for intervention, he tries to handle it with his own power by his own human actions. He sleeps with Hagar and she becomes pregnant. And creates tension in a family that has lasted through the centuries.
Oftentimes we sleep with Hagar, don’t we? It’s a lot easier to do that, isn’t it? When we work on our own power it eliminates the need for faith…but we foul the whole thing up.
What are the areas – big and small – where we are tempted to sleep with Hagar when we’re asked to trust?
Bible translations: Which one to choose?
A few weeks ago Bryan Harmelink, Bible translator with Wycliffe and member of our church, came in and spoke to our staff about the history of Bible translations.
The discussion was absolutely fascinating.Bible translations have been such an extremely emotional topic for so many Christians throughout the centuries – sometimes I wonder why its such a strong reaction myself. Some are emphatic about certain translations while others have gone so far to say that if you don’t use a certain translation (oftentimes its the King James Version in this type of argument you are being "unbiblical" and one must read from the ‘original’ translation. Based on that argument, that church should be reading from the original languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic and not the English language KJV).
Bryan listed several of the major agreements of all Bible translators:
(1) Inspiration of Scripture
(2) Authority of Scripture
(3) The goal is to transfer meaning
(4) No translation can capture every single nuance of the original language.
(5) Language change makes updates necessary.
(6) The main question every translator asks is: "What is the intended meaning of the passage?" The big point being context.For whatever reason, the TNIV has taken a lot of hits and caused quite a controversy. Bryan highlighted a few things about the controversy saying that "it’s not a radical feminist translation" as its been accused and it doesn’t mess with the gender of God (despite the rumors). He explained the difference between being "gender neutral" and being "gender accurate." To put it into perspective, the TNIV changed only about 7% of the NIV and 2/3 of that 7% have nothing to do with gender. Hard to believe with how loud the controversy has been!
A good example would be Matthew 1:18. In the NIV: "to be with child," and in the TNIV: "to be pregnant." Not much meaning is lost with the translation change – and very few people walk around today saying, "We went to the doctor and found out that I am with child!" Ironically, there are quite a few translations that have made changes in gender-related languages (God’s Word, NLT, NRSV, ESV, New Jerusalem Bible, New Century, NAB and Contemporary English) and yet the TNIV has been the focus of much controversy.
The point of his presentation – and the point of this blog post – wasn’t to create a list of "acceptable" and "unacceptable" translations or officially endorse one translation as being the best (technically, he’s not allowed to do that as a Wycliffe staff member) but merely to help us as a staff understand the broad perspective and difficult work of translation, the constant fluidity of meaning in language and the rapidly changing symbols in any language based on its context.
As he was presenting, it made me think how I landed on the translation I use most often when I read, study and teach. And I wondered how others landed on the Bible translation they use.
So I am curious to know what you think:
How did you decide which translation of the Bible to use?Was it because it was the most accessible one? or the most popular?
Was it the one your parents used and you felt that if they use that specific translation then its good enough for you?
Did your church encourage one translation over the other and you followed their advice?
Did you choose it because somebody told you?
Have you switched your primary translation of choice?
Does it not really matter to you?
Did you prayerfully consider which translation to use or was it a decision you didn’t think much about?
______________________________________PLEASE NOTE: This blog post is not intended to be a forum for you to officially "endorse" the translation you use or to convince us that your translation is the best by giving us all the reasons why you chose it. In other words, its not about proving a translation’s superiority over others. I am more curious to know more how your arrived at your translation than actually what translation you use.
Thoughts on grace-creating-freedom
As mentioned earlier, this past weekend I finished a seminary course with Scot McKnight on Galatians and understanding grace-creating-freedom. The past nine weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom in Christ, slavery, the works of the law, listening to the spirit, what grace-creating-freedom means and trying to grasp its implications and its risks.
Here are a few (random) things regarding freedom. If you’re interested, it might be fun to watch, experience, discuss, ponder them in light of the message of Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. [Please understand that I don’t agree with everything – especially the films – but I do think they are good tools to help us ruminate and compare/contrast these ideas of freedom with what Paul talked about in Galatians.
Quote:
"The truth is that people set rules to keep from making decisions."
-Coach K, Duke basketballMovies:
(1) The Devil’s Playground: the film highlights the Amish culture and the concept of rumspringa (German word for "running around") a time of decision-making for Amish teenagers to experience the the freedoms of the world ("the devil’s playground") which include drinking, drugs and sex and then deciding whether they want to reject the Amish tradition or commit to living in it for the rest of their lives. Much of the film is saddening, as one sees how freedom is misunderstood and abused by these Amish teenagers.
(2) Freedom Writers: Based on a true story, Hillary Swank plays a teacher in this independent film as she attempts to help at-risk students from gang-infested Southern California write about freedom in their journals. It’s a well done movie, thought-provoking. But it is interesting how much of our idea of ‘freedom’ is a very North American concept, not a universal one.
These should spark some great discussions, thoughts, insights and questions regarding what freedom in Christ really means.
God and germs
I’ve been reading in Leviticus concerning God’s commands for the nation of Israel. Many commands are very ‘spiritual’ in nature. But I was noticing that God has many commands that are obsessed with hygiene. Instructions from everything concerning a women’s menstrual cycle to skin diseases to what to do and what not to do after sex to breaking bowls and other objects if an unclean person touches them. I don’t think hospitals in America today have such high standards as the Israelites did. After reading Leviticus 15 (especially verses 19-23) you begin to wonder if God is germaphobic. It’s one thing to strive for purity, but to some this might seem a bit over the top, don’t you think?
I’ve been chewing on the question, “Why did God care so much about good hygiene and how it relates to worship and interaction with others in community?”
How will we respond?
The Jewish people called their Bibles the Hebrew word mikrah. The original form of this noun came from the verb which means "to call forth" or "to call into being."
The Hebrews saw their relationship with Scripture not as static and dry and one-dimensional but as dynamic and vibrant and alive. It was an ongoing conversation.
They believed that when Scripture spoke it addressed them and that it demanded an answer. It didn’t merely call. No, it calls forth, it calls out.
And if something calls out to us (as if a friend called out to us on the street) it expects, it demands that we provide a valid answer or action.
Imagine if we changed our understanding of Scripture in the Western world from trying to crack the code or decipher the message of Scripture to the mindset of the Eastern world by concentrating on listening to Scripture as it calls out to us.
Am I quieting myself enough when I meditate on Scripture to hear it calling me forth?
And when Scripture calls out to us, how we will respond?
This idea has changed the way I read the Bible.
Nailed
Recently I was nailed by Genesis 18:13-14, a rhetorical question of omnipotence that made me mutter "Dang!" when I read it…
"Then the Lord said to Abraham…’Is anything too hard for the Lord?’"
If only I could remember this when I am wondering if God can show up or act in my difficult situations.
I think it answers that question.
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