Posted by tancu on November 29, 2002, at 21:33:31
In reply to Re: The Rider's answe to taking mind-altering drugs(3) » tancu, posted by Lou Pilder on November 29, 2002, at 19:18:13
As I said earlier--These are the exact words taken from a copy of The Bible, Revised Standard Version, American Bible Society, 1974 (originally published in 1901 as a revision of the King James Version published in 1611). I understand that these words are largely afforded to us as the result of the first English translation, from the original Hebrew and Greek texts, by Wm. Tyndale around 1535. While Tyndale was in fact executed and burned at the stake in Oct. 1536, it was precisely his translations that formed the foundation for the 1611 King James Version.
It appears that our discussion has led us to visit again one of the numerous differences between the KJV and the Revised Standard Version. For all we "know" at this point in time the differences may be purely semantic. What we do "know", with some certainty, is that all modern-day versions of the New Testament are derived from Greek manuscripts that have preserved many variant forms of the original texts. Some of them were written only "...two or three centuries later than the original composition of the books." The original books, apparently written in Hebrew and Aramaic, have probably turned to dust. I would imagine that the difference in words between our respective modern-day bibles can probably also be found in the large number of Greek manuscripts that are known to contain 'various accounts' of that which was written in the one or two centuries following the death of Christ. Of course, this is only an assumption as I have not actually read these Greek manuscripts. These are the shortcomings of "knowledge"--a tool that I could never imagine God would expect us to use in order to record and "know" that which is Divine. Although it is not specifically written in the Judeo-Christian scriptures I believe that God intends each of US to rely on what we feel over what we know. What we know is constantly changing. Feeling, by contrast, is agelessly the same. In other words, our capacity to feel the difference between that which is Divine and that which is not must surely be equal to the same capacity our forefathers possessed when they endeavored to relate their own interpretations of spiritual matters.
poster:tancu
thread:931
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20021001/msgs/1329.html