new bible translations

There are three new Bible translations being worked on right now: the Common English Bible, the International Standard Version, and the New International Version 2011. Samples from these bibles can be read online. See the blog about this a the Better Bibles Blog.
You can read many versions of the bible online. Here are three Bible versions that I have downloaded to my computer: The Expanded New Testament; The Better Life Bible; The Net Bible. You can google those titles and find sites for downloading them free. Most any Bible version can be downloaded onto your computer, though most charge a fee. But you can read them online for free.
And if you want to read the Bible in its original Hebrew and Greek, that too is available online.
Our new technology is a blessing. The many versions of the Scriptures are blessings too. It reminds us that every version is an interpretation in some sense. It reminds us that we don't have the literal word of God, but only the interpreted word of God. Which gives us a little more humility.
If God had not wanted diversity in Scripture, he wouldn't have given us four gospels.
Take up the Scriptures--in many versions--read them, study them, mull them over, meditate upon them, and make them come alive in your life.

A Presbyterian changes his mind

Professor Mark Achtemeier is a long-time New Testament scholar at one of our Presbyterian Seminaries. Just recently he gave an address at a meeting of Presbyterians and told about his change of mind on the issue of homosexual ordination and marriage. I found it interesting.

The whole speech is linked here from the Presbyterian Outlook magazine.

Blue Parakeet

I finished reading The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight. A very helpful book. There are many books that cover the same subject, but this is the best one I've read. Oh, the subtitle is 'Rethinking How You Read the Bible.' Scot McKnight is one of the most interesting New Testament scholars writing today.

He says the seven most important words in reading the Bible are "that was then and this is now." His motto is: God spoke in Moses' days in Moses' ways; God spoke in Jesus' days in Jesus' ways; and he spoke in Paul's days in Paul's ways. And God speaks in our days in our ways.

McKnight uses the principle of 'reading the Bible with tradition' rather than 'reading the Bible through tradition.' He reminds us that we are all 'pickers and choosers' when it comes to interpreting the Bible. He reminds us that God is not the Bible, and the Bible is not God. McKnight emphasizes that an important part of the plot of the Bible is the development of a covenant community. He writes about how we tend to jump from Genesis 3 to Romans 3—from the Fall to Redemption. He says, "So, now that we've got the fall, let's get to redemption. I like this, but there's something missing. (Like 1033 pages!)"

I really like the way he outlines the plot of the Bible. He uses five themes:

• Creating Eikons (Gen. 1-2)
  
• Cracked Eikons (Gen. 3-11)
  
• Covenant Comunnity (Gen. 12 – Malachi)
  
• Christ, the Perfect Eikon, redeems (Matt. – Rev.20)
  
• Consummation (Rev. 21-22)
  

McKnight's book teaches us to understand the Bible as Narrative, not as a law book or a list of blessings or a Rorschach test or a puzzle to be solved. It's a love story. It's about our relationship with God and others.

At the end of the book he uses the passages in 1 Cor. 14 and 1 Tim. 2 about the silence of women as examples of how understanding the historical and cultural context frees up the Scriptures to make sense for contemporary believers. He shows that neither 1 Cor. 14 nor 1 Tim. 2 command all women at all times in the church to be silent. Both passages are about certain kinds of women who are temporarily admonished to become educated before teaching others.

This book would be a wonderful text for adolescents or confirmation study or new Christians. Professor McKnight says at one point: "God bless 'em, but some folks see some of the goofiest things in the bible, and I wish I could just blow Holy-Spirit-air on them and cure them of their silliness."

I think it is this kind of reading of the Bible that would throw new light on questions about homosexuality and other controversial questions. "That was then and this is now."

 

 

Loss

There was an interview with the author John Irving in the AARP magazine. The questioner asks, "You've often spoken of Dickens, Hawthorne, and Melville as influences. What appeals to you about these earlier writers?

In his answer Irving quotes Melville: "Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal!" Irving: "I buy that."

The interviewer asks what the Melville quote means. Irving says: It means be serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don't mean that you can't also be funny, or have fun, but at the end of the day, stories are about what you lose.

Could he be exaggerating? Maybe not. Loss is a big part of our lives. We don't like to talk about loss; it's no fun. I attended a seminar a few years ago on grief ministry. The presenter made the point that we grieve small losses practically every day.

Each year (or each day?) I'm aware of losing youthfulness. I'm losing strength, the ability to remember, and hair.

Every time we make a decision, we lose the other options we decided against. We lose opportunities. We lose options.

Interim pastors have signed up to lose relationships. We enter into relationships that are intentionally temporary. From the very beginning we know that we will lose those relationships. It's part of the calling. It's a sacrifice we make for the kingdom of God.

All of us will lose those we love. We are mortal. That's a fact. Not a pleasant fact. John Irving was saying out loud what we don't want to hear. Life is about loss.

So much loss. Loss of innocence; divorce; retirement; unemployment; natural disasters; accidents; pets; disease; transfers; rooting for the wrong team; finishing a book.

Loss is the price of the seriousness of life. Loss is the price of love and commitment. It's the rent we pay for a meaningful life.

Christ's promise of eternal life is the promise that all losses are not ultimately lost. He came to seek and save the lost. He redeems our losses. The lost are found.

 

 

 

 

 

Plane vision

When we flew to Kansas City recently for my brother-in-law's wedding, I noticed again how amazing the earth looks from way up there. I love to look down on the farms, seeing the streams and rivers snaking around the topography. The cars look like little bugs. The cemeteries are orderly with small specks lined up in rows. The farms make interesting quilt-like patterns.

Of course when you're down on the ground you can't see those patterns. You're too close. Life is like that, isn't it? We are too close to ourselves and our daily existence to see the quilt God is making out of it all. She is the craftsperson, the artist, who is putting together something beautiful. The pattern is obvious to God; but not to us. That's why the Bible tells us to trust God. She can see what's really going on from the perspective of heaven; we cannot.

What Scripture does is to give us an airplane view of life. It takes us up into the heavenlies where Christ reigns and shows us reality from his point of view. (cf. Eph. 2.6) Then it gently sets us back down on the earth and tells us to remember what we've seen from up there. Paul writes to the Colossian Jesus-followers:

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ,

keep seeking the things above,

where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

If the Bible is wrong and there is no way to transcend our earthly viewpoint, then we are limited to a human speculation about the larger meaning of life. The Bible is there to give us to 'higher' viewpoint. Its message rises above our egotistical smallness to show us the largeness of God's purpose.

Perhaps that is why humans have always thought of God (or the gods) as being 'up there.' Because we instinctively know that there must be a loftier perspective on life than just the day to day cycle that ends in worm-eaten extinction.

As we learn and recite the Biblical Story we are able to be lifted up out of the hum-drum of quotidian existence into the Gestalt of eternal life.

 

The eyes have it

I went for my annual eye exam the other day. It had been four years since my last exam. Oh well. After reading all the little letters and having lights shined in my eyes, the doctor said I have good eyes. No problems. Just the normal deterioration from aging. I bought new lenses (wow – that sets you back!) and drove home with that funny glare that you get after 'seeing' the eye doctor.


I guess I'm lucky. So many people have eye problems. By the way, the doctor told me that reading a lot doesn't hurt the eyes. Anyway, human eyes are mysterious things. Some conservative Jesus-followers argue that the complexity of the human eye proves Intelligent Design. Secular scientists disagree and say that evolving complexity over millions of years is just natural.


I think it's significant that the Gospels have a number of stories about Jesus healing the blind. The story in John 9 is particularly powerful. One could say that a major spiritual problem is spiritual blindness. We don't see life as it really is. But God gives us 'new eyes' as we learn to see things the way Jesus sees them. God gives us right vision.


I wonder why all Christians don't see things the same way? Why so much disagreement?

Of course the main problem we humans have in relation to God and each other is an 'eye' problem. It's the eye right in the middle of the word sin.

Proportionality in war

David Cortright wrote an article in the journal America (Oct. 19, 2009) about the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. He is director of policy studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

He raises questions about the ethical nature of this war. In Afghanistan, civilian casualties have risen in the last two years to a level of approximately 1000 per year. A thousand civilians a year! Who are we out to kill? (source: Afghanistan Body Count compiled by Marc Herold at the University of new Hampshire)


According to David Kilcullen, former Pentagon adviser, drone strikes killed 14 alleged senior Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan from 2006 through early 2009. During that same period drone strikes killed nearly 700 Pakistani civilians. No wonder we aren't welcomed!

Mary Ellen O'Connell, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, says that these drone attacks lack legal justification and violate fundamental moral principles. 

According to the "Just War Theory" of the Christian tradition, the principles of "proportionality" and "discrimination of civilians" must be observed for a war to be considered "just." These principles are obviously not at work in this war.

It's the whole Vietnam thing over again: destroying villages in order to save them. Cortright recommends this: a smaller number of foreign troops; special operations forces to maintain pressure on Al Qaeda and disrupt attempts to re-establish terrorist bases; increased international commitment to development, responsible governance, and the promotion of human rights.

I think Al Qaeda has gotten what they wanted. Our soldiers are dying. We are killing civilians and being hated more by people in those regions. We are using up our economy in military costs. They have drained us of resources. Our hostile actions are helping them recruit more terrorists. It's a never-ending cycle. They get us to come over there where our soldiers can be sitting targets--they don't even have to come over here. Is this intelligent on our part? It doesn't work. 

But what do I know? I'm not a General. I'm just a specific.