Our King James Bible is a translation of ancient manuscripts. Six committees of brilliant scholars pored over these documents for six years and produced the Bible in 1611.
We cannot identify any single word or phrase in the Bible with any one of these scholars. This translation was a group enterprise. The only phrase that can be surely sourced does not appear in the final version. It is the phrase that concludes Jesus' prayer: " Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory."
These words were the creation of Lancelot Andrewes, , bishop of Westminster. Andrewes was indeed a gifted leader of his translating group, and his group made a mellow translation of the first five books of the Bible.
But authorship of any specific phrase in the Bible itself cannot be traced to him.
What, then, about these luminous words that have become so readily taken as part of Jesus' own prayer? When commissioning the translators for their task, King James asked them to produce a "magisterial" work. He wanted them to depict God with grandeur, to reflect His magnificence in His colleague James. He asked them to confirm the "divine right of the king."
Lancelot Andrewes took the liberty of concluding the Jesus prayer with these majestic words. And although they do not appear in the early versions, they have become universally accepted as clues to God's being as Jesus saw Him:
"Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory!"
Friday, July 6, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Theology in Ten Words
The phrase most often repeated from the Bible opens the Lord's prayer: "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." These words carry a theology in themselves.
The word "our" clearly is inclusive of every human being. No person of any race, creed or color can be omitted from this group. "Our Father" puts every human being into a relationship with our creator and with each other. We are siblings across the globe.
"Our Father" means that we are not alone. We are created beings. We are in touch with our creator. Our creator has begotten us as a father conceives. That creator cares for us as a father. We are purposeful creations. Being created means that we have a relationship with all that is past.
"Father" is not a name but a relationship. This puts us in a family with a dimension that reaches not only to a different generation but to different order which we can only imagine. We pray to our Father "in heaven" because that Father is beyond earthly definitions and limitations.
"Hallowed be thy name" because giving a name brings that named being into our level, and that demeans the Creator God. When we call out a name we are asking for fraternity, but God is in a different phase of being. His name is unknown to us as a result. It is hallowed beyond our naming. The closest we can come to naming God is to recognize God as Father.
The opening of the Lord's prayer opens the door to a first step in identifying God. We reaffirm our faith every time we say the Lord's prayer.
The word "our" clearly is inclusive of every human being. No person of any race, creed or color can be omitted from this group. "Our Father" puts every human being into a relationship with our creator and with each other. We are siblings across the globe.
"Our Father" means that we are not alone. We are created beings. We are in touch with our creator. Our creator has begotten us as a father conceives. That creator cares for us as a father. We are purposeful creations. Being created means that we have a relationship with all that is past.
"Father" is not a name but a relationship. This puts us in a family with a dimension that reaches not only to a different generation but to different order which we can only imagine. We pray to our Father "in heaven" because that Father is beyond earthly definitions and limitations.
"Hallowed be thy name" because giving a name brings that named being into our level, and that demeans the Creator God. When we call out a name we are asking for fraternity, but God is in a different phase of being. His name is unknown to us as a result. It is hallowed beyond our naming. The closest we can come to naming God is to recognize God as Father.
The opening of the Lord's prayer opens the door to a first step in identifying God. We reaffirm our faith every time we say the Lord's prayer.
Twisted Tale
Over many centuries, a debate has consistently been waged on this question: does God reward us for our good acts and punish us for the evil we do? The positive answer to that equation has been promoted by moralists who insist that God dispenses rewards and punishments according to our actions. Let's call them PROVERS. .These moralists think that pain and accidents prove God's punishment for evil.
However, some moralists have investigated that idea more deeply. Call them PROBERS. These thinkers see that if a person prospers or suffers, these are not the result of God's intervention.
Of course, there is no proof of either position. So the debate continues, fueled largely by the moralists who want to promote goodness by predicting divine punishments and rewards.
Some centuries before Christ, a group of PROBERS decided to demonstrate their conviction by telling a story about a man who suffered unduly. They pictured a man who was a model of moral behavior, admirable in every way. But he suffered accident, illness and family disaster. Friends of the suffering man visited him regularly, accusing him of sinful actions -or else, why would God punish him so severely?
In order to make the story realistic, they gave the sufferer a name: Job. And to make sure that everyone who heard the story knew it was make-believe, the narrators opened the story with a fantasy debate between God and the devil.
Now, the central story is long, consisting mostly of the friends' unyielding efforts to persuade Job that he is a sinner - or else, why would he be suffering? Job is just as certain that he is guiltless, and he defends himself vigorously. A grand conclusion comes when God appears in majestic form and tells both Job and his friends to quit judging what God will or will not do. God's majesty is far beyond human calculation; his judgments are beyond man's analysis.
The PROBERS have made a strong conclusion, carefully argued and decisively stated. But, as the strong determination of the PROVERS held that God's judgment favors the righteous and rejects the evil man, their editors dreamed up a new ending to the story, portraying the good man Job recovering his health, possessions and family after all. This violation of the original story is a shameful reversal of the lesson the PROBERS intended. But it attached itself to the wonderful picture the PROBERS drew. And because that second ending was included in early translations, we Bible readers today are the victims of this awful hoax. It's a twisted tale!
However, some moralists have investigated that idea more deeply. Call them PROBERS. These thinkers see that if a person prospers or suffers, these are not the result of God's intervention.
Of course, there is no proof of either position. So the debate continues, fueled largely by the moralists who want to promote goodness by predicting divine punishments and rewards.
Some centuries before Christ, a group of PROBERS decided to demonstrate their conviction by telling a story about a man who suffered unduly. They pictured a man who was a model of moral behavior, admirable in every way. But he suffered accident, illness and family disaster. Friends of the suffering man visited him regularly, accusing him of sinful actions -or else, why would God punish him so severely?
In order to make the story realistic, they gave the sufferer a name: Job. And to make sure that everyone who heard the story knew it was make-believe, the narrators opened the story with a fantasy debate between God and the devil.
Now, the central story is long, consisting mostly of the friends' unyielding efforts to persuade Job that he is a sinner - or else, why would he be suffering? Job is just as certain that he is guiltless, and he defends himself vigorously. A grand conclusion comes when God appears in majestic form and tells both Job and his friends to quit judging what God will or will not do. God's majesty is far beyond human calculation; his judgments are beyond man's analysis.
The PROBERS have made a strong conclusion, carefully argued and decisively stated. But, as the strong determination of the PROVERS held that God's judgment favors the righteous and rejects the evil man, their editors dreamed up a new ending to the story, portraying the good man Job recovering his health, possessions and family after all. This violation of the original story is a shameful reversal of the lesson the PROBERS intended. But it attached itself to the wonderful picture the PROBERS drew. And because that second ending was included in early translations, we Bible readers today are the victims of this awful hoax. It's a twisted tale!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Prove It!
Over the centuries, an Easter cry has been made by Christians: " Christ is risen.". That proclamation has meant to many people that the body of Jesus was somehow transformed and became a living being again. That miracle is the foundation of many Christian's faith.
Three important messages are here in those three words. First, it is Christ who is risen. Not the body of Jesus the man but the spiritual being, God's offspring. It is Christ the embodiment of God, the carrier of God's presence.
Second, the verb tells us that this is not a historical event but a fact, a declaration. The verb "is" proclaims that something exists. And that something is the spirit of the living God, the Christ.
Third, the statement CHRIST IS RISEN is a personal commitment. The world listens to the Christian who cries it and says "PROVE IT. You claim to be the body of Christ risen. Show us by your actions that the spirit of Christ lives in you. Your actions, your words, your decisions, your acts of love and forgiveness -these alone can justify your cry!"
Yes, crowds of people shouting "Christ is risen" are not convincing. The world looks for that Christ to appear, to be visible in our lives.
Three important messages are here in those three words. First, it is Christ who is risen. Not the body of Jesus the man but the spiritual being, God's offspring. It is Christ the embodiment of God, the carrier of God's presence.
Second, the verb tells us that this is not a historical event but a fact, a declaration. The verb "is" proclaims that something exists. And that something is the spirit of the living God, the Christ.
Third, the statement CHRIST IS RISEN is a personal commitment. The world listens to the Christian who cries it and says "PROVE IT. You claim to be the body of Christ risen. Show us by your actions that the spirit of Christ lives in you. Your actions, your words, your decisions, your acts of love and forgiveness -these alone can justify your cry!"
Yes, crowds of people shouting "Christ is risen" are not convincing. The world looks for that Christ to appear, to be visible in our lives.
Good Samaritan
The most familiar story in the New Testament is about an alienated man doing an extraordinary act of compassion. Jesus concluded the story with a question about being a good neighbor. My ending is different: when the injured man asks the Samaritan why he did this act of mercy, the Samaritan said "I did it so that God might exist."
What the Samaritan did was to transform God from being a distant idea to being a present fact. In that act, the divine dream becomes a reality. The unimaginable turns out to be real.
When we love, God becomes tangible. That is true when we forgive. . . when we work for justice or peace or healing. It is as though God is waiting for us to let Him/Her loose in our lives.
That old question that asks "do believe in the existence of God?" cannot be answered with YES or NO. It can only be answered by enabling your conception of God to act.
Through the ages, theologians have speculated noisily about the nature of God. That continuing debate provides stimulating discussion. Bit if we really mean it when we pray "thy will be done", we are responsible for bringing God's will Into existence. Apart from that action, God is but a concept.
What the Samaritan did was to transform God from being a distant idea to being a present fact. In that act, the divine dream becomes a reality. The unimaginable turns out to be real.
When we love, God becomes tangible. That is true when we forgive. . . when we work for justice or peace or healing. It is as though God is waiting for us to let Him/Her loose in our lives.
That old question that asks "do believe in the existence of God?" cannot be answered with YES or NO. It can only be answered by enabling your conception of God to act.
Through the ages, theologians have speculated noisily about the nature of God. That continuing debate provides stimulating discussion. Bit if we really mean it when we pray "thy will be done", we are responsible for bringing God's will Into existence. Apart from that action, God is but a concept.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Now is the Time!
As I look over the Christian church across the world, I join God as He "sits in His heaven and laughs". What strikes me as humorous is the determination of so many to make some past insights meaningful despite their terrible deficiencies. Catholics are intent on ushering Thomas and Augustine into the 21st century. Lutherans try to make Luther a theological hero. Presbyterians still try to solve Calvin's predestination. Evangelicals pursue the 20th century insistence on the Five Fundamentals. All of them are applying some outworn idea to a new world.
I think of the seventeenth century as the beginning of the modern era. That century saw the urgency of the people replacing the power of the monarchy.
That century saw Galileo challenge the authority of tradition and dogma. That century brought the Pilgrims insisting that God's revelation does not depend on kings and councils. A new age was being born.
Call it the age of science - or of democracy - it upended the the formation of truth by crediting the experience of investigative people, researchers or scientists. One curious event demonstrates the big change: Fra Lippo Lippi was dismissed from his monastery because he drew a picture of a tree with the green leaves he saw instead of the brown leaves required by medieval artistic standards.
We have lived in the midst of this learning community for several centuries. And we are still reluctant to let of our nostalgic dependence on the past. This week's news has focused on pageantry with the Queen of England and an obsession with the Pope. They reflect our reluctance to move away from ancient authority to modern discovery.
How can the church speak to people today when its language and ideas and information are rooted in a different language? How can people schooled in evolution and space travel and computers and relativity and ego analysis subdue their intelligence and their culture to embrace that outworn past?
God must be laughing!
I think of the seventeenth century as the beginning of the modern era. That century saw the urgency of the people replacing the power of the monarchy.
That century saw Galileo challenge the authority of tradition and dogma. That century brought the Pilgrims insisting that God's revelation does not depend on kings and councils. A new age was being born.
Call it the age of science - or of democracy - it upended the the formation of truth by crediting the experience of investigative people, researchers or scientists. One curious event demonstrates the big change: Fra Lippo Lippi was dismissed from his monastery because he drew a picture of a tree with the green leaves he saw instead of the brown leaves required by medieval artistic standards.
We have lived in the midst of this learning community for several centuries. And we are still reluctant to let of our nostalgic dependence on the past. This week's news has focused on pageantry with the Queen of England and an obsession with the Pope. They reflect our reluctance to move away from ancient authority to modern discovery.
How can the church speak to people today when its language and ideas and information are rooted in a different language? How can people schooled in evolution and space travel and computers and relativity and ego analysis subdue their intelligence and their culture to embrace that outworn past?
God must be laughing!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Triple Threat
Our minds like to deal with certainties, facts that can be certified. But certainties are rare, and we are required to live on beliefs, convictions, and dreams.
A close view of this situation can be seen in Prospero's clear statement at the climax of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. Prospero looks over the stage which has just been filled with actors and scenery, and he points at the insubstantial nature of the scene:
First, the actors have "vanished into thin air". Second, the cloud-capped towers and solemn temples of the stage prove to be formed of "baseless fabric which is soon dissolved". Finally, our lives are depicted as "the stuff dreams are made of". But Prosperous is not proposing that the drama just staged is meaningless.
What is suggested here about the real world we inhabit? I think he is saying that human life is brief and meaningless without those dreams. Human concerns like beauty, honor, love, justice and truth are without substance. They are creations of the human mind which give us what little "stuff" is available to us.
We don't need to despair over our lack of certainty or substance. We have the capacity to be nourished by music, encouraged by poetry, strengthened by drama, satisfied with scientific progress, affirmed by our faith, fulfilled with our belief in family. These are compelling realities that give us meaning despite their insubstantial nature. Rejoice in them!
A close view of this situation can be seen in Prospero's clear statement at the climax of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. Prospero looks over the stage which has just been filled with actors and scenery, and he points at the insubstantial nature of the scene:
First, the actors have "vanished into thin air". Second, the cloud-capped towers and solemn temples of the stage prove to be formed of "baseless fabric which is soon dissolved". Finally, our lives are depicted as "the stuff dreams are made of". But Prosperous is not proposing that the drama just staged is meaningless.
What is suggested here about the real world we inhabit? I think he is saying that human life is brief and meaningless without those dreams. Human concerns like beauty, honor, love, justice and truth are without substance. They are creations of the human mind which give us what little "stuff" is available to us.
We don't need to despair over our lack of certainty or substance. We have the capacity to be nourished by music, encouraged by poetry, strengthened by drama, satisfied with scientific progress, affirmed by our faith, fulfilled with our belief in family. These are compelling realities that give us meaning despite their insubstantial nature. Rejoice in them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)