Bible 101: From the Septuagint to the Message

Text: John 1:1-14, 2 Timothy 3:16-17

First question I have for all of you… how many of you felt like last week’s discussion of quantum mechanics and elephants was a tiny bit over your head?
That’s okay!
Each week we are going to explore a different way of approaching the bible and a different part of its history, so to make up for all of the science last week, I thought we might start this morning by playing a little game.

NAME THAT TRANSLATION!
I do not promise that you will get all of the answers right… but I do promise you will learn something in the process!!!

John 1:6-8 The Message (MSG)
6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

This bible was created and translated by Eugene Peterson between 1993 and 2002. He went back to the original languages and his goal was not to translate word for word, but to get the sense of the phrases in the original text and convey the idea. This is an idiomatic translation – or translating phrases rather than words.

 

John 1:6-8 Wycliffe Bible (WYC)
6 A man was sent from God, to whom the name was John.
7 This man came into witnessing, that he should bear witnessing of the light, that all men should believe by him.
8 He was not that light, but that he should bear witnessing of the light.

The Wycliffe bible is a whole group of translations that were made in the 14th century into Middle English. Most Christians at this time only had access to scriptures through hearing them orally or through seeing verses in Latin. In some ways, his goal was the same as Peterson’s – to translate the bible into the common vernacular. They worked not from the original languages, but from the Latin version of scripture – the Vulgate.

 

John 1:6-8 Mounce Reverse-Interlinear New Testament (MOUNCE)
There came on the scene a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear testimony about he light so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear testimony about the light.

This version of the bible was created for people who wanted to study the bible and explore the original languages… but who didn’t actually know Greek! The purpose is to help teach a little bit of Greek at a time. A traditional “interlinear” bible would use the Greek word order and then show the English word for word correlary – but that makes the sentence structure hard to understand. So the Mounce version starts with the English sentence structure and then adds in the Greek words.

I will often use a version like this to discover what the Greek was and then I can go back and consult a Greek dictionary to see if there are other meanings or how it is used elsewhere in scripture.

 

John 1:6-8 King James Version (KJV)

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

The King James Version is a translation into English that took seven years from 1604-1611. King James oversaw the translation himself – giving instructions to make sure that this translation would capture the structure and polity of the Church of England. 47 scholars were used in the translation and they went back to the original languages for their translation, adapting them slightly with known Septuagint and Vulgate texts.

Fun fact: The English alphabet at the time had no J!  So it was King Iames Bible which talked about Iesus Christ.

 

John 1:6-8 Common English Bible (CEB)
6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. 8 He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.

This is a very new translation of the bible which is distributed by Abingdon Press, the United Methodist denominational publisher. The goal was to make the bible accessible for people today and easy to read, aiming for a seventh-grade reading level. They also wanted it to appeal broadly to many cultural contexts over 120 scholars from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. More than twenty-four denominations were involved in its work. The key feature is that instead of churchy and traditionally biblical words, you will find more seeker-friendly words.

 

In various letters,Paul writes to the young man, Timothy, whom he is mentoring in the faith. Along with advice and doctrine, one of the things he reminds him is that the scriptures help him to be wise and give him the words he needs to help others grow. He includes that famous line “every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We read that passage within our own biblical texts and we automatically apply that sentiment to the whole of scripture. This entire text has been inspired by God and it is useful for helping us understand who we are and whose we are.
One thing that often fails to cross our minds is that the Bible that Paul and Timothy were reading was very different than the ones we have in our hands today.
Early Christians spoke Greek – the language of the empire – and the scriptures that they would have been basing their teaching and writing from would have been a Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures known as the Septuagint.

When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire (which would have included Jerusalem and the people of Israel), Greek became the common tongue. He was known not only for conquering vast swaths of land, but he also collected books and scrolls for his library at Alexandria.
Seventy-two scholars were employed to translate the Torah, two hundred years before Christ, and it took them only seventy two days to recreate those first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The very name, Septuagint (LXX) comes from the seventy days and seventy people.
Tradition has it six scholars from each of the twelve tribes (or seventy two people) were each asked to do so independently… and independently recreated identical versions of the Torah.

Talk about inspired!
The authors of the New Testament frequently relied upon this Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in their own writing, so it is likely that Paul and Timothy were referring to the Septuagint in their own discourse and as they were teaching others about the faith.
Christian father, Jerome, however, working around 400 years after Christ, instead turned back to the original Hebrew. His translation of the scriptures into Latin is known as the Vulgate and was used by others in their further translations into English.

But something I think we often don’t think about is how we got from there to here… how that inspiration of God works… and what it means when we open up our bibles and read vastly different things.
A couple of weeks ago, one of the passages that we were all invited to read as part of the Bible 101 challenge was a selection from Job 38.
In some of the final chapters, as God kind of puts Job in his place by rattling off a whole series of ways that God is superior and cosmic and knows everything from the time when eggs will hatch to the course of stars in the skies… some of us read about a gigantic hippopotamus… and others read about the behemoth. Some of us read about a huge alligator and others read about the Leviathan.
There is a world of difference between a hippopotamus and a mythic beast.
So what gives?

As we went through some of those various translations, one of the things that you may have heard is that the purpose of each of our translators is different.
Some are trying to give us a word for word exact replica into a new language… and if there isn’t an equivalent word, sometimes they just use the word from the original text.
Some are trying to merely get the sentiment of a phrase, with idiomatic translations and so they might try to say the same thing or explain the original phrase with more words in the process.
Others are trying to make the bible as accessible as possible… and to use words or concepts that are foreign to our ears like behemoth don’t help. They find the closest equivalent in English, in this case, and simply allow the meaning to change slightly.

It is always good to understand what the motivations might have been behind the translation of the bible YOU are using, because it might help you get a sense of how to approach that text. And when you read from a variety of translations, you get a fuller sense of how God has been speaking to people throughout time and place.
Because in the end, each author and translator began their work, inspired by God, in order to help bring to a new generation in a new time and place the messages of God.
While the exact words might differ and the phrases might not match, they are inspired to share what is “useful one way or another – showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 MSG) Thanks be to God. Amen.

God Loves Sinners

I am a person who does not get lost. Never in my life can I remember a time when I didn’t know where I was or how I was going to get where I needed to go next. I have always been a very spatial person, and so if you give me a map, I can not only find my way somewhere – but on the route, I can tell you alternative directions. I am an EXCELLENT navigator… at least when I can remember my rights from my lefts.

In high school, I was a part of speech and drama and music – which meant we went to many contests at other schools throughout the year. The group was always trying to find their way around the new building and in the first half hour that we had been in the building, I had it all figured out. I knew where to be when, I helped out others who were lost. I never got lost.

The same goes with driving. I like to figure out new ways to get places and sometimes I run into obstacles or dead ends, but that just presents new opportunites to learn about what way not to go next time. When my friend, Stasia, was learning how to drive – her mom would often suggest that I accompany her in the car… and we never got lost as long as we were together. I do not get lost.

I do, however, lose things. Oh boy, do I lose things. This past week, I had to buy a new pair of earbuds – little headphones that fit into your ear canal very comfortable, because I lost the pair I had. And in nearly every single move that I have made in my life – I have lost my car keys. When I moved out of the house I lived in at Simpson College – I literally packed my keys up with my other belongings and sent them home in the truck… two hours later, I realized my keys were back in Cedar Rapids and me and my car were still in Indianola.

And of course… I lost one of my monkeys this morning =)   [Reference to the children’s moment… sent the kids out in the sanctuary to find my lost monkey]

Today, in Luke’s gospel we get to spend some time in the parables of the lost… the lost sheep, the lost coin, and if we kept reading – the lost son… the child who takes his inheritance and runs off, squanders it all and returns home. Now that word, parable, is simply a short brief story that tells us a moral lesson… kind of like the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. It doesn’t matter if its true or not – the point is what it teaches us about who we are and how we live.

Luke groups all of these lost parables together, because Jesus has a message for us about who we are and how we are to live.

You see, at the beginning of this chapter, Jesus has sat down for some supper with some quite unsavory characters. He was eating with tax collectors and sinners. Ooooo….

What? Does that not trouble you? The idea that Jesus would sit down with a tax collector? That’s probably because tax collectors today – our friendly and unhelpful IRS agents are not typically people we think of as unsavory. But who would be? Who would be scandalous to eat with here in Marengo?

Perhaps a gathering of area gays and lesbians invited Jesus over for dinner? Or the Muslim community in Cedar Rapids? Or prostitutes from Waterloo? What if Jesus was sitting down to eat with a bunch of liars and adulterers? Or murderers and meth makers?

Would we be upset? Would our feathers be ruffled just a little bit? Would we stop in our tracks and stare?

The Pharisees sure did. They walked by the house where Jesus was having this grand old feast with a bunch of sinners and they started to whisper. They started to grumble. They started to complain… that fellow welcomes sinners! And not only that – he eats with them!!!
Photo by Martin Baldwin
And so loud enough so that they could hear – Jesus begins to tell these stories about the lost. About the shepherd that leaves behind the entire rest of the flock to seek out the one lost sheep. About the woman who burns the oil a single coin was worth in order to seek out the coin that was lost.
And when they find those lost things – Jesus said – there will be great rejoicing… and in the same way God seeks the lost people of this world… and God rejoices when he finds them.
I may not know what it is like to be lost and not know my way home… but I do know what it is like to have lost something. I know the desperation of seeking out that thing that I need – the thing that I love. I know how important it is.
And so in some small way, I can understand what it might be like for God when he seeks out the lost of this world.
What is harder to understand is that I am someone who has been and who probably still is lost. What is harder to accept and acknowledge is that we are sinners, that there are parts of our lives we still hold back from God. We are really good at being oblivious little sheep, wandering away from the flock and not realizing it.
Whether it is a habit of telling lies, or the anger you harbor in your heart. Whether it is simply the fact that you like spending more time playing football than thinking about your faith journey. Whether it is the way that you use and abuse the gifts of God’s creation, or the prideful idea you have stuck in your head that you can do it yourself and you don’t need God’s help… We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God.
That is an ugly fact about each and every single one of us. As much as we might try to white wash it and pretend its not so – at the very least, let us take comfort in the fact that we are all sinners. We are in this together. We have all fallen short of the glory of God.
That is what Paul reminds his young friend Timothy in our first reading from today. Paul – that great pioneer of the faith – proclaims out loud for all to hear that he was a blasphemer, a persecuter, and a man of violence – a man who loved to do violence for violence sake… a torturer. I am the foremost of sinners, Paul says. Note, he doesn’t say – I was the foremost of sinners… but I am the foremost of sinners. It is like how addicts are taught to think of their addictions not in the past tense, but in the present tense… I am an alcoholic. I am a chocoholic.  I am a sinner. I will always live my life with the temptation to sin at my doorstep. I am a sinner.
And not only that, Paul says, but I am the foremost of sinners. I’m the worst one out there, because I killed people who followed Jesus and I liked it. I took pride in it. I was the best at what I did. And yet… And yet… God chose ME to serve his church.

God sought me, the foremost of sinners out, because God seeks the lost. Jesus came to save sinners. God came to save me, and God came to save you.

Can I hear an Amen!
There is one last piece of this story that I think we need to remember… a man named Rodger Nishioka tells the story of a time he was a part of an ecumenical team in Alaska: Presbyterians working alongside Russian Orthodox. In the course of their work, he had referred to this so familiar “Parable of the Lost Sheep” with some of the RO folks when someone interrupted him and asked him which parable he meant.
For a moment there, I can imagine Mr. Nishioka thought these Russian Orthodox folks didn’t know their bibles very well. And so he summarized the story about the shepherd looking for the one sheep that had gone missing from the flock of 100. The Russian Orthodox priest looked at him and said, “Oh! You mean the Parable of the incomplete flock.”
In the eyes of that tradition, God was concerned about the one sheep that went missing, because without that one sheep – the 100 would not be complete. God desires all of his children to come home… and the family is only complete when each and every single one of us is sought out.
Many of you know that my family is incomplete right now – that there is division on my dad’s side of the family that I have no idea how to reconcile. And it hurts. I know that many of you have experienced this kind of separation and pain in your lives, too. To be incomplete as a family is an ugly and bitter thing…
But if we remember from last week, God desires us to move beyond our immediate families and to follow him. To follow him in seeking out our brothers and sisters in this world who are lost. To follow him in his diligent search to find them and tell them how much they are loved.
Our family is incomplete without the rest of our brothers and sisters. The family of God is incomplete without the folks from the county jail, and without those prostitutes in Waterloo, and without our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, and without our Jewish and Muslim and Buddhist brothers and sisters.

Our family is incomplete as long as we hold those people at a distance who we believe are unworthy, or unfaithful, or uninterested. Our family is incomplete if we act in hatred and anger towards our brothers and sisters. Our family is incomplete if we are unwilling to sit down and have a meal with one another.

As much hatred and anger and division is in the world… we know that God seeks out his children. And I know we are called to seek out our brothers and sisters in love and in respect. Let us be found by the Lord our shepherd… and let us go with him to all the world.

Amen.