My good friend, Dan and I are making a lifetime study of either forgotten or underrated people in the Bible. The reason for this is simple. While we wouldn't call ourselves evangelical types, 21st Century study has shown there have been significant errors in translations of the Bible. With modern archeology coupled with the digital age, we can re-evaluate the writings and learn more about the people contained in those ancient writings.
Take the Dead Sea Scrolls for example. It has taken approx. 40+ years to translate and substantially update the text on which we publish modern Bibles. Current translation techniques show as many as 30,000 errors in the King James Bible alone. What about all those jots and tittles?
We translate from languages that used hieroglyphs, such as the ancient Egyptians, and from languages that have no vowels in their written language. How do we even guess at what they wrote...and the funny thing is they translate grocery lists, laundry lists...to do lists, too. This isn't so different from today, but perhaps a grocery list can give us insight into a tiny fragment of daily life not so far back.
Pretty scary considering that the churches, Bible scholars and denominations who refuse to update their comfortable doctrines may continue to misrepresent the context assuming we can even begin to grasp cultures from a few thousand years ago. Add to that our need for violence and war acted upon and rationalized largely because of the crazy historical records of our dear beloved Bible.
What about peace and love and all the good stuff? Love your neighbor as yourself. Go in peace. The greatest commandment is love. Speaking of commandments, there are estimated to have been 613 actual commandments, not just 10...and let's all laugh at Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 1 ".....with the these 15......(crash) er...10 Commandments...."
The books were collected and canonized by whoever was appointed by whoever was in charge. The people in charge; the ones who wrote our History could do so because of wealth and power. Sound familiar? It's not so different now is it?
Mexico has a much different memory of history than we do in Texas. Which one is correct? and Why?
What are we afraid of if we learn that something written a long time ago actually has nothing to do with us?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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