SCRIPTURE IN LIMERICKS

Time with Jesus - 24 Aug. 2013

Hi all,

The title of one of my favourite books is “Which Bible Can We Trust”. It was written by Les Garrett, an Australian pastor. In the book, he asks how we know that what we read in our Bibles is the Word of God? It’s a very small question which we should take seriously. Particularly for those of us who regard the Bible as the inerrant Word of God! Now it’s clear that the Bible was not originally written in English. God is not an Englishman! It was written mainly in two languages; Hebrew and Coiné Greek. There are one or two portions written in other languages. However, for what we are looking at today, the languages of the Bible are Hebrew and Coiné Greek. This was the spoken language of the day in the Roman world. It’s much the same way as English is the spoken international language of our day. (Please don’t tell the French)

The first question to ask is, if any of us can read and write Hebrew and/or Coiné Greek. If so, you are off to a good start in reading and understanding the Bible. If, like me, you are reasonably proficient in English and have a modicum of knowledge of Afrikaans, it doesn’t help giving me a Hebrew or Greek Bible. For most of us, a reliable translation into English is not an alternative. So if I hand you a smart leather-bound book with the words “Holy Bible” written on the front, how can you tell if it’s the Bible and not the collected works of Darwin? Frankly you can’t. Not unless there is something written on it, or in it stating, “This is the Bible”. Fortunately, there is!

When Queen Elizabeth 1 died, on March 24, 1603, the crown of England passed to a man named James I. He had already worn the crown of Scotland for thirty-seven years as James VI. Some months after his coming to England, James summoned a conference of churchmen and theologians to Hampton Court “for the hearing, and for the determining, things pretended to be amiss in the church”. Nothing much came about from the Hampton Court conference. It was held in January of 1604. The exception was the resolution taken that a translation should be made of the whole Bible. It was proposed by the Puritan leader John Reynolds, that the new translation, would be as close to original Hebrew and Greek as it could possibly be.

54 men, including High Churchmen and Puritans, the greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars of their day, went about the task of translating the Bible into English. Using their Greek sources and relying on the best commentaries and translations available at that time from Europe, they expressed the sense of the Greek in clear, vigorous and idiomatic English. This Bible became the standard for all Bibles in the English Speaking World. The translation work was completed in 1611. It was then printed and published as the Authorised Version (AV) in UK, which is virtually the same as the King James Version (KJV) in USA.

Only in the 1860’s was there a challenger to the AV/KJV. Older manuscripts were discovered. One, “Codex Siniaticus” was found in the “waste paper basket” in St Catherine’s monastery on Mt Sinai. The other Codex Vaticanus was “discovered” in the Vatican. Apparently it had been hidden and was only “found” some 1200 years later. The question we need to ask is whether or not older is more accurate? Scholars of those days, in particular Dr Westcott and Dr Hort, in UK believed this to be the case. Neither of them believed in the inerrancy of Scripture, so older “had to be” better. However, is older better? This “dips” into the field of Textual Criticism. Accordingly there’s little I can add.

Today, there is a plethora of English translations of the Bible. Most of those printed after WW1 have relied on Westcott and Hort’s Greek text. This includes the New International Version (NIV) which is my favourite. But is it a genuine translation or just another collection of the works of Darwin? Sure it says NIV on the front. An NIV which some claim to mean the “Nearly Infallible Version”! See below

VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS OF MATTHEW 13:51		Comment
(KJV)	Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, LORD.	This is a small example of how Codex Siniaticus and Vaticanus have “downgraded” the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In the KJV+ the word LORD (G2962) is missing from the NASB+ In other words the translation of the earlier manuscript does not contain the word “LORD”. If so, why was it taken out? You tell me. This is only one deletion. There are literally 100’s of others. Furthermore, many verses and passages have been omitted. G2962 refers to Strong’s numbers in his Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Buy Les Garrett’s book and see for yourself! Available from Amazon. First printing was in 1982
(KJV+)	JesusG2424 saithG3004 unto them,G846 Have ye understoodG4920 allG3956 these things? TheyG5023 sayG3004 unto him,G846 Yea,G3483 LORD.G2962
(MKJV	Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things? They said to Him, Yes, LORD.
THE WORD LORD HAS BEEN DELETED FROM THE FOLLOWING QUOTES
(ASV)	Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea.
(ESV)	"Have you understood all these things?" They said to him, "Yes."
(GW)	"Have you understood all of this?" "Yes," they answered.
(MSG)	Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?" They answered, "Yes."
(NAS77)	"Have you understood all these things?" They *said to Him, "Yes."
(NASB)	"Have you understood all these things?" They *said to Him, "Yes."
(NASB+	"Have you understoodG4920 allG3956 theseG3778 thingsG3778?" They *saidG3004 to Him, "YesG3483a."
(NIrV)	"Do you understand all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied.
(NIV)	"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied.
(NLT)	Do you understand all these things?" "Yes," they said, "we do."
(TNIV)	"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied.

Which would you prefer? In my book, Jesus is Lord. His Divinity is not contested.  For me, the AV / KJV is the more accurate! Have fun!

Shalom

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 24 Aug. 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
©	These devotionals are the intellectual property of Jim Strickland and copyright protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute them to anyone provided it is for non-commercial Christian purposes						©
	INTRODUCTION		DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	SCRIPTURE IN LIMERICKS
I wonder how many of us remember the great comedian and concert pianist, Victor Borge. Sometimes called the “Clown Prince of Denmark”, he had a way with the piano and words that appealed to many people. I first heard him while still at school. He was telling us all about inflation in English. How since the war “Tuesday”, should be “Threes-day” You haven’t “won” the race you have “twod” the race. “Unfortunately” became “Twofivethreeninely” As a pianist he was exceptional. While playing the Minute Waltz he would discuss the uses of the tune as an egg-timer. For me, the very best was his phonetic pronunciation. He would make strange sounds representing full-stops, commas, exclamation marks and inverted commas. I loved his zany comedy and listened carefully to how he would play the works of some of the great composers. Then in the middle, without skipping a beat he would include, in an identical style, the tune, “Happy Birthday to you”. For me, punctuation has always been a problem. Where do you put what? As for colons, semi-colons and full stops, where should they be? So I have a tendency to leave them out while writing. Then I have to go back and litter them liberally all over the page. I must confess that without Phyllida looking at what I’ve written, my spelling and grammar would border on the classic comedy of “The Great Dane”. This difficulty with punctuation expresses itself best when I put together my truncated limericks. The 7, 2, 2, 3 style lends itself to not being sure what should go where as I’m sure most of you will have already noticed. I may have done well as a scribe when Greek words were all compressed together, so that no one was quite sure where one word started or ended.  For example, “The cat sat on the mat” would be “thecatsatonthemat”. The clever bit was reading and understanding what was written. A case in point from the days when my mother did the crossword puzzle; I asked her on one occasion, what was a “castironalibi”? It’s a “cast iron alibi” she commented. Something a little closer to the bone, we have an interesting puzzle in the English translation of Jesus’ words, to the dying thief on the cross. Jesus’ said to him were, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise." But if I adjust the punctuation I read:  "I tell you the truth today, you will be with Me in paradise." Luke 23:43 NIV  Notice that the words are exactly the same. But by moving the comma one word to the right, the meaning changes. Jesus was not telling the thief they will both be in Paradise on the day of the crucifixion. He was saying to the thief, they will be in Paradise together. This latter understanding seems to be better than our usual one. If I’m correct, what this means is that sometime between the original, and what we have today, the comma was misplaced. Since they weren’t there anyway, it would not be difficult. I do it regularly. So perhaps I’m not as bad a scribe as I thought? Hopefully, one day we will all be together in Paradise with Jesus and Victor Borge. We’ll ask Victor to please read the Scripture for us complete with the phonetic punctuation. That should finally settle it. The thief will probably have a good laugh and say how wonderful it is to be with Jesus in Paradise! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day. Night comes when no man can work. John 9:4 MKJV	I have to keep on working while there is still the time. There is no light, In darkest night, When people turn to crime.		Almighty God has sent me, to work while it is day. When I am done, His only Son, Will surely pass away.
			4 People who refuse to work want things and get nothing. But the longings of people who work hard are completely satisfied. Proverbs 13:4 NIrV	Idle hands don’t prosper, nor do they get their pay. There’s no reward, From Christ the Lord, In any kind of way!		But those whose hands are dirty; calloused, hard and rough. They will succeed, And if they need, He’ll see they have enough!
			25 The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25 NLT	The generous will prosper, It is God’s perfect law. There’ll be no lack. He will pay back, More than there was before.		But this is not just money, it’s also help and aid. Refresh a friend, And in the end, In kindness you’ll be paid.
			34 Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent Me, and from finishing His work. 35 You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! John 4:34-36 NLT	Look closely at My person; God’s will and food are one. My heart desires, What He requires, Until all time has gone!		Of course it takes some patience, but don’t be in a rush. At the right time, The crop will climb, All rich and green and lush.
				The farmer doesn’t panic. The crop is sure to sprout. It will not fail. And only hail, Can keep the reapers out!		Their harvest for the future? Eternal life with Me. Their great reward, Is from the Lord. From sin and death set free.
			1 "God's kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work. Matthew 20:1-2 MSG	God’s Kingdom’s like a farmer when it was harvest time. He found some men, And hired them. One dollar each was fine!		And so they started working and it was very hot. But they’d agreed, The wage they’d need, And that is what they got!
			2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favourable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2 NLT	Paul gave the injunction, to preach God’s Holy Word. The time is here, So have no fear. Make sure that all have heard!		Rebuke, correct, encourage your people when you teach. Do not hold back. Launch the attack, And many more you’ll reach.
			13 So he sent for ten of his servants. He gave them each about three months' pay. 'Put this money to work until I come back,' he said. Luke 19:13 NIrV	He gave his servants money. Each one got three month’s pay. “Diligently, Invest for me. I’m coming home one day”!		Some servants were successful. A profit they had made. One never tried. The master cried, “My trust you have betrayed!
			10 But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favour on me--and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10 NLT	Don’t congratulate me and say, “Look what he’s done”. It was God’s grace, That set the pace. The victory He’s won!		I’m absolutely nothing apart from what He’s made. His life in me, All men must see! My life must surely fade.
				Jim Strickland Written 24th August 2012