Thursday, December 15, 2005
HOW CAN JUST ANY BIBLE BE THE "WORD OF GOD?"
STATEMENT OFTHE PROBLEM
"The Word of God" is certainly one of the most important topics that a Christian could ponder. Yet here we run into a bewildering array of views. On the so-called liberal side, there is the opinion that the Bible is not an infallible spiritual guide, or that even if there is an "infallible Word of God," then the Bible only obliquely represents it (as in Neo-Orthodoxy). However, I want to respond to a position on the extreme right; the idea that God has inspired and preserved one infallible Scripture for English speaking people, namely, the King James Version. On another blog, I have briefly discussed the textual issues, but here I want to respond to the idea that there can only be one "true Word of God" in every language.
Evangelicals believe that the Bible that God inspired was, in fact, the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that came from the hands of the biblical authors themselves, which are called the "autographs." From one point of view, the only fully inspired "Bible" would be a complete textually restored Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. That was and is God's Word in written form, and our English translations are only facsimiles of it.
Does this mean that we do not have God's Word in English? What if I don't know how to read Greek? Does the Lord demand that I learn Greek and Hebrew in order to understand His Word? What does the Bible say about God's Word, and especially about God's Word in other languages?
PART 1- THE NEW TESTAMENT USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The best place to begin is to see what the New Testament writers thought about the Old Testament. First, it's obvious that the written words of the Old Testament were seen by Jesus and the early Christians as coming from God and having divine authority in their lives. But let's unpack that a little more. In Romans 3, Paul throws out something interesting:
RO 3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
Paul says that the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God, referring to the Old Testament. What God said to Moses, Isaiah, King David, etc., were "the very words of God." In other words, GOD'S WORD was what He spoke to the prophets and writers of the Old Testament. This is not exactly the case with our English Bibles. Paul does not say that the very words of God were also entrusted to the Greeks, for as a trained Pharisee, Paul knew that the Old Testament was in Hebrew. He also knew that what he was writing in his letters was a Greek translation of those Hebrew words. He separates his Greek renderings from the "very words of God" in Hebrew. I am not saying that we do not have God's Word, but our English translations are not the "very words of God." They are instead "the very words of God given in Hebrew but translated into another language, in this case English."
Second, to show that even though a translation is not "the very words of God," it is STILL God's Word; note that the New Testament does many times quote the Old Testament- in Greek. For the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek (and called the Septuagint) a few hundred years before Jesus. This Greek translation WAS the Bible of the early Christian church, especially before the New Testament letters and gospels were gathered together into one book and copied and spread around. When the Old Testament was quoted (in Greek), it was given the full authority of God, and called "Scripture," as in 2 Tim 3:16 (more on this verse below):
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
(In fact Timothy is told to "devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture"; 1 tim 4:13, which for him would probably have been the Septuagint.)
Notice that nowhere in the New Testament does a writer say that you must only use God's Word in Hebrew, or that the Septuagint is the only preserved version of God's Word to Greek speaking people. It was recognized by Paul that the Jews had been given "the very words of God," but he has no problem expounding God's Word from the Greek, frequently quoting the Septuagint, yet never saying that the Septuagint was somehow more special than any other possible Greek translation.
PART 2- THE WORD OF GOD IN THE BIBLE
Before turning to how we should view the New Testament, we must pause and look at the phrase "the Word of God." What many people miss, is that the phrase "word of God" in the Bible rarely refers directly to the Bible.
1) It refers firstly to God's speaking directly to a person:
GE 15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision
1KI 12:22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God
LK 3:2 the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert
JN 3:34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
2) Secondly, in the NT, it refers to the message of the Gospel:
AC 4:31 spoke the word of God boldly (they shared the gospel)
AC 8:14 Samaria had accepted the word of God (the gospel)
2CO 2:17 we do not peddle the word of God for profit (Does NOT mean they were Gideon’s and only handed out Bibles for free!)
2CO 4:2 we do not use deception, nor do we distort the WORD OF GOD. On the contrary, by setting forth THE TRUTH plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if OUR GOSPEL is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. (Word of God, Truth, and Our Gospel are synonyms.)
3) Thirdly, THE WORD OF GOD in the Bible is above all else, CHRIST:
JN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word
REV 19:13 He is dressed in a robe, and his name is the Word of God
There are tons more examples, just not enough time. To sum up point 2:
There is NO place in the New Testament where the phrase "word of God" UNAMBIGUOUSLY REFERS TO THE BIBLE. (No, not even Hebrews 4:12.) The closest thing is Psalm 119, and even there "word" is synonymous with God's "ways," "precepts," commands," and "statutes," which is not a clear-cut identification with the text of the Old Testament.
PART 3- GOD GAVE US SCRIPTURES
Frequently, in the New Testament, the Bible is referred to as "Scripture" (33 times in the NIV, Greek "graphe"). Jesus calls it "Scripture," and quotes often from it. This is the also the word 2 Tim 3:16 uses. Look at it again, for it is one of the most important verses about the Bible that is in the entire Bible:
2TI 3: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In Greek, Paul calls Scripture "theopneustos," which literally means "God-breathed," as in the NIV. (The KJV "given by inspiration of God" reflects the idea well, but is not nearly as literal as the NIV. It's interesting to see the "literal translation" engage in "thought for thought" translating, and the "thought for thought" version getting more literal!)
Therefore, our Bibles should probably be called "God's Breath." (Obviously no one will seriously make that change in terms!) God's Word (which is Jesus, which is also the good news about Jesus, which God speaks inwardly to our hearts) certainly comes to us through our reading of "God's Breath." Whenever we read our English versions, He “breathes" into it; at least when it is using words that communicate the message and ideas that He is wanting to say. Wherever a Bible translation (any one) is communicating ideas that are NOT what God is saying, then God is NOT speaking through it at that place.
(I am not trying to push one of the doctrines of "Neo-orthodoxy," that the Bible "contains" God's word, but is not synonymous with it; or that some parts of the Bible are God's Word, and others are not. Read on, please.)
I'm just trying to show how the Bible talks about how God Himself works through the Bible when we read it. His Word (more than just the Bible) speaks directly to our heart:
HEB 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
The writer is talking about more than the Bible, for he or she refers to God's sight as well. This is describing the very action of God in speaking to people throughout the world. Because God's Word is more, much more, than a written record in a certain language, God is able to speak to us through any of our Bibles.
PART 4- THE ARGUMENT STATED LOGICALLY
Here is another way of putting this: Think of the category of GOD'S WORD as a big circle:
(Click on the picture to see it more clearly.)
Since the Bible considers "God's Word" to be more than just the words of the Bible, as it includes God's speaking to our hearts as well as the general message of the Gospel (see PART 2), then the Bible would be a smaller circle inside the larger circle of God's Word.
Also, since the apostle Paul and other New Testament writers had no problems quoting the Hebrew Old Testament in Greek, frequently from a Greek translation (see PART 1), then we may add our translations to the category of God's Word, recognizing that they are not 100% identical to the original Scriptures, which of course were in different languages that may have conveyed different ideas than we have available to use in our own. The circle for our imperfect translations would be partly outside the big circle, but would mostly be concentric with the circle for the Bible as orginally given.
(The farther away a translation is from what God intended to say, the farther away from the circle of Scripture and God's Word it is depicted. Thus, the Jehovah's Witnesses' translation has various part outside the circle due to their changing some verses to fit their theology, and the Book of Mormon is completely outside the circle.)
However, if God's Word is shrunk down to mean only the Bible, then we are left with the problem of NOT having God's Word available to us EXCEPT in the original parchments or scrolls of the original writers.........and then we must hope that maybe perhaps God has also inspired a Bible in OUR language........and then we must somehow pick one particular version that has had some success, and christen it as divinely inspired itself:
(See figure 5.)
This seems to be the point where the King James Only position deviates from Scripture. The "Word of God" is completely equated with the Bible, and then specifically with the King James Bible. Either view does not square with how the Scriptures use the phrase "the word of God." Obviously, if the "word of God" is shrunk to mean only the Bible, then there might be an argument over which Bible- the King James, or maybe another translation? Yet when it is seen that the "word of God" in the Bible is actually more wide ranging than just the Bible (again, see Part 2), then we can see that we are not stuck having to pick only one version as authoritative, while condemming the rest.
However, as Christians who believe in 2 Timothy 3:16, we also acknowledge that the "Word of God" that God has chosen to put in the Bible is our only infallible and authoritative rule for our faith, doctrine, and practice. If anyone else comes along, claiming to have a "word of God" that adds to or contradicts the Bible, then we reject that "word." Even if someone comes along with a "word of prophecy," we know that the Bible (any version!) tells us to "weigh" that word, and to see if it really is God's direction, but also to never give it the same authority as Scripture. God's AUTHORITATIVE word is given in Scripture- both the Hebrew and Greek originals as well as our English renderings, in so far as they represent the originals. The gray areas where we argue over the correct textual reading or the correct translation of a word in no way impinge on the fact that God's Word has been transmitted to us, and has been translated into our language so that everyone may read and understand without a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.
We can be sure that God's Word IS bigger than the Bible, and that's why we can be sure that ALL OF THE BIBLE is God's Word (even.....gasp! ...the Song of Solomon), and that when we read a translation, we have God's actual Word translated in written form.
PART 5- GOD'S WORD IN ALL OF OUR BIBLES
I actually came to believe the Gospel (as Protestants understand it) through reading the Roman Catholic translation (New American Bible, NAB)- because it was God's Word. Even if the human translators mess it up in places, God still speaks through His Word. For example, God can (and does) speak through the Jehovah's Witnesses translation (New World Translation), even though they have twisted several of the verses, including John 1:1, in order to push their pet doctrines (Jesus is not God, etc.). And God certainly speaks loud and clear through the KJV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, NAB TEV, ESV, etc.
Finally on this point, it is to God's glory that He so deigns to speak to us through all of our fallible translations, instead of making every Christian learn to read Greek and Hebrew in order to read His Brea..uh...His Word. BUT, this is why we must make every endeavor, with His help and grace, and led by His Spirit, to see that we have the best rendition of what He first "breathed" to the writers of the Bible (the best Greek texts); and that our English translations are rendering the ideas of the foreign languages (Greek and Hebrew) into English into the best way so that people of every time (not just people in 1611) can read, understand, and hear God speak to them.
BECAUSE I believe that ALL of our English translations are God's Word, and are not to be identified with only one specific version; that is why I desire to spend my life:
-engaging in Textual Criticism, in order to refine our understanding of what the Greek New Testament (and Hebrew Old Testament) originally said.
-studying the languages, grammar, customs, and ideas of the people who wrote the Bible, so as to better understand what they meant in what they wrote.
-learning to preach and teach the same Word of God in a way that frees God up to speak ever more boldly to those listening.
"The Word of God" is certainly one of the most important topics that a Christian could ponder. Yet here we run into a bewildering array of views. On the so-called liberal side, there is the opinion that the Bible is not an infallible spiritual guide, or that even if there is an "infallible Word of God," then the Bible only obliquely represents it (as in Neo-Orthodoxy). However, I want to respond to a position on the extreme right; the idea that God has inspired and preserved one infallible Scripture for English speaking people, namely, the King James Version. On another blog, I have briefly discussed the textual issues, but here I want to respond to the idea that there can only be one "true Word of God" in every language.
Evangelicals believe that the Bible that God inspired was, in fact, the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that came from the hands of the biblical authors themselves, which are called the "autographs." From one point of view, the only fully inspired "Bible" would be a complete textually restored Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. That was and is God's Word in written form, and our English translations are only facsimiles of it.
Does this mean that we do not have God's Word in English? What if I don't know how to read Greek? Does the Lord demand that I learn Greek and Hebrew in order to understand His Word? What does the Bible say about God's Word, and especially about God's Word in other languages?
PART 1- THE NEW TESTAMENT USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The best place to begin is to see what the New Testament writers thought about the Old Testament. First, it's obvious that the written words of the Old Testament were seen by Jesus and the early Christians as coming from God and having divine authority in their lives. But let's unpack that a little more. In Romans 3, Paul throws out something interesting:
RO 3:1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
Paul says that the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God, referring to the Old Testament. What God said to Moses, Isaiah, King David, etc., were "the very words of God." In other words, GOD'S WORD was what He spoke to the prophets and writers of the Old Testament. This is not exactly the case with our English Bibles. Paul does not say that the very words of God were also entrusted to the Greeks, for as a trained Pharisee, Paul knew that the Old Testament was in Hebrew. He also knew that what he was writing in his letters was a Greek translation of those Hebrew words. He separates his Greek renderings from the "very words of God" in Hebrew. I am not saying that we do not have God's Word, but our English translations are not the "very words of God." They are instead "the very words of God given in Hebrew but translated into another language, in this case English."
Second, to show that even though a translation is not "the very words of God," it is STILL God's Word; note that the New Testament does many times quote the Old Testament- in Greek. For the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek (and called the Septuagint) a few hundred years before Jesus. This Greek translation WAS the Bible of the early Christian church, especially before the New Testament letters and gospels were gathered together into one book and copied and spread around. When the Old Testament was quoted (in Greek), it was given the full authority of God, and called "Scripture," as in 2 Tim 3:16 (more on this verse below):
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
(In fact Timothy is told to "devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture"; 1 tim 4:13, which for him would probably have been the Septuagint.)
Notice that nowhere in the New Testament does a writer say that you must only use God's Word in Hebrew, or that the Septuagint is the only preserved version of God's Word to Greek speaking people. It was recognized by Paul that the Jews had been given "the very words of God," but he has no problem expounding God's Word from the Greek, frequently quoting the Septuagint, yet never saying that the Septuagint was somehow more special than any other possible Greek translation.
PART 2- THE WORD OF GOD IN THE BIBLE
Before turning to how we should view the New Testament, we must pause and look at the phrase "the Word of God." What many people miss, is that the phrase "word of God" in the Bible rarely refers directly to the Bible.
1) It refers firstly to God's speaking directly to a person:
GE 15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision
1KI 12:22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God
LK 3:2 the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert
JN 3:34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.
2) Secondly, in the NT, it refers to the message of the Gospel:
AC 4:31 spoke the word of God boldly (they shared the gospel)
AC 8:14 Samaria had accepted the word of God (the gospel)
2CO 2:17 we do not peddle the word of God for profit (Does NOT mean they were Gideon’s and only handed out Bibles for free!)
2CO 4:2 we do not use deception, nor do we distort the WORD OF GOD. On the contrary, by setting forth THE TRUTH plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if OUR GOSPEL is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. (Word of God, Truth, and Our Gospel are synonyms.)
3) Thirdly, THE WORD OF GOD in the Bible is above all else, CHRIST:
JN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word
REV 19:13 He is dressed in a robe, and his name is the Word of God
There are tons more examples, just not enough time. To sum up point 2:
There is NO place in the New Testament where the phrase "word of God" UNAMBIGUOUSLY REFERS TO THE BIBLE. (No, not even Hebrews 4:12.) The closest thing is Psalm 119, and even there "word" is synonymous with God's "ways," "precepts," commands," and "statutes," which is not a clear-cut identification with the text of the Old Testament.
PART 3- GOD GAVE US SCRIPTURES
Frequently, in the New Testament, the Bible is referred to as "Scripture" (33 times in the NIV, Greek "graphe"). Jesus calls it "Scripture," and quotes often from it. This is the also the word 2 Tim 3:16 uses. Look at it again, for it is one of the most important verses about the Bible that is in the entire Bible:
2TI 3: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In Greek, Paul calls Scripture "theopneustos," which literally means "God-breathed," as in the NIV. (The KJV "given by inspiration of God" reflects the idea well, but is not nearly as literal as the NIV. It's interesting to see the "literal translation" engage in "thought for thought" translating, and the "thought for thought" version getting more literal!)
Therefore, our Bibles should probably be called "God's Breath." (Obviously no one will seriously make that change in terms!) God's Word (which is Jesus, which is also the good news about Jesus, which God speaks inwardly to our hearts) certainly comes to us through our reading of "God's Breath." Whenever we read our English versions, He “breathes" into it; at least when it is using words that communicate the message and ideas that He is wanting to say. Wherever a Bible translation (any one) is communicating ideas that are NOT what God is saying, then God is NOT speaking through it at that place.
(I am not trying to push one of the doctrines of "Neo-orthodoxy," that the Bible "contains" God's word, but is not synonymous with it; or that some parts of the Bible are God's Word, and others are not. Read on, please.)
I'm just trying to show how the Bible talks about how God Himself works through the Bible when we read it. His Word (more than just the Bible) speaks directly to our heart:
HEB 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
The writer is talking about more than the Bible, for he or she refers to God's sight as well. This is describing the very action of God in speaking to people throughout the world. Because God's Word is more, much more, than a written record in a certain language, God is able to speak to us through any of our Bibles.
PART 4- THE ARGUMENT STATED LOGICALLY
Here is another way of putting this: Think of the category of GOD'S WORD as a big circle:
(Click on the picture to see it more clearly.)
Since the Bible considers "God's Word" to be more than just the words of the Bible, as it includes God's speaking to our hearts as well as the general message of the Gospel (see PART 2), then the Bible would be a smaller circle inside the larger circle of God's Word.
Also, since the apostle Paul and other New Testament writers had no problems quoting the Hebrew Old Testament in Greek, frequently from a Greek translation (see PART 1), then we may add our translations to the category of God's Word, recognizing that they are not 100% identical to the original Scriptures, which of course were in different languages that may have conveyed different ideas than we have available to use in our own. The circle for our imperfect translations would be partly outside the big circle, but would mostly be concentric with the circle for the Bible as orginally given.
(The farther away a translation is from what God intended to say, the farther away from the circle of Scripture and God's Word it is depicted. Thus, the Jehovah's Witnesses' translation has various part outside the circle due to their changing some verses to fit their theology, and the Book of Mormon is completely outside the circle.)
However, if God's Word is shrunk down to mean only the Bible, then we are left with the problem of NOT having God's Word available to us EXCEPT in the original parchments or scrolls of the original writers.........and then we must hope that maybe perhaps God has also inspired a Bible in OUR language........and then we must somehow pick one particular version that has had some success, and christen it as divinely inspired itself:
(See figure 5.)
This seems to be the point where the King James Only position deviates from Scripture. The "Word of God" is completely equated with the Bible, and then specifically with the King James Bible. Either view does not square with how the Scriptures use the phrase "the word of God." Obviously, if the "word of God" is shrunk to mean only the Bible, then there might be an argument over which Bible- the King James, or maybe another translation? Yet when it is seen that the "word of God" in the Bible is actually more wide ranging than just the Bible (again, see Part 2), then we can see that we are not stuck having to pick only one version as authoritative, while condemming the rest.
However, as Christians who believe in 2 Timothy 3:16, we also acknowledge that the "Word of God" that God has chosen to put in the Bible is our only infallible and authoritative rule for our faith, doctrine, and practice. If anyone else comes along, claiming to have a "word of God" that adds to or contradicts the Bible, then we reject that "word." Even if someone comes along with a "word of prophecy," we know that the Bible (any version!) tells us to "weigh" that word, and to see if it really is God's direction, but also to never give it the same authority as Scripture. God's AUTHORITATIVE word is given in Scripture- both the Hebrew and Greek originals as well as our English renderings, in so far as they represent the originals. The gray areas where we argue over the correct textual reading or the correct translation of a word in no way impinge on the fact that God's Word has been transmitted to us, and has been translated into our language so that everyone may read and understand without a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.
We can be sure that God's Word IS bigger than the Bible, and that's why we can be sure that ALL OF THE BIBLE is God's Word (even.....gasp! ...the Song of Solomon), and that when we read a translation, we have God's actual Word translated in written form.
PART 5- GOD'S WORD IN ALL OF OUR BIBLES
I actually came to believe the Gospel (as Protestants understand it) through reading the Roman Catholic translation (New American Bible, NAB)- because it was God's Word. Even if the human translators mess it up in places, God still speaks through His Word. For example, God can (and does) speak through the Jehovah's Witnesses translation (New World Translation), even though they have twisted several of the verses, including John 1:1, in order to push their pet doctrines (Jesus is not God, etc.). And God certainly speaks loud and clear through the KJV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, NAB TEV, ESV, etc.
Finally on this point, it is to God's glory that He so deigns to speak to us through all of our fallible translations, instead of making every Christian learn to read Greek and Hebrew in order to read His Brea..uh...His Word. BUT, this is why we must make every endeavor, with His help and grace, and led by His Spirit, to see that we have the best rendition of what He first "breathed" to the writers of the Bible (the best Greek texts); and that our English translations are rendering the ideas of the foreign languages (Greek and Hebrew) into English into the best way so that people of every time (not just people in 1611) can read, understand, and hear God speak to them.
BECAUSE I believe that ALL of our English translations are God's Word, and are not to be identified with only one specific version; that is why I desire to spend my life:
-engaging in Textual Criticism, in order to refine our understanding of what the Greek New Testament (and Hebrew Old Testament) originally said.
-studying the languages, grammar, customs, and ideas of the people who wrote the Bible, so as to better understand what they meant in what they wrote.
-learning to preach and teach the same Word of God in a way that frees God up to speak ever more boldly to those listening.
