31st May 2011

Unicorns?

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? (Job 39.9-10)

There are unicorns in the Bible! At least there are in the King James Version. Nine times the King James mentions them, suggesting to some that they really existed – this is God’s word after all. Most, however, argue that this is a case of mistranslation and that an ox is more likely what is meant. The latter certainly makes more sense, but is the prosaic, dependable ox preferable to the fantasy of the unicorn?

References:

Elizabeth Mitchell, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v2/n1/unicorns-in-bible

Rick Norris, http://www.kjv-only.com/rick/unicorns.html

23rd May 2011

Alistair McIntosh, in his climate change book Hell and high water, describes an important irony. He notes that similar to today, ‘the biggest fear of the ancients was of flooding…on a global scale that threatened cities near the coast’ (McIntosh 2008:109). The ancients tended to blame natural disasters on moral degradation. From a scientific perspective, however, disasters were unlikely to have been caused by human badness but rather ‘the plate tectonics of the Earth’s crust and…to ‘natural’ prehistoric climate change’ (p109). The irony, then, ‘is that the ancients developed an astute moral analysis of anthropogenic climate change but one that is perhaps more applicable to us today than it often was to them. As ecological prophets they were two or three thousand years ahead of their time’. To illustrate this, McIntosh uses the description of flooding in the King James ‘Authorised’ version of 1611, because he considers it ‘the most poetic, the most dramatic and, therefore, the most psychodynamic English translation’ (p111). The relevant verses are Genesis 6.5 – 7.21.

References

McIntosh, Alistaire (2008) Hell and high water: climate change, hope and the human condition. Edinburgh: Birlinn

18th May 2011

‘William Tyndale (c.1494-1536)

Tyndale was a scholar and theologian whose translation of the New Testament was the first to be printed in English. His simple, clear style was a model for subsequent English translations of the bible.

William Tyndale was born in Gloucestershire and educated at Oxford and Cambridge where he became a strong supporter of church reform. He was ordained as a priest in around 1521 and returned to Gloucestershire to serve as a chaplain to a member of the local gentry.

Tyndale's controversial opinions attracted the attention of the church authorities, so in 1523 he moved to London. His intention was to translate the New Testament into English, which was strictly forbidden. He believed passionately that people should be able to read the bible in their own language, but such translations were by this time closely associated with Martin Luther and other Protestant religious reformers.

In 1524, Tyndale left England for Germany where he hoped to continue his translation work in greater safety. He visited Luther at Wittenberg. Printing of his English New Testament began in 1525 and by the following year copies were being smuggled into England. The work was denounced by the Roman Catholic church authorities and Tyndale was accused of heresy. He went into hiding, where he began work on a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into English.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/tyndale_william.shtml

From the BBC History site

9th May 2011

‘In translating the Bible, Tyndale introduced new words into the English language, and many were subsequently used in the King James Bible:

Jehovah (from a transliterated Hebrew construction in the Old Testament; composed from the Tetragrammaton YHWH)

Passover (as the name for the Jewish holiday, Pesach or Pesah)

Atonement (which goes beyond mere "reconciliation" to mean "to unite" or "to cover", which springs from the Hebrew kippur, the Old Testament version of kippur being the covering of doorposts with blood, or "Day of Atonement")

Scapegoat (the goat that bears the sins and iniquities of the people in Leviticus, Chapter 16) From Daniell, David (1994) William Tyndale: a biography. New Haven & London: Yale University Press

4th May 2011

Samuel 22:3 (King James Version)

 ³The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.

Samuel explores what it is to have faith.  When you falter, you need a bedrock of absolute reassurance which will not fail you in your hour of need:  ‘my high tower, and my refuge’.  This place of absolute integrity – that is what faith is.  ‘The God of my rock’ is the one who will never betray you, never forget you.   When you are hurt, help is on its way: ‘thou savest me from violence’.   You can shelter in the knowledge that ‘he is my shield’ - your sacred talisman of trust.