Why You Might Try a New Translation this Year
December 12, 2023
After listening to Matthew in the New Living Translation. Listening to the bible is a valuable experience because we hear the words the way most of the early Jews and Christians heard them - orally.
Switching translations jars our preconceptions and forces us to hear it like it is fresh news, something we have never heard before --- Good News! Gospel!
I confess that after some months in the Hebrew scriptures, which were exciting, the Advent message of Matthew's gospel was nothing short of exhilarating! Absolutely Exhilarating !
A grand crescendo followed by a great commissioning!
I kept hearing themes.
The Hebrew Scriptures: Stop chasing other gods. Love me; serve me; treat people well with justice and mercy. I have done much for you. I love you, but you keep forgetting me. I will deal harshly with you if necessary to bring you back to me. I am really disgusted with the way you are treating people and getting infatuated with religious practices that distort truth and inflict pain on humanity like sacrificing babies.
Please give me some indication of a change of mind and heart so I do not have to bring you back through judgment ... anything, even a hint and I will relent. I cannot let all this injustice continue, but I will never forget or forsake you and by the way, you exist to extend my reach to all the nations. Bring all humanity to me so that you may worship me and enjoy my presence together.
Matthew's Gospel: Jesus pops up in history as an unlikely person in an unlikely time under unlikely circumstances and yet, at the right time, place, and situation to say: God is present with you. Stop complicating things. Stop looking for loopholes and start loving God and your neighbor. Everything commanded leads to that so, stop twisting the commands so that they mean something else. Get back to basics: Love God. Love others. Watch me and follow me and I will show you how. I give my life for you and I give life to you. If you have messed up, and you have, I will bring you God's forgiveness. You are not stuck with the old life. Turn around and follow me and invite others to come along as well. I'll be with you all the way.