Sorry I've been absent for a while, I've been doing other things. Not an excuse really, but it is a reason. So, we were talking about what love is at Blest the other day, and I thought I'd do a little series on what love is, based on Biblical scriptures. This is coming from one you're probably familiar with, it's read at a lot of weddings, regardless of whether they're Christian or secular. (1 Corinthians 13, love is patient is in verse 4).
Love is patient. Patience is taking the time to listen to someone. It's giving them the chance to air their own views. It's taking a deep breath when someone says something that annoys you and giving them a chance to continue with their train of thought, even if you don't agree with it. Patience is: (and this is according to the Oxfor pocket school dictionary since the big one's downstairs) being patient. Ok, not much help. Patient is: able to wait for a long time or put up with trouble or inconvenience without getting anxious or angry. I think that's an interesting bit, the 'anxious' part of the definition. Not getting worried when things go wrong. Allowing things to work out in their own time. So loving someone means letting things work out how they should, rather than forcing them. It means listening, taking time, it means taking a deep breath and counting to ten.
If there's anyone out there you know who gets on your nerves, why not try giving them a bit more time to talk this week (I'll try it too, promise).
Patience is a virtue, that's somewhere in the Bible (sorry, can't remember where exactly, I could look it up, but I'm typing this in a rush). Therefore if love=patience=virtue, love is also a virtue. But I think that'll have to come under another topic.
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i think one treads thin ice when dealing with subtle meanings, especially when it comes to translation. the bible, a compendium of 66 (depending of which version) books, takes translation to another level. the amount of times it has been translated and re-translated from hebrew/aramaic/greek to latin to german to english etc is at least as many fingers as on an average wo\mans' hands.
ReplyDeletewhat i mean to say is that when the bible says "patience is a virtue", perhaps what it meant 2000 years ago was actually that forbearance/endurance/tolerance (/any other synonym of patience) was a virtue. that's assuming the even after all those many translations, the version we have today is expectionally similar to the original.
the task of translation is similar to that of history in that each person has a different view on any given topic. each person's take on what certain words/phrases mean will, not only invariably differ widely, but be subject to their own upbringing and circumstances. that is, assuming that they are translating it as objectively as possible! of course it is equally likey that they may wish to not translate bits of it which perhaps they do not agree with.
i guess what i'm asking is in essence, why do you take the words of the bible so literally when it is almost certain that they do not convey the exact meaning that the original bible once did?
I'm taking this verse from the NIV version, which is pretty much respected as the best translation to English of the original texts. I read the bit at the front where they explained how they translated it. It was put together by over 100 scholars working from the original texts. They were determined to make it as accurate as possible, and also to reflect the nature of the language spoken by people today.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the whole Bible, there are parts of it which wouldn't be all that popular. A lot of characters in the Bible are shown complete with flaws etc.
The original text of the Bible is thought to have been written within about thirty or so years of when Jesus walked the earth. There would still be plenty of people drifting around who could contradict that.
Perhaps love is patient etc is not a word for word translation, but it fits in with the rest of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, it seems reasonable to talk about it.
I hope that answers your question at least a bit, and I'll ask around at church to see if I can find you a bit more on it...
Well, I've asked around a bit, and there's a thing called Strong's Concordance, which basically has every single word in the Bible (including all the the's and of's etc), and it tells you what the original Hebrew word was, and then it gives you every possible meaning for that word. It's rather impressive.
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