BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Posted on 06/24/2004 2:48:41 AM PDT by Robert Drobot
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A brand-new translation of the Bible – praised by Britain's archbishop of Canterbury, that nation’s senior Christian voice – flatly contradicts traditional core Christian beliefs on sex and morality.
Titled "Good as New," the new Bible is translated by former Baptist minister John Henson for the "One" organization, to produce what the group calls a "new, fresh and adventurous" translation of the Christian scriptures.
Archbishop Rowan Williams
The 104th archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams – leader of the Church of England – describes it is a book of "extraordinary power," but admitted many would be startled by its content.
"Instead of condemning fornicators, adulterers and 'abusers of themselves with mankind'," says Ruth Gledhill, the London Times religious affairs correspondent, "the new version of his first letter to Corinth has St. Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get 'frustrated.'"
"The new version, which Dr. Williams says he hopes will spread 'in epidemic profusion through religious and irreligious alike', turns St. Paul's strictures against fornication on their head," adds the Times.
The One organization that produced the new Bible translation is dedicated to "establish[ing] peace, justice, dignity and rights for all." It is also focused on "sustainable use of the earth's resources," challenging "oppression, injustice, exclusion and discrimination" as well as accepting "one another, valuing their diversity and experience."
According to Ekklesia, a London-based "theological think tank" that supports the "One" translation:
The translation is pioneering in its accessibility, and changes the original Greek and Hebrew nomenclature into modern nicknames. St. Peter becomes "Rocky," Mary Magdalene becomes "Maggie," Aaron becomes "Ron," Andronicus becomes "Andy" and Barabbas becomes "Barry." In keeping with the times, translator Henson deftly translates "demon possession" as "mental illness" and "Son of Man," the expression Jesus frequently used to describe himself, as "the Complete Person." In addition, parables are rendered as "riddles," baptize is to "dip" in water, salvation becomes "healing" or "completeness" and Heaven becomes "the world beyond time and space."
Here's how Williams, the top Anglican archbishop, describes the new Bible: "Instead of being taken into a specialized religious frame of reference – as happens even with the most conscientious of formal modern translations – and being given a gospel addressed to specialized concerns … we have here a vehicle for thinking and worshipping that is fully earthed, recognizably about our humanity."
In addition, notes Ekklesia, the archbishop praises Henson's translation for eliminating "the stale, the technical, the unconsciously exclusive words and policies" in other translations.
Here, according to the London Times, are a few sample passages:
Mark 1:4
Authorized version: "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins."
New: "John, nicknamed 'The Dipper,' was 'The Voice.' He was in the desert, inviting people to be dipped, to show they were determined to change their ways and wanted to be forgiven."
Mark 1:10-11
Authorized version: "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from the heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
New: "As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God's spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, 'That's my boy! You're doing fine!'"
Matthew 23:25
Authorized version: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"
New version: "Take a running jump, Holy Joes, humbugs!"
Matthew 26:69-70
Authorized version: "Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, 'Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.' But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest."
New: "Meanwhile Rocky was still sitting in the courtyard. A woman came up to him and said: 'Haven't I seen you with Jesus, the hero from Galilee?" Rocky shook his head and said: 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about!'"
1 Corinthians 7:1-2
KJV: "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."
New: "Some of you think the best way to cope with sex is for men and women to keep right away from each other. That is more likely to lead to sexual offences. My advice is for everyone to have a regular partner."
1 Corinthians 7:8-7
KJV: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn."
New: "If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated."
I pray the Holy Ghost blinds Rome's awareness of this written in hell heresy.
NYer and cpforlife.org : Please inform FReepers about this thread through your ping lists. Thanks.
this was posted yesterday.
liberalism has and will be satans best work in the name of whatever rewritten bible.
as a side note,lets not think rome the dominion of christianity.
I'll go with a more detailed WorldNetDaily.com prepared story over a half-baked BBC snippet any day of the week.
The more spicific WND story is in today's 24 June 2004 edition. The BBC 'filler' was dashed off yesterday.
spicific = specific
Oh come on....we all know about the unfortunate and embarrassing Henry VIII divorce His Church would not recognize, and all subsequent maters related thereto.
And those trouble makers Luther and Calvin!
How does anyone know something this hasn't been done before...resulting in what was, before this one, the currently accepted version?
New: "If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated."
If this were not intended as Gospel, it would be hilarious...what was the point of this exercise?
This is from "The Onion", right?
Can't be for real.
Oh no, it IS for real.
Lord, have mercy!!!
No cause for worry here -- this translation is so stupid that we're unlikely to ever see it in a bookstore anyway.
"How does anyone know something this hasn't been done before...resulting in what was, before this one, the currently accepted version?"
Oh, I don't know... how about hundreds (or more) copies of original language manuscripts?
This news makes some of the pope's ecumenical gestures even more troubling...
http://www.traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/A033rcRowanWilliams.htm
Weren't they written by different men, in ancient languages that are/were interpreted differently? How do you know which ones are original?
this is bad....
The source documents we have for Biblical texts have a tremoundously high amount of agreement with each other. It's not about knowing which ones are original. It's about knowing that we have accurate and useful translations from those source documents.
Authorship is a large issue unto itself, and probably should be the subject of a different thread.
I don't know about that. We are seeing "My Lies" by Bill Clinton now in the stores. Nothing would surprise me at this point.
PING
As Good As New
AUTHOR: John Henson is a retired Baptist minister who has been the translation co-ordinator on behalf of ONE for Christian Exploration for the last twelve years. ONE is a network of radical Christians and over twenty organisations in the UK. In different ways they work to renew the Church from within, believing that all denominations should make more rapid progress towards unity and a more urgent response to contemporary issues. This translation is unique in being a community translation in which anyone interested in the work, not just members of the ONE community, have been welcomed to contribute. Contributions have come from all across the spectrum, from fundamentalists to liberals, all denominations, and hundreds of people have been involved. The criteria for inclusion has been understanding the aims of the translation, which is clarity for the ordinary person.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did a Google on Henson, and got this jewel:
On 14 November 2003, the Baptist Standard, a Southern Baptist Convention website, included this brief note in their "On the Move" file: "John Henson has resigned as pastor of First Church in Brownwood."
I'm willing to bet two-bits this is about the time the Southern Baptist Convention got wind of Henson's heresy. Seems they run a tight ship. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Review
A radical and readable new translation
Despite the fact that our shelves are sagging beneath the weight of all the scriptures that have appeared in the last forty years or so, we still await a version that strikes us as a genuinely contemporary version. Life and language move so quickly that it is a matter of running to stay in the same spot, and translators of the scriptures are characterised by care and caution rather than by the need to keep pace. Move on new must, however, if we believe the scriptures have abiding value for every age and culture as a unique record of humankind's adventure with God.
What usually passes for a paraphrase rather than a translation indicates the degree of venturesomeness in elucidating the meaning. An attempt at word for word translations produces not clarity but ambiguity. According to the gospels, the genius of Jesus lay in his ability to put into language that could be grasped by ordinary people things that the scribes obscured by their sophistication or pedantry. This new translation takes the bull by the horns in providing a translation of the early Christian scriptures in the idiom of today.
It also follow the principle of cultural translation, where for instance "demon possession" becomes what it is as understood as today, "mental illness." It follows "contextual translation," following the sense over longer sections. It is also "inclusive," following the principles which Jesus adopted in relation to his culture. It is women, gay and sinner friendly. Other radical departures reflect the need to demythologise in order to translate adequately into our own culture. For instance "Kingdom of God" thus becomes "God's New World."
Perhaps the most controversial departure from all other translations is a return to the selection of books which were held in the highest esteem by the early Church in the first two centuries. So, for instance, Revelation is out, the Gospel of Thomas is in.
In reading this translation we come closer to the impact the scriptures had on the people of the time than before.
Endorsements
From the Foreword by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
"What would Christianity look like, what would Christian language sound like, if we really tried to screen out the stale, the technical, the unconsciously exclusive words and policies, and to hear for the first time what the Christian Scriptures were saying? John Henson has devoted much of his life to wrestling with this challenge, and has for many people made those scriptures speak as never before-indeed, as for the first time. Patiently and boldly, he has teased out implications, gone back to roots, linguistic and theological, and re-imagined the process in which a genuinely new language was brought to birth by those who had listened to Jesus because they knew they were in a genuinely new world.
John's presentation of the Christian gospel is of extraordinary power simply because it is so close to the prose and poetry of ordinary life. Instead of being taken into a specialised religious frame of reference-as happens with the most conscientious of formal modern translations-and being given a gospel addressed to specialised concerns-as happens with even the most careful of modern "devotional" books-we have here a vehicle for thinking and worshipping that is fully earthed, reconisably about our humanity. I hope that this book will help the secret to be shared, and to spread in epidemic profusion through religious and irreligious alike."
‘John Henson has the exciting capacity to awaken fresh interest in material that seems familiar. He is never dull, sometimes provocative and occasionally inspirational. I recommend his work to anyone who enjoys an unpredictable reading of Scripture.’ - John Rackley, President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
‘I found this a literally shocking read. It made me think, it made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me angry and it made me joyful. It made me feel like an early Christian hearing these texts for the first time. John Henson and the ONE Community have made the Bible accessible and alive so that a new generation may hear the news and experience it as good.’ Elizabeth Stuart, Professor of Christian Theology, King Alfred's College, Winchester, and Bishop of the Open Episcopal Church.
‘Nowadays we have a generation that has never read the Bible and knows nothing about Christ. This translation bridges the gap by really putting it in the language of today's street population and making it attractive to them. I wish it every blessing and success.’ Derek Rawcliffe
If ever there were a frontal attack on Christianity, this is it.
Unbelievable...so "Legion" completely disappears, and the herd of swine...just living a little too close to the edge.
Are you sure these quotes aren't from Clinton's book, or maybe a Michael Moore Film script?
epidemic confusion is more like it.
The good news is that the English Standard Version (ESV) is doing pretty good. I think the RC version should be out sometime soon.
The bad news is that this atrocity will probably become mandated by the UN as the "official" Christian bible /sarcasm.
Naw.......
The official U.N. bible is to be the new,... 'The Holman Christian Standard Bible'... of the Southern Baptist Convention!
/sarcasm
Yeah. Like ebola.
}:-)4
"Beware of receiving new opinions, which militate with the plain and obvious meaning of the word of Christ, however they may pretend to be clearer discoveries of truth, and more comfortable and beneficial to mankind; but adhere to the written word, taken in the most natural sense, without forced allegories, whimsical constructions, or torturing criticisms; especially hold fast those doctrines which meet your eye in almost every page of the New Testament."
Substitute the Constitution and it would be good advice for legitimate judges.
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Triune Lord of all Creation meets Harry Potter.
They wouldn't have this trouble if they stuck with the KJV.
All of them witches.
This was a shared opinion among all Christian ministers and priests through to the late fifties. IMO the attack on Christianity has been directed and financed by the followers of Lenin and Marx - many of whom hold the highest posts in the Roman Catholic Church. What Hitler couldn't do Stalin, Mao and their successors have achieved.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Who do you suppose has been responsible for creating the incredible influence sodomites - which are less than two percent of the world's population - have within our nation's Christian institutions; every branch of our government; and America's media institutions?
Communists controls the film capital of the world, and in doing so mold the thinking and acceptance of a communist mind-set.
I believe international communist ideology is the primary motivation among those holding the highest posts in the Roman Catholic Church.
I believe communists will dominate the vote for the next pope.
I also believe international communism supports any terrorist or environmental movement attacks which results in costly disruptions of our capitalist based economy.
We must never loose sight of the fact that religion has always been the greatest enemy of international communism - Muslims notwithstanding. Crippling a capitalist economy by way of religious terrorism serves their ends.
Again, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Eventually controlling and destroying Islam isn't a concern for communists. They don't and won't have a panty-laced war policy that has turned America's war machine into shooting gallery targets for sub-human desert barbarians. They will simply replicate the barbarian approach to warfare. leaving a scorched earth take-no-prisoners end to those useful idiots - when they are no longer serve the goals of a communist state.
Communists are taking the wreaking ball to the halls of Christianity, and the unwashed could care less that they're being led into hell.
Yes, maestro, this story is a doozy, but we are not surprised, are we? Of course the followers of the earth and man centered, anti-God, humanist faith want Christ and truth denying "scriptures" that suit thier worldview. The world will do it's man exhalting thing, but God is still bringing people unto Himself through His Word, through Jesus Christ.
God's truth revealed in His Word will continue to reach the souls who truly want to know Him and the wonderful redemption He offers if we only humble ourselves, repent, believe in Him and entrust our souls to Him.
Romans 10:17
Maranatha!
Acts 16:30-31
Romans 4:5
:-)
Maranatha!
Thank you for the ping. With this and the Rev. Moon "coronation" in the US Senate building...I am feeling an overload of discouragement.
By going back and studying the original languages, then reviewing some 1300 extant copies of the Scriptures written within 400 years of the original documents,...many original extant ancient manuscripts even discovered within 109 years of their scription.
Nicknames, huh? I wonder what they feel comfortable nicknaming our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus? The Big Bopper? The Big Kahuna? El Hefe? Slick? Boulderman?
Comment, sir?
Um...is it just me or does this seem like the real news services got spoofed by a satire again? That part where the new version refers to John the Baptist as "The Dipper", for instance. Not even liberal theologians pull that crap.
As Baldie pointed out in 16, the manuscripts we have are numerous and in agreement. IIRC, there were 25,000 New Testament manuscripts in the early 70s when Josh McDowell wrote "More than a Carpenter." If the manuscripts that the NT are drawn from are not reliable, neither is any of ancient history. There are only five manuscripts of Julius Caesar's autobiography, for instance (again, IIRC).
If they wanted to be more hip, they could have just switched to the NIV:
"Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband."
As my pastor says, "We may wonder what the world is coming to, but we actually do know. Jesus is returning."
From whence comes the derivative word, INheriticance...
Which is --- receiving from one or both of your parents a little muscle between your cheek and eye that just won't stop jumping....the dreaded INheritic
:>)
None to make, I'm not an Anglican. Perhaps this shows part of the reason why. :)
Regards, Ivan
Yes, and the best is yet to be!
I had a little bright light yesterday! Did you read it?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1159782/posts
I agree with you. This REALLY sounds like a bad joke here. If it's from World Net Daily, I'd approach it very suspiciously.
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