But don’t you think “governing authorities” are totally different than “higher powers?” Who are the governing authorities of the US? Who are the higher powers?
They are definitely different. Not wise enough and too tired to parse the who-is-who part right now. That said, I stick by my assertion that those differing translations have not led to this nation’s downfall. How could they? Those in power and those who put them there ignore the simplest aspects of the Word, let alone these nuances.
In other words, how can differing translations affect those who reject the entire Word outright? Hey, if most of this nation believed in EITHER TANSLATION, we would not be where we are.
This is something I see far too often: Those who believe in the Word getting cross-ways about a particular take on a particular verse. Now, is a search for the correct translation fruitful? Yup. But people get wrapped up in that instead of understanding that the enemy and his minions COMPLETELY discount the Word and all translations thereof.
WHAT?
A division without a difference.
This is a context governed rendition of what “higher powers” is referring to. As soon as you know you are talking about entities that are bearing swords (in Paul’s day) then there is no other take that makes sense. This isn’t angelic beings.
But it is good to remember that the Constitution starts out “We the People.” If they let a government run amok it is their own fault. And we can’t blame bible renditions for this. As was pointed out, if people do not care about the bible at all, it hardly matters whether the KJV or the NIV or the RSV or the Douay is what they are ignoring.
Re: “But don’t you think “governing authorities” are totally different than “higher powers?” Who are the governing authorities of the US? Who are the higher powers?”
An excellent question demshateGod. The solution is that you have to look at the context. The “context” is what comes before, and what comes after the passage in question.
Most translators after the KJV interpret “higher powers” to mean human government, human authorities, from the context of the verses that follow. If you read the whole chapter and paragraph, the meaning is clear.
Paul, the writer of the Letter to the Romans, is discussing government in general and the Christian’s responsibility towards it. Christian’s are to be law-abiding, peaceful citizens. Government was established by God to provide law and order, to stop evil and punish those who do evil. Disobeying the laws of the government is also disobeying God because He is the one Who established governments. However, there is more to it than that.
Though Paul does not discuss it in this passage, human government is secondary to the law of God. In other words, if a government makes a law that goes against God’s law, Christians must obey God rather than man. This principle is demonstrated throughout the Old and New Testaments - the midwives disobeying Pharoah’s order to drown all the Hebrew male children, Daniel disobeying Darius’s order to pray only to him, Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego disobeying Nebuchadnezzar, Peter telling the ruling authorities in Acts 4:18-20 that they must obey God over man’s authority when it conflicts with God’s, etc.
So, one must be careful to look at the whole context of a passage when interpreting its meaning. Sometimes the context is a paragraph, a chapter, an entire book, or even the whole Bible. Otherwise, if someone takes a passage by itself out of context, one can come up with some very bad theology.