Word of Truth

Recently, I have been involved in several discussions involving Scripture and its take on practical aspects of living. Perhaps the biggest of these discussions have been about marriage. Primarily, what marries people, a covenant or sex. Most of us involved agreed that it is a covenant, however there was some dissension, as someone used Deuteronomy 22:28 as reason that sex makes people married. Now if you are looking that passage up, in most versions/translations of Scripture you find that it deals with rape. However, in the Living translations it simply says intercourse which completely changes the context of the passage and what it means.  Which is what led to all of these discussions. Now I mention all of this, because I find that it is important to be as accurate to Scripture as possible. 

In 2 Timothy 2:15 we are told to “correctly handle the word of truth” or as KJV reads, “rightly dividing the word of truth.”  I found that this seems to be more difficult when as Bible believing Christians, reading scripture, we can find major variances within the English text. I am aware that there are some variations due to variants found within the Greek text. However, that does not explain the above example. The issue with the above example really falls into what is called a method of translation. Christianity Today, September 2011, had an article call “Battle for the Bible Translation.” In it they discussed two major methods, formal equivalence and functional equivalence. Formal is about being as much of literal word to word translation while functional is about trying to get the main thought of a passage out. I think that both of these need to be found in a good translation for readers to understand. However, many translations choose one over the other which means we must work ourselves to understand what scripture is saying.  

So what does that mean for us, those who are reading Scripture daily? First, I would encourage all to continue reading Scripture. Next I would ask that as you read, you read a variety of translations. This will help move you from being just a reader of the Word to a student of the Word. This will enrich your Bible reading, as well as help you better understand your positions on issues and theology. We are commanded to “correctly hand the word of truth” let us do that with an understanding that we do so, to glorify God, and proclaim his truth to others.