Reading The Bible
Jan. 16th, 2023 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI used to own a copy of Peake's Bible Commentary. It's not a book you want to wrangle without a lectern. Also the text is printed in two columns- which is unfriendly. Did I use it much when I was in training for the Ministry? I doubt that I did- though a fairly thick veil has been drawn across my memories of that time. The Meeting House has a copy- of the same vintage (1962) as mine- and I suggested Ailz might want to borrow it. She recoiled.
How ought one to read the Bible?
Where should one start?
Does one need a commentary?
Which translation should one use?
I find I can't answer any of those questions.
While we were at the Meeting House I picked up a copy of J.B. Philips' translation of the Four Gospels. I'd never really looked at it before- though it had some currency in its day- which was also my day as a clergyperson- and maybe it still does. I picked out a passage here and there and came to the conclusion that it was Phillips' aim to make his text as pedestrian as possible- on the theory that pedestrian equals accessible.
So for the ultimate test; how does he render the magisterial opening of John's Gospel?
"In the beginning God expressed himself...."
No, no, no, no....
As Ailz said when I read it to her, "Expressing is what nursing mothers do with their milk..."
I'll admit I know the Bible pretty well. Several decades of church going will do this for you. Being a literary type who also knows Shakespeare pretty well I favour the King James version. I like obscurities and archaisms. I like poetry.
My way with the Bible these days is to riffle through it- as I might with a pack of Tarot cards- and wait for something to catch my eye.
How ought one to read the Bible?
Where should one start?
Does one need a commentary?
Which translation should one use?
I find I can't answer any of those questions.
While we were at the Meeting House I picked up a copy of J.B. Philips' translation of the Four Gospels. I'd never really looked at it before- though it had some currency in its day- which was also my day as a clergyperson- and maybe it still does. I picked out a passage here and there and came to the conclusion that it was Phillips' aim to make his text as pedestrian as possible- on the theory that pedestrian equals accessible.
So for the ultimate test; how does he render the magisterial opening of John's Gospel?
"In the beginning God expressed himself...."
No, no, no, no....
As Ailz said when I read it to her, "Expressing is what nursing mothers do with their milk..."
I'll admit I know the Bible pretty well. Several decades of church going will do this for you. Being a literary type who also knows Shakespeare pretty well I favour the King James version. I like obscurities and archaisms. I like poetry.
My way with the Bible these days is to riffle through it- as I might with a pack of Tarot cards- and wait for something to catch my eye.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-16 01:09 pm (UTC)I suppose I'd call myself a Universalist.
None of the meetings I have attended over the years ever had a Bible in the Meeting Room.