Re: Re: Puzzled on Inf. in Mk 2:15

From: Revcraigh (Revcraigh@aol.com)
Date: Wed Oct 22 1997 - 13:44:30 EDT


In a message dated 10/22/97 6:08:59 PM, you wrote:

>and yet-- there are ultimately significant matters concerning the
>orientation and world-view of the ancient reader, writer and personages of
>the narrative that are by no means so easy to carry over into a modern
>equivalent

I agree with you. I was not arguing that translators are right in making such
shifts from ancient world to modern world concepts without even letting the
reader know about them, merely commenting that this is the probable reason for
their doing so. After all, that's what Bible Dictionaries, Commentaries, or
even footnotes are for: to help the Bible reader to understand such unfamiliar
concepts and world views.

My own idea is that, in studying the Bible, the modern reader *should* be
doing a good deal of head-scratching: saying, for example, 'What does "heaping
hot coals upon his head" mean?' 'Could Jesus really mean what he seems to be
saying here?' 'Wow, I never thought of it that way before!'; he should be
learning about ancient times and customs and world views (which, although
ancient, are not necessarely worse metaphors for the truth than our modern
world view, however scientifically described).

In short, I think all the world should be Bible scholars.

Thanks for your reply. God bless.

Rev. Craig R. Harmon



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