Is Mary not a Virgin? The German Bishops’ New Bible Translation Leaves it... Unclear

LifeSite News ^ | 9/21/16 | Jan Bentz

[marshmallow]

GERMANY, September 21, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The German Bishops have presented a new “Unified Translation” of the Bible that follows a significant modernization of the language and will be binding for all German-speaking areas starting in 2017.

On Tuesday, the German Bishops Conference (DBK) presented in Fulda the fruit of many years of scientific work: a new edition of the so-called “Unified Translation" (Einheitsübersetzung) of the Bible into German. It’s called “unified” because, from the original published from 1962 onward, these editions are supposed to be used ecumenically, unifying Catholics and Protestants in Germany. The original aim, however, was thwarted in 2005 when Protestants reverted to the Luther translation.

The leader of the research project was the bishop (now emeritus) of Erfurt, Joachim Wanke, who explained that the new edition is a “moderate revision” of the older text. Wanke added that a translation is always also an interpretation. The new edition shows more “braveness” to present “biblical jargon,” he said, reported by kath.net.

According to Jewish tradition, the personal names of God cannot be pronounced, so “Yahweh” is substituted by “Lord” in the new edition. In fact, every paragraph has a change, explained Michael Theobald, president of the German Bible Association.

When the apostle Paul calls two new followers, they are not two men anymore, Andronicus and Junias; rather, a new discovery showed that apparently it was one man and one woman, hence Andronicus and Junia. This led to the discussion that the word “apostle” must be applied to women as well as men (Author’s note: In German, different genders of the word exist and usually gender-ideologists insist on using male and female forms).

Other changes are more ideological.

Most frightening is the change to the iconic Isaiah passage (7:14): “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son”.....

[daniel1212]

At least you admitted that the Messiah gave someone, the Apostle Peter directly, the power to bind and loose on earth.

Indeed, but which simply does not support the church looking to the Peter of Scripture as the first of a line of infallible popes reigning supreme in Rome, which egregious ecclesiastical extrapolation is one giant leap of eisegesis.

Not only that, you admitted the whole (one holy catholic apostolic church) assembly of Apostles, including those eligible to be Apostles and those in communion with them. was given this authority. You also linked it to the Jewish origins of binding and loosing. You have admitted much here. Now, any gainsaying aside, it is simply a matter of succession and provenance.

"Not only that" conclusion is a problem on multiple levels, for the Jewish origins of binding and loosing shows that presuming ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome is unscriptural and presumptuous, as is the premise that one must formally be in communion with the apostles to have this spiritual power, and as is that Rome's so-called apostolic successors do not fail of the qualifications and credentials of manifest Biblical apostles, which they do, (Acts 1:21,22; 1Cor. 9:1; Gal. 1:11,12; 2Co. 6:4-10) and as is that apostolic successors are not simply presbuteros (senior/elder) or episkopos (superintendent/overseer) - not distinctively titled (usually celibate) priests.

Thus the matter of succession and provenance is your undoing, gainsaying aside.

[MHGinTN]

LOL, you try to play the usual fall back position of the hapless ... and I do not dispute that I am anti catholiciism, but I'm not anti catholic individuals. Again, all ya got is feeble attempts at conflation.

Have you heard The Gospel of Grace? Paul preached it and wrote it down for you. Catholiciism is 'another gospel', the gospel of works, striving to be worthy for eventual Salvation. Salvation is by GRACE from GOD; catholiciism sacraments will not save anyone, you cannot eat God-Life into you regardless of what your catechisms teach you and your priesthood declares.

[af_vet_1981]

Indeed, but which simply does not support the church looking to the Peter of Scripture as the first of a line of infallible popes reigning supreme in Rome, which egregious ecclesiastical extrapolation is one giant leap of eisegesis.

There is no one named "Peter of Scripture;" there is someone called Simon Peter, or Cephas, the Apostle to whom the Messiah said these mighty words, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew, Catholic chapter sixteen, Protestant verses seventeen to nineteen,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

I believe Him.

"Not only that" conclusion is a problem on multiple levels, for the Jewish origins of binding and loosing shows that presuming ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome is unscriptural and presumptuous, as is the premise that one must formally be in communion with the apostles to have this spiritual power, and as is that Rome's so-called apostolic successors do not fail of the qualifications and credentials of manifest Biblical apostles, which they do, (Acts 1:21,22; 1Cor. 9:1; Gal. 1:11,12; 2Co. 6:4-10) and as is that apostolic successors are not simply presbuteros (senior/elder) or episkopos (superintendent/overseer) - not distinctively titled (usually celibate) priests.

Thus the matter of succession and provenance is your undoing, gainsaying aside.

Does your faith community have succession and provenance ?

Succession and provenance are not my undoing; I am not in rebellion or protesting. I am in faith believing the words of the LORD Jesus Christ, that He built His church on the Apostle Peter, and there has been one holy catholic apostolic church ever since, to this day.

[MHGinTN]

Ah, but our catholic apologists tell us that burning candles and incense to these statues of Mary and praying to these statues of Mary, well that’s not idolatry for them. Oh yeah, they claim they do not praying to statues but post pix of priests praying while at the feet of these statues, looking reverently at the face of the statue as they plead for intercession. But that’s not idolatry don’tchaknow. It would be in any pagan temple, but not if it’s a catholic temple.

[MHGinTN]

Anyone who states categorically that Jesus Christ built HIS CHURCH, His Ekklesia on a man, Peter, is repeating a lie of satanic origin, started in order to empower the institutional rather than build up the body of believers. Jesus founded HIS BODY OF BELIEVERS upon the profession, which was first expressed by Peter in response to GOD’s question of Peter. But Jesus revealed that He would build HIS body of Belivers in this manner when He spoke to Nicodemus (John 3), so when Peter stated bel;ief/faith that Jesus is The Christ, Peter became the first to be listed as having entered into the body of born from above believers because he uttered the faith profession used ever since. And THAT was when Peter was born from above, but look what behavior followed that moment! Yet Peter was still not rejected by GOD. Can you lay claim to the same assurance?

[piusv]

And still no response from Francis, eh?

[imardmd1]

You have a point there, but I find it hard to believe that humans who have been invited to come and follow Him in simple, childlike trust should ever be required to invent such a complex, ornate, confusing system of imaginative rites and allegories and sacrifices and garments and beads in order to make them acceptable and pleasing to the God Whom I find in my Bible.

Do you?

[af_vet_1981]

Ah, but our catholic apologists tell us that burning candles ...

The practice of lighting candles is an important tradition in Catholic churches, communities and families. Its origins may be traced back in the Old Testament times where an oil lamp is lighted to “keep a flame burning perpetually” (Exodus 27:19-20), as “perpetual incense before the Lord from generation to generation” (Exodus 30:7-8) and as a “lamp stand in the Tent of Meeting…set up before the Lord as He has commanded Moses” (Exodus 40:24-25).

The New Testament further highlights the sanctity of this light in Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews. “A first tent was prepared with the lamp stand, the table and the bread of the presence; this is called the Holy Place” (Hebrews 9:2). In today’s Catholic tradition, this light has a very special place because it symbolizes Christ who said, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have light and life” (John 8:12).

In most every part of Catholic celebrations and rituals, lighting of candles play a very significant role. Candles are lighted during the celebration of the Mass, on liturgical and funeral processions and evening prayer ceremonies. Candles are lit before the Tabernacle to signify the Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament and to call for reverence on the part of the faithful.

In the Sacrament of Baptism, as a person is initiated into the Church, a candle is lit from the Paschal Candle, the symbol of Christ’s Paschal Mystery – His passion, His death and His resurrection. The person receives the Light of Christ that he may live and walk the path of God’s children and keep the flame of faith burning alive in his heart. And as he receives this indelible baptismal mark, he shall meet the Lord and be one with all the saints in Heaven when the right time comes.

Candles are lighted before an image of our Lord and before the saints. Catholics practice this not to honor the image itself but the one it truly represents. The lighted candle symbolizes a prayer offering where we present our petitions to the Lord and ask the saints to pray with us and to pray for us during our most dire need. This light, as it is kept burning, also shows our desire to remain in God’s presence as we go through our daily duties at home and in the workplace.

Candles lighted before Christ’s image also shows our reverence to Him who deserves our adoration and thanksgiving and who alone can forgive our sins and bring us back into a deeper relationship with Him.

Let us then bear in mind that as we celebrate our sacred liturgies, our sacraments and our special prayers, Christ, the Source of all Light, shall come to us to be ever present to strengthen us, instruct us, inspire us and give us hope that His Light will never burn out as long as we live in faith without a shadow of doubt that darkness will ever defeat us.

[imardmd1]

This is my only answer, Bro. The Spiritual Temple I go to is built on a Rock, and that Rock (petra) is not and never could be Kefas/Peter (petros). Here it is:

THE SOLID ROCK (click on the mp3)

(1)
My hope is built on nothing lees
Than Jesus' Blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' Name

(Rfrain)
On Christ, The Solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

(2)
When Darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

(3)
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Supports me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

(4)
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found!
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!

Edward Mote, 1797-1874

[metmom]

Do they talk to you ? Do you hear audible voices ? Your claim is false.

No one ever claimed idols needed to speak to be idols.

Matter of fact, God says otherwise and in the OT talks about how idols are mute and cannot talk, and yet He obviously still calls them idols.

Nobody is claiming so called *anti-Catholicism* is a religion.

[MHGinTN]

What a deckles dodge! I am referring not to the statuary of Christ in your catholiciism temples but the statuary to Mary and the 'Saints'. But you likely knew that. BTW, thanks for posting in red, it is a lot easier on my macular degeneration and cataracts than that light blue which I don't try to read.

Have you heard the Gospel Paul preached?

[af_vet_1981]

What a deckles dodge! I am referring not to the statuary of Christ in your catholiciism temples but the statuary to Mary and the 'Saints'.

It seems to me you did not read what was written, in the fifth paragraph, "Candles are lighted before an image of our Lord and before the saints. Catholics practice this not to honor the image itself but the one it truly represents. The lighted candle symbolizes a prayer offering where we present our petitions to the Lord and ask the saints to pray with us and to pray for us during our most dire need. This light, as it is kept burning, also shows our desire to remain in God’s presence as we go through our daily duties at home and in the workplace. "

[MHGinTN]

‘deckles’ should reads FECKLESS ... so your admitting that catholiciism teaches you to pray to those the heira4rchy has told you are saints, dead saints? And you have in previous posts said you pray to Mary for her intercession ... the catechism title her a mediatrix, IIRC. [The Bible, BTW, states categorically that there is only ONE MEDIATOR between man and God, the Man Christ Jesus.

[Mark17]

I find it hard to believe that humans who have been invited to come and follow Him in simple, childlike trust should ever be required to invent such a complex, ornate, confusing system of imaginative rites and allegories and sacrifices and garments and beads in order to make them acceptable and pleasing to the God Whom I find in my Bible.

It truly IS a mystery. Even when I was a Catholic, I wondered where some of these peculiar doctrines came from, and why did it seem that things were SO complicated. Now, I know, of course, and I am no longer in bondage to false religion. 😇🙏

[Mark17]

so your admitting that catholiciism teaches you to pray to those the heira4rchy has told you are saints, dead saints?

Wouldn't that be more commonly called necromancy? If I am not mistaken, I believe that would be evil. ☝️️😇

[af_vet_1981]

The prayer among Catholics that is a stumbling block for you can be understood from the Catechism:



II. THE COMMUNION OF THE CHURCH OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

954 The three states of the Church. "When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating 'in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is"':492

All of us, however, in varying degrees and in different ways share in the same charity towards God and our neighbors, and we all sing the one hymn of glory to our God. All, indeed, who are of Christ and who have his Spirit form one Church and in Christ cleave together.493 955 "So it is that the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in the peace of Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods."494

956 The intercession of the saints. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus . . . . So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."495

Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life.496 I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.497

957 Communion with the saints. "It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself"498:

We worship Christ as God's Son; we love the martyrs as the Lord's disciples and imitators, and rightly so because of their matchless devotion towards their king and master. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples!499 958 Communion with the dead. "In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and 'because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' she offers her suffrages for them."500 Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.

959 In the one family of God. "For if we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity - all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ - we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church."501

IN BRIEF

960 The Church is a "communion of saints": this expression refers first to the "holy things" (sancta), above all the Eucharist, by which "the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both represented and brought about" (LG 3).

961 The term "communion of saints" refers also to the communion of "holy persons" (sancti) in Christ who "died for all," so that what each one does or suffers in and for Christ bears fruit for all.

962 "We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers" (Paul VI, CPG § 30).

[MHGinTN]

Oh my, such a clear example of how the false doctrines of your religion are foundational to support other false doctrines: "... the dead who are being purified ...".

FRiend, you are thoroughly institutionalized, unable to discern, being so completely unlearned and untaught what is The Gospel of Grace in Christ.True Grace means you cannot earn Salvation and you cannot suffer your way into having GOD owe you anything.

Have you heard The Gospel of Grace yet?

[daniel1212]

There is no one named "Peter of Scripture;

Like there is no one named the God of the Bible. Forsake your sophistry.

here is someone called Simon Peter, or Cephas, the Apostle to whom the Messiah said these mighty words

The meaning of which is the issue, for which we look in the rest of Scripture, and thus once again your conclusion is actually begging the question on your part and is hardly a response to what refuted it.

I believe Him.

Well then, that settles the issue as well as believing in Bigfoot.

Does your faith community have succession and provenance ?

In evangelical faith, under the new covenant God can raise up children from stones, (Mt. 9:6) who like Peter effectually profess faith in the risen Son of God, and a true Jew is not one whose DNA goes back to Abraham, but one who has the faith of such. (Rm. 2:28) That is what is needed for succession and provenance of the church, as that is how it began and grew, "not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." (2 Corinthians 4:2)

And under which basis for ecclesiastical validity, erroneous competing claims must be overcome by the weight of Scriptural substantiation, not the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome (and basically in primary cults).

Succession and provenance are not my undoing; I am not in rebellion or protesting. I am in faith believing the words of the LORD Jesus Christ, that He built His church on the Apostle Peter, and there has been one holy catholic apostolic church ever since, to this day

Yes, it is indeed your undoing, since you engaging in an polemical argument by interpretive assertion, the conclusion of which does not flow from the premise.

[af_vet_1981]

Like there is no one named the God of the Bible.

There is no name like that in the scriptures. Do you invoke that as a proper name in your daily (or nightly) prayers ?