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To: hopefulpilgrim
R U saying that the Holy Spirit went to the trouble ; ) of "breathing" out the scriptures---inspiring them, moving upon the authors so that they "spoke from God"---but made it too hard for people to understand what they read? Relatively speaking, there is very little in the scriptures which is difficult to comprehend once it is translated into one's own language

Assuming that one is reading a faithful(as much as that is possible) translation, you are correct. For devotional reading, an accurate vernacular translation of Scriptures is just fine.

Though when one wants to engage in serious digging and exegesis, one needs to look, ultimately, to the original languages. For instance, Greek is a much more nuanced and precise language than English. Even in the best translations, some things may be lost in the translation into English even while retaining nearly all of the meaning of the Greek. That's just the nature of translations.

Also, we shouldn't neglect trying to understand the culture in which the Scriptures were written as that can help us in interpretation and understanding of idioms. What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't read Scripture through the lense of our 21st century mindset.

Pray for the 263rd successor of St. Peter

1,746 posted on 10/22/2001 6:12:36 AM PDT by dignan3
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To: dignan3
I agree : ) with all you said in #1746, and these hermeneutical principles would be applicable to anything we read, especially when it's from a different culture and age. But RobbyS said that in addition to the Scriptures, we need "a key to their interpretation." Keeping all you said in #1746 in mind, the real key to understanding the scriptures is found in the verses I quoted from 1 Cor. 2. A child of God, according to Rom. 8, is one who is "led by the Spirit of God." 1 Cor. 2 enlarges upon His ministry in us, and it's worth reading again: "For to us God revealed them [mysterious things] through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, of which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit."
1,819 posted on 10/22/2001 10:58:25 AM PDT by hopefulpilgrim
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