Since we are in Philippi Greece today, I thought I would post this colorful blog 🙂
We miss a lot when reading the English Bible. We’re at a great disadvantage. The early Christians read the writings of the apostles in the original language – they understood the words and expressions must better than we do. The original language of the Bible is full of rich imagery, stark reality, and colorful terminology.
(Picture: Steve sitting on old stone Roman toilets in Philippi, filming in “Paul, Contending for the Faith“)
As a Pharisee, Paul tried to earn his righteousness by his self-righteous efforts and pride. But now that he has learned of faith in Christ and salvation by grace along, he considers his old efforts and self-righteousness to be nothing but crap. English Bibles santize this wording for us 🙂
Let’s look at another crude example. In Galatians 5:12 Paul reacts to the Jewish converts who tried to make the Gentiles get circumcised. They said the pagans must be circumcised and obey all the 613 laws of Moses to be saved (Acts 15:1). The heretics made Paul so mad that he says he wished the false teachers would not just cut off the foreskin of the penis but slip and cut the whole thing off. Ouch!
(Picture: Ancient flint knife, the kind used for circumcisions in biblical times)
One of my favorite gold nuggets that I discovered in the New Testament is a Greek word used only twice in the whole New Testament. This word relates to God’s two creations. By reading the English Bible you would never know these two different passages use the same Greek word. But you would never know it from reading the English. When you dig deep you find gold!
What are these two creations of God? The first is obviously the physical world created “in the beginning.” The second creation is the Church, into which we are ‘born again” through baptism, a new creation. Both creations were “born” out of water with the Spirit of God hovering over the water (Gen 1:2; Mk 1:9-110, John 3:1-5).
Ready? Well here are the two verses; I have italicized the English words that have the Greek word in common:
First, the physical creation: “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20).
Second, the spiritual creation: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Was I right? Would you have known that the underlying Greek word in both verses is poiema? It is the Greek word from which we get our English word poem. In Romans 1:20, five English words are used to translate one Greek word: poiema which refers to the physical created universe. The word workmanship is what you are, what the Church is. The poem of the Church includes you.
So, God has “written” two poems: the physical world and the Church. God is a poet, He is an artist, and his two great works of art reveal much about Him as an artist. You can learn a lot from looking at the paintings of an artist or by reading the pages of a poet. Just as any poet can be understood by reading his work, so God can be understood to some degree by reading his poetry.
Any you? You are part of God’s two creations, you are written into his poetry and painted on his canvas. He treasures you. You are not a random mass of molecules that happened to appear on lonely planet earth spinning meaninglessly around the sun. No, you are part of God’s glorious poetry that angels admire and God cherishes. Be proud, be thankful! Live worthy of your place in God’s heart.
So, the New Testament is rich in its vocabulary. It is richer than the English language reveals. Like Paul says, anyone that tries to please God by their meager human efforts has nothing but crap to show for it, unworthy of the kingdom of God. Anyone who says we must be circumcised to be a Christian opposes God’s plan of free grace. Paul wanted them to castrate themselves.
Actually the New Testament is rich in imagery and figures of speech. You are blessed to be freely made part of God’s two creations. You are beautiful. The Word of God says so!
This Post Has 15 Comments
neat
My comment was only the word ‘neat’, but I got a message that it was too short, so I will include a poem that I wrote:
Untitled Haiku for Steve Irwin
Crock wrasslin’ no more.
Murmuring waves kiss the shore.
Empty marriage bed.
I JUST KNEW IT!!! I mean that I just figured out that the English translation wasn’t really on target, just sorta carefully tiptoeing around the reality of what was being said. I’ve been on this realization of late because maybe I am just getting close to the end of my life.
Look at the prayer: GLORY BE TO THE FATHER, AND TO THE SON, AND TO THE HOLY SPIRIT–(that’s okay but the next part is nonsense), as IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING (whose beginning, cannot be God’s beginning because God IS–) IS NOW, AND EVER SHALL BE, ‘WORLD’ WITHOUT END. (What world???)
Is the ‘Earth’? Is there a distinction to be made between ‘earth’ and ‘world’?
Teach me someone!!!! I want to know! gh
Ms. Georgia,
Let me try to explain the “Glory Be,” a prayer I pray many times during the day. Aside from being both a personal and collective acclamation to God, “Glory Be” is an exhortation to all peoples in the world to give glory and honor to God in this world where we live. The glory, grandeur and majesty of God is unchanging, undiminished even if there were no creature praising Him. Prior to the fall of man, all created things gave glory to God–that is, they glorified Him by performing or fulfilling what they were created for. For instance, the essence of a tree is to grow, bear branches or fruit, give shelter to human beings or animals, absorb rain water, and simply be–be beautiful in itself. By being essentially a tree, it fulfills the purpose for which God created it and, thus, gives glory to God. When a tree or trees are wasted/burned/destroyed, they are not able to fulfill the reason for their existence. In a similar manner, God created human beings, the most intelligent of all creatures, to use their entire self–body, soul, spirit–to give glory to God by knowing Him, obeying him, loving Him and serving Him. But we all know that sin and evil have so corrupted much on this earth, that creatures are prevented from giving glory to their Creator. At the end of this world as we know it, there will be a new heaven and new earth, where all creatures will give glory and honor to God. And that is the “new world” that will last forever. I hope that this will help you somehow in your understanding and recitation of this beautiful prayer “Glory Be.”
In the third paragraph, you use the phrase “salvation by grace along”. I’m guessing this could be a typo for “salvation by grace alone” which would be a complete “Protestant” error. Perhaps you didn’t complete the phrase? Could it be: “Paul didn’t go from works alone to faith alone, but to faith along with works, together.”
The Gory Be is properly translated Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages (or forever and ever.)
Mr. Richard,
I am glad you raised that point. All Christians believe that salvation is by grace ALONE. To say anything else, would be to fall into the heresies of Pelgianism or Semi-Pelagianism. Simply put, we can not save ourselves. However, as Catholics we would not say that this constitutes faith alone because Scripture and tradition both say so. Rather, we are saved by our Christian life that is constituted by the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Of course such a life begins and is rooted in faith. Faith and works is true but so is grace ALONE.
God bless.
Hi Jeremiah and Richard,
Although I think I understand both sides, I fall on Richard’s side in that question of whether the Church teaches that salvation is by grace or by grace alone.
As far as I know, the Protestant doctrine of grace alone was used to discount everything from the authority of the Church to the validity of the priesthood. In the case of Calvinism, it is even used to discredit the human will. So, although many of our Catholic brethren, converts from Protestantism, use the phrase liberally, I’ve yet to see it officially taught by the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church teaches that God created the world ALONE but did not choose to save us ALONE, that is, without our effort. I believe St. Augustine said something to that effect.
CCC 1847 “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.”116 To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”117
Although that does not explicitly refer to salvation by grace, I believe it applies.
The Church teaches salvation by grace (not alone) through faith. The Church also teaches that “all is grace”. In other words, all which we do in response to the grace of God is itself by the grace of God. Therefore, “all” is grace.
Sincerely,
De Maria
Would “modern translation” not be more to the point than “english translation”.
I have these set of questions, please anyone tell in which group can Catholicism be placed:
1. Does God unconditionally elect only some men to eternal life?
2. Did Jesus Christ die for all the sins of all men?
3. Which comes first, faith or regeneration?
4. Will Jesus lose any of those He came to save?
5. Is eternal life unconditional or conditional?
To the five questions above: an Arminian will say … no, yes, faith, yes, conditional.
To the five questions above: a Calvinist will say … yes, no, faith or regeneration, no, conditional.
To the five questions above: Bible truth must answer … yes, no, regeneration, no, unconditional.
Jason, what is the connection between this thread and your comments/questions?
I was just listening to my car radio on IHM Catholic Radio and you were talking about the current and past Muslim leaders such as Mubarak and you said a very interesting thing about the Middle East being tribal. You also mentioned that Mubarak and others (Assad?) that even though they are Muslim they are tolerant of Christians. I was on pilgrimage last late Oct. and early Nov. and our guide was a Palestinian Catholic (the best guide in the world!) who lived in Nazareth. He was telling us the very same thing! We were blest to have an audience with the Bishop of Jerusalem and he asked us to pray that Assad not be deposed because the Christians would suffer then. So, I was so pleased to hear someone else say that, namely you, because it is something no one is talking about. In fact, we pilgrims took up a collection between the 40 of us and presented it to the Bishop who was going to see that it went to the benefit of Christians in Syria. I wrote my congressmen and asked them not to use military force against the dictator. And, here we are looking at using military force there. God be with us!
You should explain the correct translation of ??????? in Matthew 19:9, because no English Bible translation is correct. The KJV is closest.
In reply to George Hedrick: I understand your confusion. You wonder what “it” refers to. The short and simple answer is that “it” is a pronoun that refers back to the noun “glory”. In other words: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As glory was given n the beginning. As glory is given now and as glory ever shall be given, world without end. Amen”
Here is a link to Jacques Maritain’s ‘Art and Scholasticism’. The supplementary appendix ‘Frontiers of Poetry’ discusses the poetry of creation.
“….This divination of the spiritual in the things of sense, and which expresses itself in the things of sense, is precisely what we call POETRY. Metaphysics too pursues a spiritual prey, but in a very different manner, and with a very different formal object. Whereas metaphysics stands in the line of knowledge and of the contemplation of truth, poetry stands in the line of making and of the delight procured by beauty. The difference is an all-important one, and one that it would be harmful to disregard. Metaphysics snatches at the spiritual in an idea, by the most abstract intellection; poetry reaches it in the flesh, by the very point of the sense sharpened through intelligence. Metaphysics enjoys its possession only in the retreats of the eternal regions, while poetry finds its own at every crossroad in the wanderings of the contingent and the singular. The more real than reality which both seek, metaphysics must attain in the nature of things, while it suffices to poetry to touch it in any sign whatsoever. Metaphysics gives chase to essences and definitions, poetry to any flash of existence glittering by the way, and any reflection of an invisible order. Metaphysics isolates mystery in order to know it; poetry, thanks to the balances it constructs, handles and utilizes mystery as an unknown force.
Poetry in this sense — need it be pointed out? — is altogether the opposite of LITERATURE, insofar as this word connotes (aIready from the time of Verlaine) a certain deformation of which literary men are the prime victims. Sophistics of art, as difficult to track down as the old sophistics detested by Plato, one can group under this word all the counterfeits of beauty which make the work tell a lie each time the artist prefers himself to the work. This impurity is in our art the wound inflicted by original sin, and our art never ceases to bewail it. For our art is not itself a lie, under the pretext that its truth is not the truth of knowledge. It affirms outwardly the personality of the artist insofar as the artist forgets his personality in his object[185]and in the reality (interior or exterior) which it manifests the while transforming. Literature puts on the work the grimace of personality. It would fain embellish God.
Literature is to art as self-conceit is to the moral life. Poetry, I have said elsewhere, is to art what grace is to the moral life….”
http://www3.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/art.htm
Jason Almeida September 10, 2013 at 1:15 PM
I have these set of questions, please anyone tell in which group can Catholicism be placed:
Hi Jason,
Sorry that I had missed this question. I don’t see an answer to it above, so I’ll provide it for the edification of my fellow Catholics.
1. Does God unconditionally elect only some men to eternal life?
No.
1 Timothy 2:4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
2. Did Jesus Christ die for all the sins of all men?
Yes.
2 Corinthians 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
3. Which comes first, faith or regeneration?
Faith.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
One must first have faith before one can please God.
4. Will Jesus lose any of those He came to save?
Yes. Jesus came to save all of mankind. But not all have been saved:
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
5. Is eternal life unconditional or conditional?
Conditional.
God’s love is unconditional.
Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
But salvation is conditioned on our response to God’s grace:
Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
To the five questions above: an Arminian will say … no, yes, faith, yes, conditional.
To the five questions above: a Calvinist will say … yes, no, faith or regeneration, no, conditional.
To the five questions above: Bible truth must answer … yes, no, regeneration, no, unconditional.
Bible truth answers, “no, yes, faith, yes, conditional.” The Catholic Church wrote the New Testament and gave the world, the Bible.
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