Tough Topics
If I told you the King James translation of the Bible is filled with references to unicorns, would that change the way you judge what is written in our Holy Scriptures?
That is just one of the many topics we are studying this month in service and our Thursday Noon Bible study.
A gifted theologian and teacher named Dan Kimball authored a book called “How (Not) to Read the Bible. Needless to say, Kimball is a great marketer too. He knew that title would raise a few collective eyebrows in the religious community. And it has.
Over the summer I read and re-read the book, and the passages he cites throughout the book.
I came away with the belief that Kimball has something to say that many of we polite Christians need to think about.
About those unicorns. They are there in multiple spots of the King James translation of the Bible. Now it’s not the “New King James” it is the old one from the 17th Century. Kimball says the unicorn reference is a misunderstanding by the translators of a Greek word “unicornus” which according to Kimball was an animal that looked similar to a rhinoceros.
This Sunday we’re addressing Paul’s writing to the young pastor named Timothy. He tells Timothy two things that seem contradictory.
- “All scripture is inspired by God.” 2nd Timothy 3:16
- “I do not permit a woman to teach…she must be quiet.” 1st Timothy 2:11
The first one we get, but the second one has certainly left some heads scratching. There is an explanation, and it’s a good one.
Kimball’s first instruction cautions that “cherry picking” a Bible verse here and there leaves open the door for misinterpretation. He also believes we cannot subject the values of today’s culture to the way the world worked (or didn’t work) in Biblical times.
Kimball contends that Jesus was actually the first to begin to empower women. He said Paul was doing the same thing in the broader perspective of what the Bible says. Paul sent a woman named Phoebee to Rome, to read the letter he wrote to the Roman Churches. If Paul believed, truly believed, women should be silent in church, don’t you think he would have sent Phoebee’s husband? But he didn’t. He sent her.
Jesus defied the rules of the culture speaking directly to women. John 4 tells the story known as the woman at the well. Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath and called her a daughter of Abraham (Luke 13.) He cured the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and declared her pure.
Jesus affirmed the ministry of Mary and Martha (above). Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus (as a student), Martha chose to serve, host and manage the household. He didn’t declare either one wrong or right, but rather said one had chosen differently.
These examples explain why Paul was imitating Jesus, following in his footsteps, and encouraging us to do the same thing.
Paul recognized Nympha, Priscella and Lydia as leaders of early house churches. Many of these stories are there for us to absorb in the Book of Acts. And that is why it is so important to not have a laser focus (and criticism) on one verse that doesn’t tell the entire story.
Judge for yourself, but do so in prayerful consideration of what the Bible says, and why it says it. Understand the Bible was written first to instruct specific people in specific situations. Kimball says the Bible was not written “to” us, but was written “for” us, as well as the original hearers.
The Bible is a library of 66 different books written by more than 40 authors over about 15-hundred years.
The Bible is the inspired word of God.