In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of [God] is at hand." For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:Now John wore a garment of camels' hair, and a leather girdle around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Prepare the way of the Lord;
make His paths straight.
Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
2 comments:
The difficulty of modern Bible study, (for that matter any literary study), is that the connotative-meaning-load of a of word often keeps us from ascertaining the original point of the author, and often the eternal meaning--the reality beyond what even the original author intended.
For example, consider the word "repent." In the original Greek, "metanoia" means "to think differently after."
Yet so often when people see this word what they think of instead i strange religious rituals, or the intolerance of Christians, or the hypocrisy of churches, or some sort of masochistic self-hatred, etc.
Maybe this is the advantage of some modern translations of Scripture. They avoid these traditional heavy-baggage religious words and translate them more literally. For example, God's Word translation says, "Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near."
Of course, "kingdom of heaven" is also in need of a modern translation.
Yes, we're talking about material in a different language from a different culture.
"Kingdom of Heaven" is not, however, that much of a problem -- as "Heaven" is well-established as a pious way of referring to God indirectly.
The real difficulty might be "What do you mean, 'sins'?"
What does this add?:
http://kwakerskripturestudy.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-is-john-baptist-out-crying-in.html
Post a Comment