Sunday, January 19, 2014

Divine Right of Kings in English Translations.

And I'm not just talking about the Kings of old. I'm also talking about the destructive force trying to make men into the prophets, priests, and kings of their homes over their lowly subjected wives.

Here is an excellent comment from Arce at TWW concerning study of the Greek NT and comparing it to the English translations that we have today. He claims that a "great deal of what we have in the English NT that is the result of the terrible patriarchy and divine right influences on the KJV translators that carries over into almost all English translations today."

Here is a link to his comment:
Arce speaks on English translations

And here is his comment in full that I don't want people to miss. It is in response to someone who is just sure the Bible give him the divine right to be the boss over his subjected wife.

And again: The English translation of the Ephesians passages has added words not there in the Greek, selectively. In particular, the word translated “submit” (not exactly the best translation of the Greek word, as it means something different in our culture) and the word “love” both get inserted in places where they do not appear in the Greek, selectively. Both words should appear in application to the husband or wife if we are inserting, b/c of parallelism. OR neither word should appear.
The verse that precedes about all submitting to all is the key. And then the submission of a wife is qualified — to her own husband, not to all the other men in the church.
And Gene, I have a Ph.D., a J.D., and a 800 plus volume of theological books, with multiple commentaries of each of the NT books and most of the OT books, in my home. I have been an evangelical Christian for more than 55 years, and a Baptist for most of those. As a teenager, I attended the adult bible studies my church held on week nights at least two months a year. I have taught adult classes in church, have served on the diaconate in several churches, and as chairman of major committees such as personnel and finance.
In addition, I chaired an extensive study of ALL of the verses that anyone raised as potentially relevant to the role of women in the church, including all of those verses that relate to the marital relathionship. We explored all of the verses in Hebrew or Greek as appropriate, in context, and reviewed the work of various Hebrew and Greek scholars.
And I can tell you that, there is a great deal of what we have in the English NT that is the result of the terrible patriarchy and divine right influences on the KJV translators that carries over into almost all English translations today. It relates to all of the issues around the words “head”, “submit”, etc. And you can choose to disagree with me if you wish. But the teaching of comp and the teaching of patriarchy in the church is not supported by the Greek NT, and it is contributing to the shrinking of the church as women, who have kept the faith alive in many places, are leaving the organized church that teaches what becomes the excuse for abuse and denying the equality of all before God.


4 comments:

Estelle said...

The more I read complementarian reasonings about 'God's Created Order (TM)' the more I feel like I'm stuck in a Shakespearian timewarp where everything has its place in the universe and you daren't do anything to alter the status quo in case all hell breaks loose.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this information. I feel as though I have a lot to learn about what the original words of the Bible said vs. how people later interpreted them.

Mara Reid said...

Estelle, we all crave structure.
And in uncertain times (or time perceived to be uncertain because of the crazy preaching of a few squeaky wheels, we crave more structure.
A place for everything and everything in its. It was good for Paul and Silas, so it's good enough for me.
It gets frustrating when I'm the one being put in a lower place because is makes someone else feel safer or more comfortable.

Mara Reid said...

123carly,
I've known of this divine right of kings stuff for some time. But it is hard to find documentation of it in relationship to the KJV.
This is why I pounced on Arce's comment so hard and linked to it so fast it.
I want others to be aware of this bias in KJV and other translations.
It's these. And it causes a great amount of grief.