Lost in Translation

Before I delve any deeper into what the Bible does and doesn't say, a dear friend of mine suggested that I should focus a little on the problem with translations. More specifically, I will focus on the bias that can be imbued on the final product and the fact that it is easy to wrongly translate things.

To begin with, unless you are fluent in ancient Greek and Hebrew and have the original manuscripts in front of you, it will be impossible to correctly translate what was originally recorded. Seeing as the original manuscripts would be thousands of years old by now, chances are slim that many survive to this day. And the copies that do exist are so different that it's difficult to say which the most accurate. Just take a look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example. These are a collection of manuscripts found in a series of caves near the Dead Sea, which have been dated to be from 150 BCE to 70 CE. As such, they are the oldest surviving copies of the Bible. But there are discrepancies between what scholars have been able to translate based off these scrolls and what we have in the Bible today. The scrolls contain passages from almost every book in the Old Testament, so you can easily pull up the accepted modern day text and compare it to what was written on these scrolls. These scrolls usually uphold what we find in the Masoretic Text, which is essentially the Hebrew Bible.

One of the more interesting deviations between the Dead Sea Scrolls and what we find in modern Bibles is a few verses from Psalms 22. This is a passage that Christians can look at as a prophecy of Jesus' crucifixtion. In the Contemporary English Version of the Bible, verse 16 reads "For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." In the K'tuvim, you would find the corresponding verse in the book of Tehillim, verse 17, "For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet." However, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, it reads "Like a lion, they pin my hands and feet.” For the sake of being thorough I went through older English translations to see if I could pinpoint when it went from "pinning" to "piercing." The earliest English translation was the Wycliffe Bible (completed in the 1380s), but I could not find a complete version that includes this passage. And please enlighten me if you do know where this passage is located in the Wycliffe Bible. So, strike one. I think it should be important to note that in the 1490s, Oxford professor Thomas Linacre decided to learn Greek. After comparing what he read in Greek to the Latin Vulgate (the 5th century Latin version of the text), he came to the conclusion that "Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians." I was able to find a copy of the John Rogers version, which is much more complete than the Wycliffe version. And it does say "pierced" and not "pinned." So as of 1537, this was the official translation: "They pierced my hands and my feet, I might have told all my bones: as for them, they stood staring and looking upon me."

But you may be thinking to yourself "What's the big difference? Aren't pierced and pinned synonyms?" As a noun, a pin is something you would use to fasten something with, usually something long and narrow. However, as a verb, it has a completely different connotation. I could pin you down on a cross with something other than a spike, like a piece of rope or wire. Piercing, on the other hand, is defined much more violently than pinning. It specifically says that a hole is made when something is pierced, whereas there is no mention of a hole when something is pinned. When I think of pinning something, I think of a corsage being pinned to a shirt. When I think of piercing something, I think of body piercings, which would be much closer to what happened to Jesus than pinning. Piercing sounded more violent and painful than pinning, so it's now favored as the correct translation of the text. The Christian translators decided that in order to have this as a prophecy about Jesus, all they had to do was change that one word and it fit. They sound so similar, what's the harm, right? You should note that if you were to look up pierce and pin in the dictionary, you would not see them listed as synonyms of each other.

And that, dear readers, is how easy it is to change things in order to fit your religious views. Next time, more of what Jesus taught us as interpreted by yours truly. But why should you listen to a word I say? Afterall, the whole point of this post was that it's easy to read something and interpret it as you wish. Well, let's just say that I'm trying to put a different view of Christian ideology and stories out there. Stay tuned for more developments.

Part 1 on Christianity (The Beatitudes)

I will preface this post by informing you of why I'm writing this. Most people who know me know that I'm pretty much an atheist. Deism is a better word to describe my relationship with God. I was raised Lutheran, however I lost my faith back in my late teens. While I still believe the Big Man is up there, I don't see any benefit to organized religion. I tell you this because I have volunteered to help at my church's VBS (vacation Bible school) this week. I still call it my church because if I have a sudden epiphany, I know they will welcome me back with open arms. It's nice to feel productive during the day seeing as I work nights 99% of the time. I really can't remember why I said I'd help, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't come up with a logical reason to not to. In some twisted way, it's interesting to see the indoctrination of young minds. Yes, I'm a sick individual, but that's my psychology training kicking in. I really feel like I've been behind enemy lines all week. Now, onto the bulk of this post.

What set me off was a lady that I'm working with this week. We've been getting along great, don't get me wrong. But something she said just kind of crawled under my skin and is festering there. This year the focus has been on Paul and his ministry. The stories have been focusing on his travels and how he was arrested for teaching others about Jesus. The kids were on the other side of the room listening to the teacher, so they didn't hear her. The teacher said something about it being nice that we don't have to worry about being put in jail for talking about Jesus. But she just made some snide comment about how it may not be that way for much longer. That just got me to thinking about how Christians these days keep saying that the US is a Christian nation founded on Christian values, which in turn got me thinking about what Jesus really taught us and how his teachings are being hijacked to serve these people's desires. It mostly pissed me off simply because religious intolerance has led us to the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust and other innumerable events.

So, what did Jesus really teach us in the Gospel lessons? The first couple of stories are about him after his birth are him being baptized and his temptation by the devil. There isn't much to learn from these stories, as they just show that he is the son of God and that he can resist temptation from even the devil himself. Soon afterwards he started healing the masses and spreading the word about God's kingdom. His first glowing speech was the Sermon on the Mount, home of the oft-quoted Beatitudes.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake." (Matthew 5:3-11).

I think that the meaning of this part of the sermon is that if you are downtrodden, your faith in God will ultimately make your pain and suffering worth it, as you will receive God's blessing and St. Peter will let you through the pearly gates into heaven. Not a bad moral to this story.

I do think one of the more interesting Beatitudes is the one regarding peacemakers, who will be called his children. What do you think Jesus would think of all the wars that have been carried out in his name? If peacemakers are going to be called children of God, shouldn't Christians strive for peace and avoid wars?

But my all-time favorite Beatitude that illustrates the hypocrisy of the modern church is the one about being humble. If the meek inherit the earth, what would Jesus have to say about the evangelical mega-churches? They get millions and millions of dollars, and yet most of it goes to the upkeep of their monstrosities of churches and other frivolous things. You know the Touchdown Jesus I wrote about last week? That church paid a quarter of a million to build a 62 foot tall statue. There's a group on Facebook petitioning the church to use the money that has been donated and money they were going to spend on rebuilding and putting it to better use. It has over 10,000 fans after a week. The church says that it was fully insured, so it's going to be getting money from it's insurance company anyways to pay for a new one, yet they are asking for donations. Do you really think that money will go towards the new statue? Most likely not. The people who operate Solid Rock Church and other mega-churches run them like businesses. It's a house of worship. Operate them as such, not some scheme to get you rich. Jesus lived in poverty. I'm not suggesting everyone live in poverty. I just think that it would be more Christ-like for the pastors and the people who operate these churches to not be making 6-figure incomes, live in mansions and drive expensive luxury cars. That is in no way humble. And don't give me this bullshit about how Jesus wants us to be successful. There is a definite line between success and excess, and these folks have crossed it. Jesus wanted us to use our success to help the unfortunate, not make extravagent purchases. You're supposed to tithe 10% of your income to your church, but that usually only ends up paying to upkeep costs. Like the Touchdown Jesus money, a lot of your discretionary spending is put to better use by making charitable donations. Remember those ubiquitous "WWJD" bracelets? I think that's what Jesus would do if he had any amount of money. Use what he needs to live comfortably and give the rest to charity.

Anyways, this is only part one of a series of posts on Christianity and why I think it's gone awry. Come back for more later.

An Education on Easter

I love Christianity partly because Christians celebrate stolen holidays.

Easter and Christmas are perfect examples. Christmas celebrates Jesus' birth on December 25th of every year, even though most Biblical scholars will tell you they have no idea when Jesus was born. You know what else is celebrated around then? The winter solstice, when the nights start getting longer. The harvest is done for the year and it's time to hunker down for the cold winter ahead. A common practice in the olden days was to burn a Yule log. Sound familiar? So should the fact that Germanic pagans decorated their houses with evergreen, holly and mistletoe.

Easter has a similar story. While Jesus' death is given a definite time frame (the Friday after Passover), it still has a lot of stolen symbology. Easter gets it's name from Ostara, which is the name of the neopagan celebration of the vernal equinox. Ostara gets it's name from the Germanic pagan goddess Ēostre. They are pretty much used interchangebly. If you dig a little to find out who she is, you'd find that she is the goddess of spring and fertility. Symbols associated with her are rabbits and eggs, symbols of fertility. Again, sound familiar?

There are westernized versions of most of the 8 Wiccan sabbats if you think about it. Halloween = Samhain, a celebration of your ancestors. It's no coincidence that the Catholic All Saint's Day is Nov. 1st and subsquently the Hispanic Día de los Muertos is Nov. 2nd. Imbolc = Groundhog's Day, the longest day of the winter. The days will always start to get shorter after that, so no matter what Punxsutawney Phil tells you, spring will always be a few weeks away. Beltane = May Day, the beginning of of the planting season. Litha, Lammas and Mabon don't have any modern day holidays that have been commandeered by Christianity.

The reason there are so many parallels between these pagan celebrations and Christian/Western holidays is because they wanted to ease the converted pagans into their new religion.

There's your history lesson for the day.

People always wonder why I have a problem with Christianity. I don't have a problem with the religion at all. It's the Christians that I have a problem with. I think at the heart of it all, Christianity is about wanting to make people better and have them act kindly towards others. It gives them morals and values to believe in and for you to use to guide your life. That's a good thing. I just don't like the way Christians behave with people who think differently from them. Religious intolerance led us to the Crusades, the Inquisition and the Holocaust. I can't claim to be a Christian when I believe that Jesus would not want his followers to have this "our way or the highway" mentality that I feel they currently have. To me, it was stiffling going to church towards the end. I'm a woman of science and reason. I was tired of them trying to convince me to abandon my belief in evolution, which is based on evidence that I can see, for blind faith. To quote Robert Langdon in "Angels and Demons," "Faith is a gift I have yet to receive." And I refuse to associate myself with a religion that is so intolerate of homosexuality and base this intolerance on a few Bible verses, when these verses can plainly be seen as outdated when read in context. I mean, there's one where homosexual behavior is condemned because the writer was in an area still heavily under the spell of Greco-Roman gods and near temples for fertility gods and goddesses. These people he was condemning were simply worshipping their gods, and since they weren't his god he condemned them and their behavior to sway people towards his religion. Long story short, religion in general has evolved with us and everyone in the past has been pretty sure that their religion is the right one, so what makes me so sure that Christianity is the right one for me? Nothing.

Happy Easter/Ēostre/Fertility Symbols Day!