Old, Old Bibles
I share this humorous article I wrote for the church I am currently serving, for several reasons. One, we should remember that both the Bible and the Waith material are channelled information. Second, what is important is the information inside the covers rather than the encasement which contain the printed pages. And third, long after we have left the earth plane, future generations might see as valuable, the original texts that we currently own. I hope this will not be true, though some of us may have a spare, pristine copy of Search for Self ~ First Level and Search for Self ~ Second Level.
Across from where I sit in my office, stacked neatly taking up two plus rows, is a bunch of old, old Bibles. They vary in size ~ some are really quite big and there are several that are so small the print is barely readable. Some have numerous illustrations. Some of the religious art is okay ~ much of it is just dreadful, or at least nothing I would want to see framed, hanging on my walls. There is also one set of commentaries. All in all, however, the one thing these old, old Bibles have in common is that as old books they have absolutely no monetary value. They just kind of sit there taking up space, serving at best as reminders of days gone by.
Somehow, however, throwing out used Bibles seems akin to burning the American flag ~ it seems to be something one just does not do. So, giving them away seems to be the best option ~ and, who better to be on the receiving end than the Pastor. Sure enough, every once and awhile some one will say to me, “Wouldn’t you like to have this old, old Bible? It has been in my family for a long, long time.” Then out comes this humongous old, old Bible with a partial genealogy inside that is in decent shape (mostly because I can tell it has been hardly used). By the way, one thing old, old Bibles have in common turns out to be a good reason people seldom read them ~ and that is that most all of them are written in the old King James, hard to read, hard to understand, version . . . that is unless you yourself are ~ old.
“What do you want me to do with it?” I respond.
“Well, we just thought you might like to have it and could make good use of it.” They say with the hope I might take this enormous, not to mention heavy, volume off their hands.
I think about offering to dispose of it for them after explaining why I have no use for it, and also that there are millions just like it ~ and, then remembering my previous American flag correlation, I back out as gracefully as I can. Sometimes people don’t think to ask but sneak down to the church steps in the dead of night with their old, old Bible in hand with a note attached saying something like, “This was grandma’s old, old Bible and she would have wanted it to have a good home.” (Which, evidently, wasn’t their home.)
There is only one thing that makes a Bible valuable, and that is, if the famous person who owned it claims that his/her life was inspired by it. A signed volume with notes in the margin, indicating motivating passages by a president or other famous person might give an otherwise worthless volume some value, albeit, still fairly meager.
Of course it is the contents of the Bible rather than the Bible itself that is valuable. Perhaps if they are displayed like they are in my office ~ right where I can see them ~ I will be reminded to be a witness to what can be read inside them.
By the way, right below the shelves that contain the old, old Bibles, is one containing the Bible I received when I was in Sunday School signed by the Rev. Gibson I. Daniels ~ now over 50 years old . . . I wonder which relative I will leave it to . . .?
As a concluding note, and bringing this story into a Terra Lux frame of reference, the Waith material is not to be glorified ~ it is to be utilized!
BARJAN
Barjan ~ or The Rev. David F. Jarvis ~ has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ for over 25 years. He is also a musician and keyboard artist, and Spiritual Music Ambassador and Honorary Metager for the Community of Terra Lux.
Posted in -Barjan, Contributing Writers | March 8, 2007
March 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am
‘Old, Old Bibles’, give me your tired unused Bibles and Books and build a cabinet and catalogue them by year or printed word.
I must be very old, because the ancient text is the easiest for me to read. They speak the language of the men who copied them from much older text and if you would take the time to read your ‘New (interpreted) words’ you will see that much is lost in the re-translation.” new word bible’s” loose so much of the original spirit in the translation.
I have looked at your ‘new version Bibles’ and found them lacking in the words and stories of the ancients. The newer loose the spiritualness of actions and words. Jesus was not portrayed as the “New Age Modern Hippie”, but as the man that lived over 2,000 years ago, he spoke as man did at that time. Not in the words of your neighbor, but in the words of the ancient prophets and the wisdom is lost in the new translations.
Your new Bible reads like the ‘Dick and Jane’ books of the 1940’s when children were first beginning to read, simplicity, however preparing them for more intellectual materials. Would you change the Words of Waith for the newer ‘street version’ of Waith? I think not … if you choose the new version over the original … I feel that you have lost the spirituality and magic of those original words and thereby loose the true meaning of the story as it was told.
What taste better to you, the hand cranked, back porch home made ice cream on a hot summer evening or something with a crazy name from Ben and Jerry’s? Or maybe you would not know never having turned the crank of the weathered wooden blucket filled with “real cream, fresh eggs and the laughter of the children who anticipated that first taste they worked so hard for” or something scooped out a a store bought cardboard box”?
In Love and In Light …
March 8th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
How good for you that you find the King James Version easy to read. Yet you should be aware that Authors of the King James Version had a very limited knowledge of language compared to today. Since the 1600’s when the it was written, there has been a tremendous amount of scholarship done warranting a new translation from the original Greek and Hebrew. The King James Version (KJV) may have a lovely poetic flow, but is lacking in accuracy.
Since the original publication of the KJV, many new source documents, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, have been discovered, and a lot of other archaeological research has been done in the last 400 years that improves our understanding of the original text, all of which aids enormously in making a better translation. To dismiss such additional source documents and research does a large disservice to the aims of a translation that is as good as it can possibly be.
Also the new translations go back to the original source material, they are not paraphrases…
Even Waith’s words will always have to be scrutinized by language experts not to mention historical annalysis — also many unpublished manuscripts (that may remain in a computer) shed light on the already published ones — etc. etc.
Yes, I beleieve 2-300 years from now a new translation of Waith words will be warranted.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Well, this was quite the article! I loved it, Barjan,(as one who LOVES to read…’the words written in RED’!) but also I must say, I loved Just Jodi’s response as well!
I am not all that OLD, however I DO recall quite favorably the experience of making and eating hand churned ice cream on hot summer days of my youth. I believe someone in the family still has that old wooden ice cream bucket!(They never throw anything out!) But equally as fond, I do recall, was my first bite of ‘Cherry Garcia’and several other flavors of the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream variety….Each had a great gift to share with my tongue!
Thank you for the laughter, Both of you! I have actually printed this one out, as it’s a real keeper!
Love and Light to ALL!!!
March 8th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
There is much to be said for reading different translations of passages that one is interested in ~ I love to do that. It helps me to see the changes that have occurred over time. I love a good puzzle ~ ferreting out the metaphysical meaning of a passage is fun to me! I even have a copy of a metaphysical bible!
I must confess that I did ditch several volumes of a very old Bible ~ it really was in bad shape and had mold on the pages. My father had found it in an old abandoned home in a small town. I think he had hopes that it would be worth money, but it wasn’t. The volumes hung around forever in the basement until I finally ditched them.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Barjan thank you for such a great article. It’s interesting that you’ve become the junk man for old Bibles.
As for the translations, I say to each his own. Words of all languages are a very imperfect way to translate meaning. If “The King’s English” gets the word across better than the Greeks then so be it. Something will be lost in the translation but when 2 people read the same translation they can easily come away with different interpretations as well.
Culture and language will change dramatically in 200 years and the people living in the world of tomorrow will have trouble associating with some of the things that we do today. So people will update a famous work so it is more easily understood by the current audience and the tradeoff is that something will be lost in the translation. I say make both easily available and one can decide how far back one wants to go to get the message that resonates with him or her.
Barjan, your Bibles should go to another Priest of course (unless you’d rather have another scenario like Solara’s on your ghostly conscience).
March 10th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
We each filter information differently based on our our perceptions. During Waith gatherings, even as the words are coming out of his mouth, they are being misinterpreted ~ and, which is something that Waith LOVES to remark about!!
March 12th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Yes Berick, I do wonder if perhaps there will be an angel waiting for me before I cross over that threshold ~ he’ll be there to take an accounting of those bibles!
Unfortunately, with any translation, something is lost. Very few people are able to read and comprehend the “original” languages these texts were written in (if one can even determine what the original was!), thus limiting their potential usefulness to others. Far better, I say, to do one’s best to translate and make it available to more people. I studied the ancient Egyptian language for a time and I can say firsthand that, while we can certainly translate most texts, some of the nuances and meaning are lost to us because we have no frame of reference. We can only surmise. And we really have no idea how the language sounded. The way a language is spoken is very different from how it is written, whether ancient or modern! What fun!