E
EarlyActs
Guest
THINTERPRETATIONS
Poorly-based, highly-popular uses of Bible verses
‘He leads me beside still waters’
The ultimate meaning is shared, but not an important detail on how to get there. The setting is the toxic water of middle east deserts. You don't want your animals in them, drinking them. So the best translation is actually: 'He leads me past brackish waters.' He is a protector.
‘You will heap coals of fire upon his head.’
This is probably thought of as an act of vengeance; getting back at an enemy. But that is not the meaning. People carried hot things on a cloth headwrap on top of their head. The verse is saying that you will be doing something generous that will soften him. Now if that's what you think of as "vengeance" that's fine, but it is not harmful.
‘If any individual is in Christ, he is a new creation.’
This line is in relation to Judaism. Think of Paul. However, it is a mistake to think of it being individual at all. That's because "he is" is missing. 'If anyone is in Christ the new creation,...' The old things are therefore the old things of Judaism. But we still have not touched all of it. When w read this, we usually read: if Christ is in an individual... That is certainly a 2nd unstated mistake. The verse is not about their individual new life. It is about the new covenant ministry things that a person becomes employed in.
‘you must be born again.’
I have made posts about this already. 1, the imperative sense is not strong; it means to compare how we think. "You would have to be born again to understand the kingdom of God." Btw, many speakers don't bother to finish that line. 2, again is anothen, not palin. Anothen first captures the sense of the earliest or most important thing. Nicodemus was being asked to think back to when Israel started, the first reference to its Seed, which was really the Seed of Genesis 3. At the same time, to be dialed in to those thoughts was to give up the ancestral-birth so important in Judaism. So the statement is really: the ancestral birth you pride yourself in does not amount to anything.
‘All things work together for good’
This is not meant for public consumption. It is for believers. It is not a panacea about their lives, much less for national Christian radio and CCM to blast 24 hours a day to give peopel "hope." Such hope is often bitterly off the mark. It means that the work of God in rememptive history will go forward. You as a believer may die, but not the work. The invasion of earth by heaven continues; hold your position.
‘I can do all things through Christ.’
The things in question are the culturally or ceremonially debatable things Paul would often refer to in Corinthians 8 and Romans 14: foods, days, observances, idol-related practice. The weak believer just can't absorb the rationality of the fact that idols are not actually gods. So when they see things connected to them being done, it can't be Christian. But Paul and others knew they were not gods. Paul could do either thing, but always did the thing that built the faith of the person he was dealing with.
‘This is the day the Lord has made.’
Like 'all things work together for good' this line really does not have to do with each and every day. It is Ps 118, a heavily Messianic piece about what was taking place the day Christ died in reference to the nations. It belongs with Ps 2, 16, 110 as the four most important messianic psalms. The writer meant the sacrificial day of Christ had been made, ordained, by God for history, for all of us. So if you want to use it for yourself, make sure it is a day when you lose everything for Christ.
Ordinary life:
‘the bridge is open’
It is very easy to cross wires in these things. In my area, there is an isolated scenic peninsula served by a floating bridge. The bridge retracts its center to let ships through. The hiway engineer, not the tourist office, wrote the electronic notice signs which divert traffic and give them heads up. He wrote 'the bridge is open' when the center retracts and no traffic can go! Brilliant! He wrote 'the bridge is closed' when the center was in placed and traffic could go. But of course, by that time all the tourists had plugged up the hiway in a big line because it was out of car service--in service of ships!
We really have to know what is being said and to whom and then we can know what the Bible means.
Poorly-based, highly-popular uses of Bible verses
‘He leads me beside still waters’
The ultimate meaning is shared, but not an important detail on how to get there. The setting is the toxic water of middle east deserts. You don't want your animals in them, drinking them. So the best translation is actually: 'He leads me past brackish waters.' He is a protector.
‘You will heap coals of fire upon his head.’
This is probably thought of as an act of vengeance; getting back at an enemy. But that is not the meaning. People carried hot things on a cloth headwrap on top of their head. The verse is saying that you will be doing something generous that will soften him. Now if that's what you think of as "vengeance" that's fine, but it is not harmful.
‘If any individual is in Christ, he is a new creation.’
This line is in relation to Judaism. Think of Paul. However, it is a mistake to think of it being individual at all. That's because "he is" is missing. 'If anyone is in Christ the new creation,...' The old things are therefore the old things of Judaism. But we still have not touched all of it. When w read this, we usually read: if Christ is in an individual... That is certainly a 2nd unstated mistake. The verse is not about their individual new life. It is about the new covenant ministry things that a person becomes employed in.
‘you must be born again.’
I have made posts about this already. 1, the imperative sense is not strong; it means to compare how we think. "You would have to be born again to understand the kingdom of God." Btw, many speakers don't bother to finish that line. 2, again is anothen, not palin. Anothen first captures the sense of the earliest or most important thing. Nicodemus was being asked to think back to when Israel started, the first reference to its Seed, which was really the Seed of Genesis 3. At the same time, to be dialed in to those thoughts was to give up the ancestral-birth so important in Judaism. So the statement is really: the ancestral birth you pride yourself in does not amount to anything.
‘All things work together for good’
This is not meant for public consumption. It is for believers. It is not a panacea about their lives, much less for national Christian radio and CCM to blast 24 hours a day to give peopel "hope." Such hope is often bitterly off the mark. It means that the work of God in rememptive history will go forward. You as a believer may die, but not the work. The invasion of earth by heaven continues; hold your position.
‘I can do all things through Christ.’
The things in question are the culturally or ceremonially debatable things Paul would often refer to in Corinthians 8 and Romans 14: foods, days, observances, idol-related practice. The weak believer just can't absorb the rationality of the fact that idols are not actually gods. So when they see things connected to them being done, it can't be Christian. But Paul and others knew they were not gods. Paul could do either thing, but always did the thing that built the faith of the person he was dealing with.
‘This is the day the Lord has made.’
Like 'all things work together for good' this line really does not have to do with each and every day. It is Ps 118, a heavily Messianic piece about what was taking place the day Christ died in reference to the nations. It belongs with Ps 2, 16, 110 as the four most important messianic psalms. The writer meant the sacrificial day of Christ had been made, ordained, by God for history, for all of us. So if you want to use it for yourself, make sure it is a day when you lose everything for Christ.
Ordinary life:
‘the bridge is open’
It is very easy to cross wires in these things. In my area, there is an isolated scenic peninsula served by a floating bridge. The bridge retracts its center to let ships through. The hiway engineer, not the tourist office, wrote the electronic notice signs which divert traffic and give them heads up. He wrote 'the bridge is open' when the center retracts and no traffic can go! Brilliant! He wrote 'the bridge is closed' when the center was in placed and traffic could go. But of course, by that time all the tourists had plugged up the hiway in a big line because it was out of car service--in service of ships!
We really have to know what is being said and to whom and then we can know what the Bible means.