Tiny Devotional for Tuesday, 07-11-2023

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, ‘scuse me, while I kiss this guy.

When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish,
And the hope of strong men perishes.
Proverbs 11:7, NASB

When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
Proverbs 11:7, KJV

There are 50+ English translations of this verse on Bible Gateway; about half translate the second line similarly to King James, about half similarly to NASB, and a few as ‘wealth’.

Conclusion: translators were working with  different source documents (but the Masoretic text rules!)

We KNOW that there were different versions of Proverbs and other Old Testament books; remember, these were copied out by hand, one Hebrew letter at a time. One of the traditions were that there were three perfect copies of the OT kept in the temple for the use of copyists, and there were paid officers of the Temple whose job was correcting errors in manuscripts.

This discovery terrified me as a young Christian, because I thought the Bible was dictated by God to man, word by word. Finding variances challenged my belief; at that point, I knew nothing about interviewing witnesses.

Consider this: if you interview five people who saw an event, and their stories all are identical in every detail, they lie. They got together and cooked up a story. 

TRUE eyewitness accounts will vary on the details, but agree on the essentials. 

Takeaway #1 (from the text): we should celebrate when we encounter variances like this, because it proves that EACH witness is describing what they saw, without pressure from outside influence.

Takeaway #2 (from the verse): Don’t be wicked. 

Peace be on your household.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tiny Devotional for Wednesday, 06-21-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, the Fairmount Pattersons are Papa-sitting this morning! It is better to live in a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21:9, NASB Today is the 21st of the month; so, Proverbs 21. I have written about verses 1-8;  it’s verse 9’s turn. Thus, my selection of this verse has NOTHING to do with my wife, mother, sisters, or daughters! All of them are intelligent, confident, and assertive; they are NOT contentious. ‘Contentious’ does NOT mean ‘has a different opinion’!  A man who has lived with a contentious woman gives the definition by example: I was 20 years old, and stupid (those might be the same thing).  I thought our marriage would work because she was beautiful, and I was, too. It didn’t take long before I realized I was wrong about that. Most of the time, it didn’t matter what I did; I couldn’t please her. We were married for 3 years,
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 08-20-2023

Image
A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Piper doesn’t like her food. Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord. Proverbs 20:10, NASB If this verse weren’t so important, I’d skip it, because I discovered it in a painful time. Others were involved, and their stories are not mine to tell. So, you get a parable: Stockman Bubba ran a cattle station, in partnership with his horse, Nancy. They worked hard together, and although they were not rich, they had achieved a degree of success. One day, a platypus stung Bubba, incapacitating him. Bubba tried to continue running the station, but after two years had passed, he realized it was time to retire. Nancy couldn’t adjust to this, and she left for life on her own. Three years later, Bubba realized Nancy was never coming back, and considered getting another horse. However, he was concerned that the other station owners would think bad
Read more

Tiny Devotional for Sunday, 07-23-2023

Image
 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, reach for the sky. Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always. Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:17-18, NASB Today’s verse is 18, but I included 17, because I THINK they are a couplet. I wrote about verse 17 last month, and will try not to repeat myself. Our senses describe the present, our memory describes the past; the future is described by our hopes and our fears. In this little verse, we are given one of the strongest foundations for peace: yes, you DO have a future, and it’s a good one. Under most circumstances, we take the future for granted. If you have ever been forced to doubt that a future exists, you know how chilling that is. ‘No future’ is MUCH worse than ‘bad future.’ This verse draws us back away from the abyss of nothingness, and back into reality: yes, you DO have a future.  (If that
Read more