the bible words: magic or not

I read an interesting article and a response to it in the link recently. Evidently there are some in the Catholic Church who are trying to make a new prayer manual/liturgy that is in the exact words of the Latin Vulgate.

The Latin Vulgate is probably one of the oldest translations available to us today. It was put out in the fourth century by a man named Jerome and is considered the benchmark translation to the Catholic Church.

The man who wrote the article argues that although we want to be close to what God says, what God says is not a magic formula to be recited. It is more than that. He even goes so far as to say that so many Christians see the words of the Bible as magic incantations on the order of Harry Potter magic, rather than divinely inspired guidelines for our lives.

I agree.

In the movie The Book of Eli, the antagonist wanted a copy of the Bible. He wanted it because he felt it had power that he could use. If he could just get a copy and then say the magic words, he could have true power.

He was looking for magic in the guise of religion.

The prayer of Jabez is another example. I have known people to recite the prayer of Jabez faithfully every day.

Jabez was a minor character in the Old Testament only mentioned once or twice by name. But he received a tremendous answer to his prayer.

He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. (1 Chronicles 4:10)

The ones who recite his prayer feel that if they can say those words the same thing will happen to them. If they can repeat the prayer just right, God will bless them and expand their territory (whatever that means) just as he did for Jabez.

The only problem is that God doesn’t work that way. He does not give magic formulas for us to recite. He gives us guidelines that will come through no matter what the translation.

There were and still are in some circles, tremendous battles over which translation to use. Those in the definite group say that the translation has to be totally accurate, a word-for-word translation so that we can get the exact meaning of what God wants. Usually they mean a translation with which they are familiar and have already learned passages from. The others say that thought for thought translations will still get us where God wants us to go.

It becomes a from of bibliolatry when it comes down to it. When we spend so much time in making sure every dot and comma is absolutely correct (which it cannot be) then we lose the fuller force of what God has to say.

And they cannot be exact because there are no original texts anyway. We are reading copies of copies of copies of copies when we read our Bibles. The Greek texts that some parse so fervently are copies of copies. There are no original Greek texts. Nor are there original Hebrew texts. The ones we use are from, for the most part, the ninth century AD. That is only a little over a thousand years old. Considering that the Old Testament took place more than three thousand years ago, that is not all that old. There were some found in the Dead Sea scrolls, but again, they are only about two thousand years old.

The point comes down to a question of how powerful is God. Is he powerful enough to give us here today in 2011 his word? And the answer is yes.

If God is able to speak the universe into existence, he is able to preserve his word so that we can read it and know him. Even in the Living Bible, one of the worst translations out there, we can see the will of God and understand it.

If not, then God is not that powerful. If we have to see the original words, to say the original phrases, then God is not that powerful. This would mean that the words and phrases are powerful, not God.

But words and phrases are worthless without God behind them. Reading your Bible, no matter how assiduously you may do it is worthless if you do not know the God behind the Bible.

You can know the word and not know the God behind the word.

And there is no magic in the word. There is only power in God.