As a high school student I was introduced to the writings of Clarence Jordan who is identified by Wipipedia as: a farmer and New Testament Greek scholar, founder of Koinonia Farm, a small but influential religious community in southwest Georgia and the author of the Cotton Patch translations of the New Testament. He was also instrumental in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. The Cotton Patch series is a homey translations of New Testament writings (unfortuantely did not translate the Gospel of Mark, my favorite before his death in 1969). His translation point of view was not only to translate individual words and phrases, but also the context of Scripture. As he wrote: "Translations have left us stranded in some faraway land in the long-distant past. We need to have it come in our tongue and our time. We want to be participants in the faith not merely spectators. In the story of the Good Samaritan, we need to participate in the story, so we change Jerusalem and Jericho to New York to Boston, or our hometown to the next. Change the setting from 1st century Palestine to 20th century America." Every now and then I will add to a daily reading the Cotton Patch version of the text. Today here is Matthew 23:37-39. Matthew 23:37-39 37 ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that murders the prophets and stones the messengers sent to her! How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings; but you would not let me. 38 Look, look! there is your temple, forsaken by God.ab 39 And I tell you, you shall never see me until the time when you say, “Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’ HERE IS THE COTTON PATCH VERSION OF THE TEXT Matthew 23:37-39 “O Atlanta, Atlanta! Killer of prophets and assassinator of statesmen, many times I wanted to draw your people together as a hen snuggles her biddies under her wings, and you would have none of it. All right, your affairs are in your own hands, but I’ll tell you this, you won’t see me around again until you’re crying out, ‘Please God, send us some spiritual leadership.’ ”
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 05:00:05 +0000
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