GOOD SATURDAY MORNING FACEBOOK FRIENDS--It happens every year near Christmas. For years Time and Newsweek magazines have carried a story purporting to adjust or debunk the Biblical account of Christmas. Of course those two publications are both in their twilight years where they arent being paid attention to by a lot of people. However, the atheists are out in full swing feverishly denying all aspects of Christianity which they say they dont believe in. But even they are being ruled against by many judges who now side more with the Christians. But never fear. All these trends have not stopped one voice from claiming to know from a study of the Greek that Jesus was not born in a manger as the Bible claims. Strange, scores of Bible scholars have been studying and reading New Testament Greek for hundreds of years and have never come up with this loony conclusion. The scholar making this claim is Ian Paul. His only listed credential in the article I read says that he is a British theologian. He is obviously a liberal thinker who has an ax to grind. It is also obvious that he is delighted to try and prove that the Bible doesnt mean to say what it says. He says near the beginning of the article--I am sorry to spoil your preparation for Christmas but Jesus wasnt born in a stable, and, curiously, the New Testament hardly even hints that this might have been the case. I dont know what Bible he reads but I suppose we are to be grateful to him for setting us poor ignorant folk who seem to be able to read what the Gospel says and believe it. Apparently, he is also setting straight great Biblical scholars such as Carl F. H. Henry, C. S. Lewis, F.F. Bruce, William Barclay and a host of others who are all Greek scholars who have written commentary on the Christmas narratives of the New Testament and have never come up with the strange revelation that Jesus was born in a hotel or a family home instead of a manger in a stable as the Bible says. This brilliant sage would tell us that the texts were misinterpreted from the Greek. How fortunate we must be that he is the first scholar to discover that our New Testament needs a repair job. Of course it is fashionable now days to make the words of the New Testament say whatever is thought fitting for the time. Many years ago I heard it said that you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say. These words were not spoken by one who would quality as a scholar but they are true. And, of course, this kind of theory is being taught in the seminaries today--including some conservative ones. I recently heard a young preacher relate this fiction as though it were fact in an otherwise very meaningful and powerful sermon. Evidently this theologian in question is Rev. Ian Paul since he is listed as associate minister at Englands St. Nicholas Church, named for the third century bishop who much later inspired the character, Santa Claus. I could be tempted to touch upon that but I wont. I dont deny Ian Paul the option to believe or not believe whatever he wants to but I can hope that with so much evidence stacked against him he will not lead people down this crazy path of textual revisionism. As for me I prefer to read the Biblical text and let it speak for itself. I hope you will do the same. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 04:10:58 +0000
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