Changing What God Said
"But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." - Genesis 2:17
When God set down the house rules for the garden, He told Adam that no one could eat from a certain tree or death would be the result. But Adam, with very good intentions, decided he needed to add something. He reasoned that if a person followed this additional rule, he wouldn't be able to break the actual command of God. (You can't eat the fruit if you don't touch it.) So he told Eve, "You shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die!"
Perhaps it was Adam's added words that gave the serpent his opening. The devil was able to challenge the claim that touching the fruit would cause death. The devil's logic may have been something like this: Since touching didn't cause death, then God must also be lying about what would happen if the fruit were eaten. Adam's added words were used to convince Eve that God was a liar! That is why the devil was successful--it's hard to argue against the words of God but pretty easy to argue with the legalism of man!
Adding to the word of God can lead to God's being ridiculed and Christians' losing their credibility. Let's learn from the actions of Adam and recognize the folly of adding to the Word of God.
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8 Comments
I had never really thought about or even realized this, but it's so true! - Luke_13
Wow! That will really shed some light on some things. Great devotional today.
- Jennifer
This is also the problem I have with the many different versions of the Bible. Which one is correct? When we change the word to make it easier, we lose meaning thru the different translations. No I can't read Hebrew or Greek and most people who want to try to prove us believers wrong, they can't read it either but when they read the books they have that intreprate the languages, they want us to think they are so smart. I just feel that we need to be careful with the scriptures we read. Revelation states that if anybody adds too or takes away from Gods word their names would be taken out of the "book of life". I sure don't want that to happen to me. God bless all and have a good day. - Jerry
So true, so true.
Really good devotional today. - Bnjamn
Jerry, Do you have a preferred translation of the Bible? I have several translations and find them all valuable because different wording at times is helpful to my understanding of the Word. I appreciate the fact that the people who worked on the translations put all their heart into it trying to make it accessible to a particular audience. You are right that some meaning can be lost with making it an easier text. But those with lesser reading skills have to start somewhere and they will always have the opportunity to advance to another translation as their reading skill amd interest advances.
Today's devotion was a good one to make us consider carefully how people including ourselves use the Word. - Janice
There is no "inspired" translation of the Bible. But, Bible scholars have been studying the Hebrew and the Greek documents available for over 1500 years at least. Serious study, at the very least, involves reading a variety of commentary on what you are studying. The Letter to the Romans, for instance, has inspired libraries full of "analysis". Any good Bible Study Program, such as the "Disciple" series will point you to much background material. I find that the more I study, the more trancendently beautiful the Holy Scriptures become. Just remember the Lord's warning about false teachers, and "drink deep of the living water". - G Man
It is true that there is no inspired translation of the Bible, but the original scriptures as penned down by the writers themselves was Godly inspired. These writers wrote what God gave them, but when they were translated this is when the changes began. There were words that had to be changed because there were not any in the different languages that meant the same. The need was there to stay as close as they could to the original. Janice, I use the KJV Version, it is written on the eigth grade reading level and it is easy to understand if a person tries to. It is also written on what is known as a Common Copywrite and that means that no one owns it. That is why when a book is written using the scriptures from the KJV you do not have to pay royalties to anyone. With all the Revised versions you have to pay royalties to the owners who hold the copywrite. On top of this every so many years there has to be a certain many changes made to each of the other versions to keep the copywrite current and enforced(this is what we were taught at college). Either way I will stick to the KJV, I do have others to compare with but this is the one I use. God bless all and have a good day. - Jerry
Thank you, Jerry, for expanding your thoughts about the translations. I do have an appreciation for the KJV especially since it was the first Bible I ever purchased for myself. I know some people will use no other Bible. I do find that I get some extra understanding from some of the other translations. I think there is one translation that was made to be gender neutral and I would not want to use that one because that seems to me to be a distortion. There was a time when I was reading a lot in The Message and I found that very helpful to have the Bible in our everyday language. It seems for different life stages I benefit from varying the translation. I think what a difficult job it must be to work as a Bible translator and have the responsibility of keeping God's word as accurate and applicable as He intended. - Janice