August 5, 2002
ANOTHER VIEW:
True submission: Mutually available
___We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.
___This Article X of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was adopted in October 1978 by 287 evangelical scholars. If you agree with it, what the Bible really teaches at any given point depends on whether or not those who translated it into modern languages were accurate in two respects. Was their understanding of the message of the passage as set forth in the original languageaccurate? Did they choose the most accurate way to convey its message in the modern language?
RUSSELL WARE
___Not being equipped to make this evaluation, most Christians are wholly dependent on what the translators of the various contemporary versions decided the passages mean. Accepting their wording, we say confidently, "Every part of my Bible is the inspired word of God." But is it?
___According to the view of inerrancy cited in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, the message of any translation is the inspired word of God only if it faithfully represents the message set forth in the original language.
___Being human, all of the translators have brought to their task their own views about the Bible's message, and they have worded their versions in line with those views.
___Actually, the more recent English versions have varied substantially little from the Authorized Version produced in 1611 by the Church of England and known in the United States as the King James Version.
___What the average Christian does not know is the motive that King James I and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Bancroft, had for sponsoring that translation. They wanted to replace the Geneva Bible, at that time the well-established version among Christians in England. Certain marginal comments in it led readers to question King James' belief in "the divine right of kings." The king wanted the English bishops to be able to point to the Bible to prove that God wanted the people to obey the king's decisions without questioning them. The Authorized Version was to show a hierarchy of society identifying the line of authority from God to the king, king to the archbishop, archbishop to the clergy, clergy to the people and husbands to wives. Evidence for this purpose can be found in Alister E. McGrath's book "In the Beginning."
___In the inerrant Bible, the autographic text, the only humans ever commanded to "obey" ("hupakouo") other humans were children and slaves. If God means for adults to obey other humans, why did he not lead the writers to use "hupakouo" in other passages dealing with human relationships? For more information, visit www.invisiblebible.com.
___Why is this information important? Elected leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as many others, believe and promote the position that God intends for some of his people to be the decision makers for others. They are honest as well as firm in their conviction that they base their belief regarding God's will for society on the inspired word of God.
___For example, the 1998 revision of the Baptist Faith & Message states that wives should "graciously submit" to their husbands' leadership. It is based on the wording of Ephesians 5:21 and 22 in all of the major English translations of that passage. The translators of those verses have chosen to render the Greek verb "hupotasso" as "submit" or "be subject to." English dictionaries define "submit" as "1. To present or refer to others for decision, consideration, etc. 2. To yield to the action, control, power, etc. of another or others."
___One fact seems to be completely ignored. Verse 21 is directed to the Ephesian church as a whole, to both males and females. The Apostle Paul was instructing them "to 'hupotasso' each other." How can a group of people "submit" to each other? Are they going to take turns about referring to each other the decision-making role? Will they alternate positions each day, or each week, or each month?
___There must be a better English translation for "hupotasso." It means literally to "line up under" and may be better translated as "make yourselves available."
___Did not Jesus teach that we are to make ourselves available to others so that God can use us to meet their needs? Was that not what Jesus himself did while on earth?
___Women are to make themselves available to their husbands in the same manner they have made themselves available to Christ--by means of their choices.
___By their choices, husbands also are to make themselves available to their wives in the manner in which Christ made himself available for all of humanity--by the deliberate sacrifice of self.
___Russell Ware is a retired Bible teacher at state universities in Texas. He is a member of Southmont Baptist Church in Denton
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