Jesus quotes Isaiah in Mark 7: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” In dialogue with the Pharisees, he further states what I believe to be one of the most powerful statements of his life: “You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”
There are some things about Bible that need careful consideration when making it the pillar upon which an individual decides to build their life. Consider FIRST in TRANSMISSION, that the ORIGINAL TEXTS were all, each, and every single one, were WRITTEN BY HAND. A study of ‘Bible Transmission’ holds accountable how the “hand written texts” are subject to human error.
In the first place, never underestimate THIS very REAL responsibility of translating the THOUGHTS of the man who, at whatever level of commitment given to the task, is even capable of TRANSLATING THOUGHT to WRITTEN WORD. No manufacturing of paper nor pens and pencils. No Electricity to provide light streams into the depth of night. No Fact Checking systems holding data for comparisons in research. JUST the lone ‘First Generation Scribe’ (whose names are not ever credited for their work) —rolled over into the PRECEPT that “God wrote the Bible!”. “God said it and I believe it”!
And now there is this, My people… Black America’s Christian community Must come to terms with this fact of our lives: This Bible was placed into our hands as ‘chattel slaves’ by a ‘Slave Master’ who himself has yet to ‘make it the pillar upon which he builds HIS OWN life.
Jesus continues this great ‘Parabolic Teaching’ in Mark 7 after leaving his dialogue with the Pharisees to respond to His Disciples upon their inquiry concerning the things that He had said: “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.
When you have moved across thousands of years, ‘Middle Ages… Dark Ages’ of Bible being the SOLE PROPERTY of the Holy Catholic Church; the 1600s deliver the First Bible in print —with a brand new capacity for ‘reaching the masses’. INTO 2026 ‘BIBLE TRANSMISSION with a mindless number of TRANSLATIONS.
OMG, my research for this Column took me way beyond the traditional translations that you and I have built ours lives upon. There is now the NEW King James Version;
Berean Literal Bible; New Heart English Bible; Weymouth New Testament; Amplified Bible; Literal Standard Version; Contemporary English Version; Haweis New Testament; Catholic Public Domain Version; New American Bible; Worrell New Testament; Douay-Rheims Bible; Moffit Translation; Godbey New Testament; NEW Revised Standard Version; Aramaic Bible in Plain English; Anderson New Testament; Mace New Testament; Worsley New Testament —tipping the Transmission ICEBERG!
“Teaching as Doctrine the PRECEPTS OF MEN”. ‘Leaving the Commandments of God to HOLD FAST THE TRADITIONS OF MEN’. “Evil Thoughts. Sexual Immorality. Murder. Adultery. Theft. Covetousness. Wickedness. Deceit. Lasciviousness. An Evil Eye. Blasphemy. Pride. Foolishness… and all the various and numerous words and concepts being used in all of the now RE-written translations of Bible —all needing to be studied and understood as “The Traditions of Men”; NOT requiring any ‘stretch of imagination’… only TRUTH.
You make DOCTRINE ‘threskeia’/PRECEPTS (making what is ‘inside’ —outside; external ceremonies; cultus, sects, denominations, great divides) OF MEN. You make COMMANDMENTS ‘paradosis’/TRADITION’ (transmitted; outside the LAW; unwritten; legalism, deMANdments) OF MEN. Take another look! Doctrine, Precepts, Commandments, Tradition transmitted —NO LONGER OF GOD, but… of men.
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