Question #1: I have enjoyed your site and admire your thoroughness and non-commercial ministry. I do have one observation. You refer to the serpent in Genesis 3:1 as a snake possessed by the devil. However, one of my teachers posits that the serpent is a "nick-name" for Satan, a Hebraism, a euphemism, a proper noun opposed to a common noun (on the devil's deceptiveness, see 2Cor.11:1-4; Jn.8:39-44; Eph.6:11-12). Satan had no need in his great beauty to possess a snake to deceive (exapatao) both Eve and Adam. I would as soon believe that the fruit they ate as an “apple”! Would you care to clarify ?
Response #1: On this
issue I am afraid that we are going to have to agree to disagree. While
Genesis never identifies the fruit of the tree of knowing good and evil
as an "apple", the word used at Genesis 3:1 et seq. for the serpent is
in fact the most common Hebrew word for snake (i.e., nachash).
The word refers to literal snakes in the famous incident in Numbers
chapter 21 and everywhere else it is employed. Even when it is being
used figuratively, it is still always meant to bring to mind a literal
snake (e.g., Ex.4:3; Deut.8:15; Ps.58:4-5; Prov.30:19; Is.14:29; 65:25;
Jer.8:17; Amos 5:19; cf., Job 26:13; Is.27:1; Amos 9:3).
Furthermore, in the opening description of it in Genesis chapter 3, the
serpent is described as "more shrewd than any of the other wild
creatures which the Lord God had made". So the serpent is "made" (the
verb `asah implying material substantiality), and classed among
the other creatures that populate the garden (albeit unique within that
class). This description is clearly at odds with understanding the
nachash as something other than a literal serpent, and throughout
the events related in Genesis this is the more natural way to read the
word. On the other hand, there is nothing in the text to suggest that we
are dealing here with an angelic creature. Indeed, except for the later
reference to "your seed", it would be difficult to see the connection
between Satan and this serpent were it not for later biblical revelation
of this point.
You write that "Satan had no need in his great beauty to posses a snake
to deceive both Eve and Adam" and that is certainly very true. Indeed,
an angelic being appearing in all its power and light would be so
persuasive, especially to the unworldly Adam and Eve, that it is highly
questionable whether we could even call their heeding of the words of
such a creature a "deception". That is to say, it would not be a fair
test of their free will, so overwhelming would the persuasion be in that
case. This is, in my view, precisely why the Lord would not allow the
devil to do all that he could do in this instance (forcing Satan into
the next best tactic he could conceive, the use of a familiar
intermediary). As I have often pointed out, the quickest and easiest way
for Satan to win this conflict with God in which he is currently engaged
would be to wipe all of mankind off of the earth immediately. He does
not, not because he cannot, but because he is not allowed to. The ground
rules in the garden clearly allowed the devil to use words to persuade,
but not the awe of his angelic presence to overawe Eve.
So I see no inconsistency between the rest of the Bible and the events
of Genesis chapter 3 as advanced in these studies. Indeed, Satan's use
of intermediaries, demon possession, indirect attack, etc., are
constants in scripture. The only instance of direct demon interaction
with any human being in scripture (such as you are positing here) is the
devil's temptation of our Lord. He could handle it - and did. We cannot
- and could not. Sin comes "through Adam" (Rom.5:12) - not Eve. Why?
Because Adam was not deceived (1Tim.2:14), so that his culpability was
beyond all question. Had Eve (and/or Adam) been unduly influenced by a
direct satanic epiphany, the entire issue of the responsibility we bear
for the sin we commit (based upon the sin that dwells in us) would be
confused. That is a large part of the reason why we are not allowed to
be subjected to such over-awing temptation now, and why our first
parents were not then.
No one is saying that the serpent is not representative of the devil - I
have always strongly maintained that it is, for that is clearly what the
Bible teaches (e.g., Rev.12:1-9). But the essential logical problem with
such a position is that according to that interpretation the metaphor
would have to exist before the event upon which prima facie the metaphor
is based (i.e., the possession of the serpent by Satan is the origin of
the association of the two). For if it works the other way around, one
would need to explain how it is that snakes/serpents become a metaphor
for the devil in the first place. Genesis 3:1 clearly puts the serpent
in the category of a literal, flesh and blood creature. But there is an
even bigger problem with this position. If the serpent is not literal,
then what does the curse in Genesis 3:14 mean?
(14) So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are accursed, more than any beast or wild animal. You shall go on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. (15) And I shall place hostility between you and the woman, that is, between your seed and her Seed (i.e., Christ). He will attack you head-on, but you will attack Him from behind".
Genesis 3:14-15
While the prophecy in verse 15 does refer to the devil (the one who possessed the serpent is ever afterwards associated with it), verse 14 can only be speaking of a literal, flesh and blood creature, so that there is really no legitimate way to take this passage other than as a divinely inspired etiology of why it is that (literal) snakes crawl.
Please see the following links:
The Fall
of Man
The So-Called Imputation of Adam's Sin
In our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Bob Luginbill
Question #2:
What do you think of the New World Translation of the Bible's translation of Matthew 2:11-12? "After coming in to the house they saw the Child with Mary ITS mother; and they fell to the ground and did obeisance to IT. Then, opening their treasures, they presented IT with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." This version's proponents claim the “it” is a Greek idiom.
Response #2:
First year Greek students learn that
grammatical gender and sexuality are not the same thing. While it is
true that a few nouns have a gender based upon their obvious sexuality
(i.e., "mother" is feminine, "father" is masculine), most of the time in
Greek gender is a function of noun type or class, or analogy, or usage -
all factors in which sexuality plays no role. For example, all -is, -sis
nouns in Greek are feminine. Does that mean that in English, where we
have no such system of gender differentiation for nouns, that we should
refer to "faith" as "she"? Bethlehem is a feminine noun, and the Greek
reflects this in Matthew 2:16, a few verses after the context you cite.
I would be interested to know if this version translates this as "in
Bethlehem and her vicinity", because the pronoun in Greek (autes)
is feminine to reflect Bethlehem's grammatical gender. The fact that
non-English speakers sometimes do this and native speakers find it odd
or humorous only proves the point that this is not something we normally
do in English. Ships are sometimes referred to as she, just as when a
race car driver refers to his vehicle as "she". But what we have in
those cases is a figure of speech known as "personification", that is,
attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects for sentimental
reasons. Since the sailor is thinking/speaking of the ship as if it were
a woman, he then applies a feminine pronoun to her.
Either way this version and its defenders have a problem, for if they do
not translate Bethlehem as "her" (and adopt this same convention in the
numerous other examples of this type of thing), then they are being
grossly inconsistent and it becomes clear that they are only grinding
their own ax in the passage you ask about. However, if they do translate
"her" in Matt.2:16, then they can claim to be consistent, but are
nonetheless consistently failing to understand even the rudiments of the
process of translation. One cannot represent an idiom in one language by
a "literal" equivalent in another language that does not have the same
idiom (for example, why would they not then preserve Greek word order
and give us a good and proper English hash?).
If one persists with such things, then gross misrepresentation is always
the result. In this particular case, calling attention to the word child
with "it" is a bit bizarre - something one generally does not hear
elsewhere in English, and, as a (I would suspect intended) result,
cannot help but make the reader think that the text is deliberately
calling some special attention to this non-masculine usage for some very
special purpose. In fact, of course, throughout secular Greek children
are (grammatically) "its" - there is no other good way to say this in
Greek! Thus no classicist would probably ever dream of translating a
passage of Plato or Herodotus or etc. in this way precisely because of
the misleading impression it would give (in fact it wouldn't occur to
most of us in the first place to even consider such a translation).
The simple fact is that translation is never a matter of plugging in a
word and pulling out an exact equivalent. If it were, then machines
could translate the Bible. But in fact, translation is more of an art
than a science, and the ultimate test is always "did the translator get
it right", with "right" being an honest and complete representation and
reproduction of the meaning of the original into the target language.
There are no points for literacy if the meaning is wrong, and no points
for "literalness" if the gibberish produced doesn't make sense in either
language. It is easy to see how the above quotation you give flirts
unnecessarily with bizarre "translationese" without at the same time
adding a scintilla of helpful information (the only reason to indulge in
such flights of poor usage). After all, how does it help the reader
understand anything better if the baby is referred to as "it" rather
than "he" here after His birth?
There is a phrase in legal Latin that comes to mind: res ipsa loquitur,
"the matter speaks for itself" - some things are so irrefutably right
(or, in this case, wrong) that one is only wasting one's time in
defending or refuting the obvious. From what you have shared here, it
appears to me that this group has destroyed their own case with a
translation that is prima facie so completely absurd. Anyone but a
partisan who reads such things would know immediately that these
translators didn't know what they were doing (or didn't care).
So either the people who did this lack all competence in ancient Greek,
or they simply have so little respect for the Bible that they feel free
to take any liberty to advance their own positions. Then again, it is
possible that both of these things are true at the same time.
In our Lord,
Bob L.
Question #3:
I have some tattoos and my friend and I always get into debates about tattoos and if God has a problem with them. I went on your website today for the first time searching for information and scriptures regarding tattoos. You had mentioned 1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23 but those don't mention anything about tattooing your body. I just want to be clear about whether this is something that God is not happy with.
Response #3:
The first thing I would say about this
issue is that it falls into the area of scriptural application rather
than of absolute prohibition, and does so in a way that is not
completely clear. Therefore I would be very reluctant to tell anyone
that getting a tattoo was a sin or, as you put it, that "God was not
happy about it". As Paul says several times, "all things are permissible
for me, but not all things are profitable" (1Cor.6:12; 10:23). What I
mean by citing these scriptures is that all Christians should evaluate
all of their actions and behaviors from the point of view of being
disciples, followers, soldiers of Jesus Christ. To pursue the last
analogy, we are here "to please our commanding officer" and not "to get
entangled in the affairs of life" (2Tim.2:4). Much of such application
is relative. It would be extreme to say that a Christian who watches a
sporting event from time to time is displeasing God; but someone who is
addicted to sports and spends all of their free time and resources on
them to the exclusion of personal spiritual growth and personal ministry
is clearly not pleasing God - not so much because of any inherent
problem with sports but because they have in such a case clearly put a
personal interest before following and serving Jesus Christ (and done so
to an extreme degree). I don't find anything in scripture to recommend
tattoos, but I would certainly be reluctant to condemn them as sinful
out of hand. The best I could say on that (in addition to the links
below) is that this is a case where the conscience under the influence
of the Holy Spirit has to be the individual Christian's guide. For the
scriptural discussion you ask about (i.e., of Lev.19:26-29), please see
the following links:
Three
Questions about Tattoos and Salvation.
Body Marking in
the Bible.
The Bible as "divine", roof prayer, and tattoos.
Secondly, in your particular case, it is a different matter than
discussing this with someone who is contemplating getting a tattoo. In
such cases I always advise prayer, and also encourage the individual to
consider the matter from the point of view of their walk with the Lord
and their motivation for getting the tattoo. For those who already have
them, well, what is done is done. There aren't any true Christians who
when viewing their past lives honestly haven't done things they regret,
regardless of whether or not the action was sinful. Paul tells us to
"forget what lies behind and strive for what is ahead" (Phil.3:13).
There is no sin God cannot forgive in Jesus Christ, and there is no past
cause for regret that does not pale in comparison with the glories that
lie ahead - not to mention the potential for positive and effective
spiritual growth and service to our Lord in this life. And if you are
convinced in your heart that there was no problem with getting the
tattoo in the first place, then the question really is moot. For the
only possible important ramification of having a tattoo you are happy
with and discussing it with friends is the possible result that they
will be emboldened to do something that will harm their faith. There is
a good deal about this in scripture, and the example Paul gives of
eating meat that was sacrificed to idols is really apropos here (1Cor.8;
cf. Rom.14): even if tattoos are no true scriptural issue, the fact that
a weak believer may think that they are an issue means that a person who
has one ought to be very careful about recommending or encouraging
someone else to do likewise. That does not mean that one has to bow
one's head and submit to a legalistic thumping about some past action
the other party disagrees with (that is taking matters beyond what
scripture stipulates), but only that we as loving brothers and sisters
have to be very careful about imposing our own applications of the
freedom we have in Christ on others - for whatever does not come out of
genuine faith and personal conviction is inevitably sinful (Rom.14:23).
In the One who humbled Himself, even unto death, that we might live
forever with Him, our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Bob Luginbill