Article July 31, 1937 Issue

Bible Notes

"He closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister" (Luke 4:20)—Since in Jesus' day the Scriptures of the Old Testament were inscribed upon rolls of parchment, the rendering "he closed the book" scarcely provides us with a correct description of what must have taken place. Thus Goodspeed is justified in translating: "He rolled up the roll;" while Weymouth (fifth edition) has: "Rolling up the book;" though Moffatt prefers: "Folding up the book." It may be added that each of the longer books, such as the book of Isaiah from which the Master read on the present occasion (verse 17), seems to have been written on a separate roll.

"The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4; compare Mark 12:29)—In view of the fact that the construction of the Hebrew is unusually condensed at this point, there is considerable difficulty in setting down its exact English equivalent. The margin of the Revised Version suggests alternative renderings, e.g., "The Lord our God, the Lord is one;" "The Lord is our God, the Lord is one;" and, "The Lord is our God, the Lord alone." Moffatt has: "The Eternal, the Eternal alone, is our God;" and the Genevan Version had: "The Lord our God is Lord onely."

"Thou shalt love the Lord ... with all thy mind" (Mark 12:30)—In this passage Christ Jesus is evidently quoting from the Septuagint or Greek Version of the Old Testament (Deut. 6:5), for the words which correspond to "with all thy mind" do not occur in the Hebrew text as we now have it. The Septuagint reads as follows: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind" (or "understanding"—the Greek word is "dianoia"). Compare the scribe's answer to Jesus, which includes the words "with all the strength." "Strength" and "might" (see the Authorized Version rendering of Deut. 6:5) appear to be simply different renderings of the same Hebrew word.

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