Editorial August 23, 1947 Issue

"BE ENLIGHTENED, BE ENLIGHTENED, O JERUSALEM"

John Randall Dunn

Possibly the earliest known Greek version of the Old Testament is the translation of the Jewish Scriptures which was executed at Alexandria, Egypt, some two or three centuries before the Christian era. This is known as the Septuagint version. Herein the Bible student may find occasionally not only delightful but revealing variations from the text as it appears in our King James Version. Take for example the familiar exhortation in the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah (verse 1), "Arise, shine; for thy light is come." In the Septuagint this is rendered, "Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem." Did not the famous Goethe, in what are supposed to be his last words, "Mehr Licht!" (more light), voice mankind's innermost yearnings? It is interesting to find a dictionary definition of "enlighten" bringing out these spiritual meanings: "to shed the light of truth and knowledge upon" and "to supply with spiritual light."

Now comes the Science of Christianity to a world sadly darkened by fear, hate, and ignorance of God not only to rouse human thought to its need of more light, but to show how this enlightenment is to be obtained. In an hour of despair, when Mary Baker Eddy was well-nigh lost in the darkness of physical agony, the light of the saving Christ, Truth, began to dawn upon her suffering sense. From childhood she was accustomed to turn to God in times of stress, and now, more than ever, she found herself reaching out for the practical evidence of the Father's help which she had ever sought, and she was healed. She might have sung in the words of a hymn (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 392),

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

PRACTICE VERSUS MALPRACTICE