Scripture feeds the soul
Carol Winograd, who writes a weekly column for The Flint Enquirer in Michigan, shares her thoughts on a new translation of the Bible and a best-selling key to the Scriptures.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). This wonderful passage from the King James Version of the Bible describes clearly the spiritual nature of the Bible's message. The Word was God. God is Spirit, so the Word of God describes the spiritual, Godlike nature of all things. When we read the Bible are we able to glean from it the spiritual food for which we hunger?
Earlier this year, a new Bible arrived in bookstores, and an article about it appeared in my local newspaper. The Contemporary English Version, as it is called, seeks to clarify the Scriptures and make them more easily understood. "The truth can't set you free if you can't understand it," says one of the slogans used in an advertising campaign for the book. According to the article, the translation team of the American Bible Society was not just seeking to upgrade the language, but also sought a clearer understanding of the words. For example, it translates one of the Ten Commandments to read "Be faithful in marriage" instead of "Thou shalt not commit adultery." According to the translators, "This seemed like a more positive way to say it."
This book and other recent translations strive to make Scripture more accessible, and it is important to demonstrate the practicality of the Bible through all time, including our own. We are after the "new tongues," as Mark tells us—the meaning that can change our lives and heal us of our ills and sadness. God is with us, and the Bible is the clearest text through which to find our relation to God. But we have to be careful not to so contemporize the book that it no longer makes us want to search for its spiritual meaning. It is not merely summer reading, lightly perused. It needs to be studied, often. Its truths need to be written on our hearts so that our lives conform to the standards of spiritual perfection and harmony.
The Word was God. The Christian writer Mary Baker Eddy affirms in Science and Health, her major work, "The divine Science taught in the original language of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspiration to be understood" (p. 319). And further on, "The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual" (p. 320). Isn't it this spiritual sense we want to gain? Aren't we after the power of the Word, not just the words themselves, to heal us, guide us, and help us?
We are after the "new tongues," as Mark tells us—the meaning that can change our lives and heal us of our ills and sadness.
Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health has been the most useful tool I have found to search out and apply the deepest, most profound sense of the Bible in my everyday life. As key to the Scriptures, it reveals the spiritual relation people have always had to God and shows how to use the power of that relationship today.
Science and Health focuses thought on the inspired message of the Bible—that we are God's children, made spiritually in God's likeness. This focus better acquaints us with God as Spirit and Love. It makes Him more familiar, and we understand His power better. I gain more confidence in God's presence and love every time I read this book in combination with the Bible. It has healed me of sin, sickness, and injury, solved problems of unemployment and divorce, improved my character, and increased my compassion for others. As Science and Health states: "The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power" (p. 131).
There is no question we should lose the jargon of religion. It has become a stumbling block to finding our sincere and individual relation to God. All efforts to help us understand the Bible better should be supported, and should be newsworthy events. The article about the new Contemporary English Version of the Bible appeared on the front page of my daily newspaper. But, let's not forget that the purpose of the new tongue is spiritual insight. It is not simply to better fit the Bible's divine message into human lives. It is to conform our lives to follow the Bible's spiritual path to the truth. This is what Science and Health has done for me and for millions of readers worldwide.
National Bible Week in the United States is November 19–26.
