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Article Title:	Holier Than Thou
Author of reported comment:	S.MacLaren
Comment Date:	19:54 on Aug 9 2008
Comment:	This was an very interesting article. Matt Wilson needs to be a little careful here too. We have a great preponderance of what some consider to be personal interpretations of the Bible. These have value, but sometimes undermine trust I have for them, as they can diverge markedly from the mainstream texts. The scriptures state that they were 'God breathed'. There is then value in a basically literal translation, although admittedly it is not always easy or possible. It's intriguing how Jesus chose particular words, ensuring his meaning was clear and sometime shocking. Just as Matt tells us “God had entrusted his sacred revelation to the language of the marketplace and the fields..” Jesus made abundantly clear his meaning, as he addressed people with specific words –specific words for specific people. Even then, they did not understand it, which of course shows that the word is understood by action of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of the importance of the individual words is shown from history. Hence Luther's understanding and experience of ‘Grace by faith’ and his ability to preach it, and John Bunyan's marvellous knowledge of the meaning of God's Word. When new translations were done in the early 1980’s (New King James Ver, & New Int. Version) neither differed much from the word content of the King James, but simply brought disused language up to date. The detailed language content, for those who want it, is there to be used, loved. Let's celebrate God's wisdom in passing down the written Word to us by those who like Tyndale gave their lives to allow this; -the preservation of the manuscripts too, whose words now allow us today to take a more informal approach to their meaning. Yes, language changes, and we need to be relevant. Of course there is a spectrum of language styles needed in understanding and reading the Word. Ultimately, we will always refer back to the more basic texts for fresh insight.

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