The Immanence Bible

Here's a verse from Matthew 3 about the new translation, The Immanence Bible, Book of Matthew, Compact Edition.

"In those days, John the Baptizer came, proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea,
      "Change your thinking, for the realm of upward vision is so close!"

John's message was "in the wilderness."  It was a primitive call, stripped of all theological embellishment.  It cut to the quick. The crying need, from his perspective, was for all of us to "Change your thinking..."  The Immanence Bible (TIB) translates the Greek word in a non-traditional way.  Usually "repent", the Greek word comes from a two-part word, literally "after-mind."

The word repent is a good one, but has acquired too much theological baggage.  John's call was for our minds to be renovated.  The need for clarity of thought is still obvious in our day.  It is our thinking process that lies at the root of many of our problems.  We need to reorient our brains!  The impetus for John's call was the realization of just how close this new realm was.

In the TIB, the literal translation of "realm" is used rather than "kingdom."  And, the more literal "upward vision" is used as the translation for OURANOS, usually "heaven" in most versions.  It is important, in this 21st century, that our thinking begin to be revived.  We need to be able to hear Jesus (and John the Baptizer) as clearly as possible.  TIB intends to help us think through our faith as we do some deep listening to Jesus' teaching. Yes, The Immanence Bible is definitely a supplemental version to use along with other translations.  But, it remains an essentially literal Bible, even as it strives to remain faithful to the spirit of Jesus' Way. 

Enjoy reading!  And may you be driven back to the message of well-being that Jesus proclaimed.

Matthew 18:15

"And if thy same-uterus un-mark against thee, under-lead, expose his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained they same-uterus."

On the back cover of the Etymological New Testament we read this sentence, "The ENT can feel both didactic and literary; stilted and lovely."  In the verse above, the language definitely tends toward the stilted and didactic!  But the purpose of the ENT is provide information while encouraging us to slow down as we read the text.

In this case, the etymology of the word "brother" is from two words.  The ENT hyphenates to show that they are one word in Greek.  Our brother or sister is ultra-literally from the "same-uterus."  While this feels very strange to the ears of an English reader, the information can be helpful. 

Rather than the common word "sin", the ENT uses the very literal "un-mark."  When our family member misses the mark in their relationship with us, we are then to "under-lead" (go) and "expose" their fault.  The literal sense of the word typically translated "rebuke" is simply to make clear, or expose, in what way there has been a missing of the mark.  Human relationships can easily malfunction.  And it is good to make the nature of that "miss" very clear.  The word rebuke can be a good translation, but in this context, may be a little too emphatic.

If we under-lead and expose the un-mark AND if our same-uterus truly hears us, we have gained back our family member.  If they do not hear, then there is a further step to take, which will be covered in the next post.