I hope that’s true but possibly not, according to this verse taken from 3 different Bible translations;
Colossians 4:15King James Version (KJV)
15 Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
Colossians 4:15Revised Standard Version (RSV)
15 Give my greetings to the brethren at La-odice′a, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
Colossians 4:15American Standard Version (ASV)
15 Salute the brethren that are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church that is in their house.
I was recently listening to a lady teach who said that; “women can preach and here’s the proof; The Bible says that a pastor called Nymph was a woman.” So I did what I always do and looked the verse up in several Bible versions and was shocked at this ‘proof’ – apart from the fact it does not say the person is a pastor at all – the only sure thing we know is she or he – depending on which version you read, is the owner of the house, and don’t get me wrong – this article is not interested in debating wether women should teach in church or not – that’s another article)
Whilst it may well be that women are allowed to preach according to the Bible, the point in this article is not that issue. The point is, if if does not matter which Bible you read, I sure hope that any part of the Bible that proves this or any other crucial doctrine does not ambiguously have ‘his/her/their’ or another singular or plural word meaning next to some verse of importance (though we could argue every verse in The Bible is important). This calls for special study of The Bible.
Something to ponder
Because The Holy Spirit and the Bible has lifted the veil and made the subtle confusion of this world plain to Christians, The Devil has no choice but to be very subtle indeed if he is to lead believers away from truth. I’ve wondered what I would do if this were my task, and here’s what I believe God showed me is the Devil’s primary target in leading people into confusion – subtle confusion enough to make us doubt like in Eden when the serpent said; did God really say? This in one sense blindingly obvious, yet subtle and most powerful method of deception I have to say – never occurred to me in nearly 25 years of being a Christian.
Attacking the root
Forget causing Christians to sin in the obvious ways – there is a much easier way to cause them first lose faith, second, having lost the fear of God, cause them to sin in a multitude of ways, and ultimately last, to destroy themselves. If I were the Devil and I wanted to undermine Christianity and Christ, and ruin people’s faith (which for the record I do not in any way – the opposite is my goal – God – The Holy Spirit exist – period!), I would go straight to the root, the very thing that is the backbone of Christians and their faith, and attempt to distort it. And what is the root, that thing? – it’s the record of God’s work, grace, mercy and wrath in the earth – The Bible. If possible, my number one goal would be to get Christians to disregard The Bible altogether “citing there being so many conflicting translations as the problem” (when in fact it shouldn’t be). The latter I fear – The Devil has succeeded at to a large degree as we see churches focusing less and less on the Bible and more and more on emotions and feelings and sentiments – your truth and my truth – all roads lead to God sort of thing. If that were true, we would not stop people in the street and ask them how to get to a specific destination – since all roads lead to the same place. Of course they don’t.
The Devil is subtle – the ‘l’ in subtle is good example of subtlety!
Note – I would not do this in any obvious way, on the contrary – but in as subtle and undetectable way as possible – a little jot here, and a tittle there, just enough to undermine the reader’s confidence in the continuity and coherence of The Bible texts and therefore the confidence in its’ inspired authenticity – i.e undermine the readers faith that many people from all walks of life heard the same thing from The Holy Spirit.
Of course the translators need not even be aware of the Devil’s favourite method of undermining faith – and the fewer translators the worse things get – open to the interpretations and preferences of bad men (the Bible says we are all bad) – hence King James, with all his faults wisely employed many men – some even disagreeing with each other, but all accountable to each other in broad daylight and so eager not to be seen to be dishonestly interpreting the sacred writings in the site of other learned scholars, to translate the KJV.
For instance, when we read the NIV – translated by a few, we get a whole lot of very subtle mis-matches in texts and their meanings – often slanted in one way or another. Did you know one person – an advisor to the board of translators of the NIV was a lesbian, and publicly (on tape – yes look it up) said that had they known – she would not have been allowed to advise the translation team. Strangely in the NIV version, the one that confused me in all my early Christian life with odd miss-matches and contradictions in the text, the word ‘homosexual’ was removed, and replaced by ‘temple prostitute’ – so now homosexuality is no longer associated with sin – at least in this version. Thank God he alerted me to this when I began to check these oddities and translational mismatches and subtle contradictions in the KJV and they miraculously disappeared.
Study for yourselves
Whatever you think about different translations and their merit – don’t be deceived – be Bereans and do your homework when someone tells you something is fact – look it up yourself in more than one Bible, if only to see the errors in the versions that have necessarily had to change the text enough to obtain a copyright and oh yes – sell the book. Always ask The Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth and lead you away from the natural human tendency of looking for loopholes in scriptures to excuse our sin – we can all make the Bible mean anything we want if we do that! God did say after all He would preserve His word.
Here’s another article and the pros and cons of reading different Bibles >>
I love God, Christ, The Bible. art, painting, playing music, improvising music, guitar (first instrument), drumming (not very good at it:), and anything musical or art related. Quick note – my articles are usually spun off in minutes so forgive any errors – hopefully you get the essence of the article and I’ll pick up mistakes later. If you want to write of 101ChristianMagazine and inspire and edify Christians with articles on faith, general news, hobbies or anything that interests you email me at: epgb101@gmail.com:)
