Let’s be honest about the fear that is now driving the culture wars and have brought us to the precipice of losing our democracy. White men on the right fear they are losing everything to the brown and black barbarians at the gate.
Why are there so many Christian denominations or sects and different Bible versions? Ex: 73 Catholic versions and 66 Protestant versions.
Dear Garfin,
Thanks for your question. Let’s begin with the plenitude of versions of the Bible by remembering that there was no original version of anything. The earliest fragments from which persons tried to create full documents date from centuries after the events they purport to describe, and come from different locations. Strange as it may seem, there were no church councils that decreed which documents were authentic and authoritative. Given this process, it should not surprise us that different editors and churches in different places would come up with different translations. The variety is compounded by the fact that as the centuries went by, different social/cultural influences would impact new translators. The King James version, for example, is written in Olde English. Some modern English versions attempt to be more colloquial and relevant. Unfortunately, sometimes the attempt to be relevant strays from the original intent, and that is reason enough to use a version that represents the conclusions of collaborative scholars who dedicate their life to approaching an “original” as best they can.
With respect to the multiplicity of denominations, there are indeed many interpretations of who Jesus was and what he did, and that variety is found in the New Testament itself. Paul’s letters, the earliest writings in the New Testament, clearly reveal that different theologies had arisen in those earliest communities that Paul himself had founded. Different people had different and often contrasting ideas, and even Paul had difficulty accepting that fact.
Furthermore, as the first century moved along, cultural influences changed the whole tenor of the Christian community. The starkest example of this change pertains to the issues of equality, and of submission to authority. The family of friends gathered by Jesus was a microcosm of the way God willed life to be, a life of equality between men and women, with caring and sharing between all. This family stood in total contrast to the oppressive patriarchy and patronage of Roman culture. At the end of the first century, this prophetic living of the new life had completely disappeared in the church of the Pastoral Epistles, especially 1 Timothy, and had been replaced by a system that demanded submission to the emperor, the slave owner, and the male. There is no doubt in my mind that it was the rich and powerful of society that implemented this total reversal of the gospel message.
After the first century, the palace intrigue continued, and one controversy followed another, culminating in the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, the two defining christological decisions that have determined Christian thinking ever since. The point to remember is that up to this point, there was no orthodox belief, only a variety of opinion, and those who lost the debate were declared heretics, even though the loss may have been due more to political influence than right thinking.
There is another question, however, not verbalized, but pervasive, and that is the question concerning the search for truth. Given the multiplicity of both Bible translations and Christian denominations that interpret those translations, is there anything that is “true” compared to all else that is “false”? This is a difficult question. On the one hand, both individuals and groups come from a particular point of view and need to relate their interpretation of theology to who they are and where they are. The lesson here is that we must keep open minds and listen to what others have to say. Each denomination/sect has a point of view that completes the blindness of others. On the other hand, there are some persons and events that we can denounce with force and clarity, saying “this is wrong”. Hitler was wrong. Genocide is wrong. There are some basic truths that transcend one’s relative place in space and time.The difficulty is in identifying and differentiating the two.
~ Dr. Carl Krieg
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