Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Bible
One of the parts of the reading that I enjoyed was the background history related to the translation of the Bible. Also, how the Catholic Church did not want people to read and translate the Bible under their own. The Church felt that that people needed specialists (priests, etc) to correctly translate the verses. Admit tingly, on one hand I found that was an insult to people, however, upon further reading I could see why they were very protective of the Bible. It seems there were many groups out there trying to take advantage and alter the Bible to their own translations. Also, I think its easy to sit back today and judge about the actions of others in previous times. But one thing I thought about is the Catholic Church at this time could not see into the future and possibly fretted about what would happen if the Bible was translated differently to what they were teaching. However, on the other hand were they fretting about souls or lost power in Europe? Definitely, an interesting subject to me.
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4 comments:
It seems that their worries may have had to do with both power and the protection of the bible. Power was a big one, but I would like to think that there were some sincere individuals who honestly thought that it was in the people's best interests that there be a middle man to interpret for them. It makes sense in some senses, as not everyone could read or was well educated. However, nobody learns quite as well as when they learn for themsleves, and the main concepts in the bible are fairly uncomplicated. I don't think that people have changed all that much when it comes to their nature. Most people would rather choose what is best for themselves and not put their possible eternity (or their understanding of it) in someone elses hands...that is, if they knew that they had a choice.
If the church required specialist to correctly translate the bible, then they could translate the bible in any way the choose. Which meant the had the power. Power translates into money, even in those times money allow the church to live and do what it wanted to. The cardinal and the pope did not live life's like the peasants.
One reasonable explanation for the Church not wanting "average" people reading and translating/interpreting the Bible on their own could have been that many were illiterate. Being the case, people would have looked to their priest or someone of stature to help them with their readings.
Today we have the liberty to read the bible when ever we want, its sold in stores, given out on campus and I'm sure a realtive or friend would gladly give one away if asked. So it is funny how much the bible was protected, at the time it looks like a power issue, but your right, I'm not saying people don't have the right to freely read the bible, but look what happens when you allow someone to misinterpret the bible, and redirect what the actual values of the bible are.
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