Wesleyan Publishing House had the great idea of publishing Bible studies along with my two books on Paul. So a Bible study group might work through Philippians or 1 Thessalonians together, while the study leader reads through the main Paul book. Now with the second Paul book in process, I need to write the first two Bible studies that will go with it, which cover Romans.
I'm not going to write them here, but I thought I might give my own translation of Romans as I worked through them. I was tempted to do an original meaning dynamic equivalence or free translation. But I decided to go extra formal, to give a fairly straightforward window into the Greek, even though it may not turn out to be very good English. By the way, don't worry, the Bible studies use the NIV as the default translation, although because it is so bad at places, I sometimes shift to others as necessary.
Romans 1:1-7
1 Paul, a slave of Messiah Jesus, called [to be] an apostle, having been set apart (and still set apart) for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised earlier through his prophets in the holy writings, 3 concerning his Son, who came from the seed of David according to flesh, 4 who was appointed Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through the resurrection of the dead, Jesus, Messiah, our Lord, 5 through whom we received grace and apostleship [leading] to the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 among whom you yourselves are also called by Jesus Messiah, 7 to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called [to be] holy ones. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Messiah.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
It strikes me today that called to be holy ones resonates with the psalms and the formation of those who know mercy in covenant - the hasidim. There is a strong argument that the Psalter is a similar calling and has the function of so forming its mercied ones. (Sometimes called saints for the same reason)
On another site "Religion in American History", it was stated that Southern Presbyterians used to enslave people, which was worse than patronage slavery. Since the "Civil War", "Christians have not believed in slavery. So, shouldn't we look at "Paul" in a similar way?
"Paul" was useful for the Church to expand itSELF. Was Paul's experience on the Damascus Road a true historical event, OR, was the story a "mythologized way" to impart "God's means", a person serving God?
Paul's tentmaking thus was a means for him to survive, and the Church to expand. He was a slave of some "supernaturalistic revelation" on the Damascus Road. The Church could not set apart such a person, only God. (Unless "god" is some specified leader(s)), as in the "Ceasar cult".
Sorry, my last paragraph should specifically be for those who believe in a literal historical rendering of Paul's experience.
When will your books be available on Kindle?
Not sure. You can hit the request button in Amazon. I have ;-)
Post a Comment