Jonathan Krogh Jonathan Krogh

What Should We Study?

Dear Timid Text Translators,

In preparing my sermon yesterday I noted that Jesus quoted Hosea in the Gospel of Matthew, appealing to God's enduring desire for something deeper than religious performance. When chastising the Pharisees, perhaps Jesus’s favorite hobby, he said, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:13)

What I did not include in my sermon turned out to be one of those rabbit holes of research too boring for the pulpit. Fortunately, I have these ‘Monday Musings’ to bore you on a weekday. My problem was textual. When Jesus said “mercy, not sacrifice,” the word in the Greek Text from Matthew is ἔλεος (el'-eh-os) which normally translated

Dear Timid Text Translators,

In preparing my sermon yesterday I noted that Jesus quoted Hosea in the Gospel of Matthew, appealing to God's enduring desire for something deeper than religious performance. When chastising the Pharisees, perhaps Jesus’s favorite hobby, he said, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:13)

What I did not include in my sermon turned out to be one of those rabbit holes of research too boring for the pulpit. Fortunately, I have these ‘Monday Musings’ to bore you on a weekday. My problem was textual. When Jesus said “mercy, not sacrifice,” the word in the Greek Text from Matthew is ἔλεος (el'-eh-os) which normally translated as it is here: mercy. But the text from which Jesus is quoting is Hosea 6:6, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.” Hum, I thought, steadfast love? The underlying Hebrew word is חֵסֵד (kheh'-sed), for which mercy would be a reasonable translation; but more often it is translated as “loving kindness,” the way it reads in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). If the NRSV translators knew Jesus was quoting Hosea, why didn’t they make the texts parallel, and thereby much easier for us preachers?

The scholars among you know, obviously, my next step was off to the Septuagint! Tradition holds this version of the Hebrew Scriptures was a translation by seventy (or seventy-two) scholars from the 3rd Century BCE tasked with translating the Hebrew texts into Greek. Pulling up my online Septuagint, I found that the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word in Hosea 6:6 was ἔλεος, meaning that Matthew placed the Greek word rather than the Hebrew into Jesus’ mouth. The NRSV scholars decided to translate it according to the best manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew rather than the underlying Hebrew word, because Matthew read the Septuagint rather than the original Hebrew texts. (See why I didn’t include this in my sermon?)

I realize for most of you this is of little consequence; but it does point to something seldom mentioned regarding the Bible, that is the fuzziness of the text. When the Hebrew Scriptures are quoted in the New Testament, about three-fourths of the quotations reflect the Septuagint’s translation rather than the original Hebrew. In fact, more than 95% of Paul’s quotations rely on the Greek translation, and he prided himself on being a scholar of Judaism. When someone waves a Bible in front of your face and tells you it is the inerrant (that is, without error) literal Word of God, what they are claiming isn’t that simple. As is well known, stuff gets lost in translation – quite literally (pun intended). Does the defender of the faith refer to the inerrancy of the original Hebrew, or the somewhat flawed translation found in the Septuagint?  

The Pharisees believed their sacrificial religious observance made them righteous. They knew the texts better than everyone else, and they firmly believed that made them better than everyone else. Yet Jesus and the prophets taught that God seeks hearts shaped by compassion rather than impressive mastery of texts and sacrificial acts of devotion. God does not need dogged scholars, God desires people who are full of loving kindness and mercy. These are the real measures of faithfulness not our capacity to defend the Bible, we should go and learn what this means.

Spending my Monday finding precious few rabbits, I remain

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor

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