Reflections on “counsel” and “tree” in Psalm 1
As we reflected on Psalm 1 in staff meeting this week (by singing SNC #85), I was struck by how weak the English word “advice” is in the first verse. (I’m persuaded that the NRSV is generally the best available English translation of the Bible, but no translation is perfect.)
Advice is worth two cents—at least, that’s what an honest person will tell you when offering her advice: “This is just my two cents, but if you want my advice...” “Counsel” is a weightier word, although a little dated (as is the phrase “walk in the counsel,” which was used by the KJV translators, following the lead of Wycliffe’s “yede [goes] not in the councel of wickid men"). “Counsel” might capture a little more of the Hebrew word etsah ("counsel, advice, purpose"). Etsah seems like more of an deliberate strategy, a detailed plan, not casually-dispensed opinion or an answer from Ann Landers. Etsah is the word used for “plan” in the first verse of Isaiah 30:
(I’m persuaded that the NRSV is generally the best available English translation of the Bible, but no translation is perfect.) Are you sure?
There are many different “Bible” versions today claiming to be the Word of God. Each one tells us that it is the most reliable, most accurate, etc. etc.. But which of them is God’s Word? Since they all disagree with one another, we can’t possibly say that they all are. Can we? Are we to suppose that God has written more than one Bible and that he makes statements in one and then disagrees with himself in another? No, of course not. God only wrote one Bible. How, then, do we go about determining which “Bible” is the Bible? If we look to human opinion for the answer, we will find nearly as many opinions as we find people. One person will like one. Another person will prefer another. Yet a third person will assure us that it really doesn’t matter, telling us that any of them will do just fine. Since we aren’t interested in human opinion here, we need to look to scripture for help in resolving this issue. There are two questions that we will need to consider. (1) Which are the correct manuscripts?
(2) Which is the proper translation of those (the correct) manuscriptsPosted by KJV on 11/02 at 10:46 AM-
Posted by Nathan Bierma on 11/10 at 09:28 AM
Next entry: Report from Louisville Consultation
Previous entry: CRC Disability Concerns office and issues related to worship and disabilities