Ensign: remove the italics

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 4 April 2014

For today's exercise you WILL need to use a King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. Come on, they're not that hard to find!

It's not the first English-language Bible (that honor goes to the Wycliffe Bible of the late fourteenth century) or the first Bible with the Old and New Testaments together (that's the Vulgate which first appeared in the late fourth-century, in Latin) that makes the King James Version so … dare I say, venerated among Bible scholars and serious Bible readers alike. Until the mid-twentieth century, with the publication of the Revised Standard Version, the King James Version was THE Bible you used. Still is, in your more conservative denominations.

And the KJV itself is a retranslation working back from the original Hebrew and Greek, and since it goes back (1611) to the time of Shakespeare, it's understandable that many of its phrases and phrasings have come down to our day, even if they don't always make sense to our twenty-first century ears. So often when Bibles are released today you find many verses with words added in italics – that right-slanting text you get when you press “CTRL” with “i” that are meant to fill in the meaning of the sentences with articles or linking verbs, not change the meaning of the Word of God.

This is an important distinction. Certainly the first time italics appear in your copy of the Bible (or should) in Genesis 1:2, “And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” where the italicized word is “was” you could take that word out and it would not change the meaning. In fact, in my last month or two of reading a chapter a day in Scripture I've done just that – taken the italicized words out of what I'm reading and sometimes it's even clearer to me. Of course, I imagine to some it sounds and looks like I'm rapping.

Taking out the italics in a passage – say, Psalm 128 – we end up with this:

Blessed every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands: happy thou, and well with thee.

Thy wife as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.

The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, peace upon Israel.

You don't even notice what's missing (“is” in verse one, “shalt,” “be,” and “it shall be” in verse two, “shall be” in verse three, and “and” in verse six) and the meaning is intact. This may not be the most encouraging Ensign I've ever written, but if it prompts you to check out your Bible more and look at it a different way – just when you think you know something, you ought to look at it a different way – then I have done what I set out to do with each of these messages. Nowhere does the LORD say, nowhere does Jesus say, and nowhere should YOU say that to believe you have to be a babbling idiot!

It took intelligent people to live and put the Bible together and still does,

David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can still come to you in prayer, that You provide for all our needs -- even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence in that region and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.