Bible Study
For how long can you concentrate? Put another way, how long should the sermon be on Sundays or how long the Bible readings? School teachers tell us that students do not take in new information after about twenty minutes but if you take one of those same students to the cinema, will they not sit and take in every bit of some trashy story for nearer two hours? It appears that our modern lifestyles make it impossible for us to take in information in anything other than short ‘sound bites’ usually illustrated – the visual aid is everything, a lecturer is no-body if he cannot use PowerPoint and provide hand outs.
Has television made it impossible for us to know what is going on without pictures? The news broadcasts on the radio were heard and understood but now we need a picture of anything mentioned – however basic. As a child I read AA Milne’s ‘Winnie the Pooh’ books and imagined the scenes with the help of the illustrations by EH Shepard. Today’s children know their screen images only as Disney’s Pooh and need the ‘narrator’ to tell them what happened previously, as the story has been so ‘adapted’ it no longer flows. I have my own image of Tolkien’s characters and the kingdoms of the ‘Lord of the Rings’, nothing like those of the films, and the story has been so altered to fit the time and number of actors available that I am sure Tolkien would not recognise it as his work.
At the Bible study recently we have been looking at Joel. Aside from the interesting and informative work on the passage itself we entered into a side discussion. (Not unusual the regulars might say!) How does the version/translation used affect the meaning or impact? Obviously we are not all Hebrew or Greek scholars, we may have picked up the derivation of some words over the years but we cannot all read the original works. We have to rely on the translator. There are many places where modern versions such as ‘The Message’ or the ‘Amplified Bible’ give us much more understanding and insight but there are occasions when one has to wonder why they changed things. One example we noticed was that the writers of the NIV chose to use lion and tiger, while those of the Authorised version used the lion and lioness (Joel 1:6). Why?
We also talked about the invasion of locusts (Joel 1:2-4). Why does the NIV give different stages of locust development whilst the Authorised version, despite having a picture of locusts at the chapter head, names different insects and worms? Were these just the names of the time for those different stages? We do not know – but does it matter? The meaning is still the same – something will destroy the crops if not properly attended.
After three weeks of study, we reduced Joel to one sentence “Mess with God and you will suffer for it.” We all got the message. I worry that children today (to say nothing of adults!)are not getting any of the messages, as they do not read the Bible. It is not politically correct to teach it in school, Bible stories are not told at bedtime, few I have asked know why the expression Prodigal Son is used, they know of Joseph only as the singing owner of a Technicolour dream coat! Bible study is seen as dry and anything as disciplined as reading a portion a day is an infringement of the little darlings’ right to natural development (as undisciplined yobos?). I admit I do not know how to fix the situation but I know I will be better equipped if I keep attending Bible study sessions.
