7-20-20<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Do you notice in your Bible \u2013 the King James Version and some other versions — that words in the middle of sentences sometimes are italicized? Do you wonder why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love study Bibles, and profit from them. I believe that John Calvin\u2019s Geneva Bible was the first to feature footnotes, reference notes, parallel verses, and explanations. It is possible that many Bible readers get lost in that frenzied information, and do not notice or wonder about randomly italicized words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I want only to read<\/em> my Bible, to absorb its narrative and, yes, meaning, I open the \u201cclean\u201d Bible \u2013 Scripture as literature \u2013 that reads like a novel. No superscripts, no footnotes, no parallel accounts. The Word of God, after all. I recommend this: there are passages I read hundreds of times in the past that somehow seem new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back to italics. This is not a grammar lesson, but it is interesting to note that occasionally translators, hewing so strictly to original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, came to places where sentences threatened confusion. So names, places, adverbs were supplied for clarity. They indicated those by italics. Occasionally, words or phrases were italicized for emphasis \u2013 dramatic or theological intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then there are words, especially those of Jesus, where He is quoted or cited as speaking in the present tense. Present tense for events hundreds of years ago?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Revealed truth is true, whether 2000 years ago or today. Words of Jesus, if applicable today, are often printed in the present tense. If this is good grammar, it is better theology. King James\u2019s translators used \u201chistorical present tense,\u201d especially from the Greek texts; the Catholics\u2019 Douay-Rheims Bible employs italics similarly. The New American Standard Bible uses asterisks, by the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A big deal, or scholarly nit-picking? A hint: it\u2019s a big deal, because Jesus speaks to us today. God is from Everlasting to Everlasting; and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Note \u201cis\u201d and not \u201cwas.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should always remember that whatever we read of Jesus\u2019s wisdom and teaching, He speaks to us, today, as much as to the people around Him. Even on the cross, when He asked the Father to forgive \u201cthem,\u201d I believe He meant us too\u2026 because our sins sent Him to die. When He looked down from the agony, I believe He looked into our eyes, not only of the people gathered there. \u201cWhen He was on the cross, I was on His mind,\u201d the song says; and that is not time-travel, but rather the ever-present incarnate Savior\u2019s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this has come to mind as I think on Scripture\u2019s accounts of times when Jesus wept. The most famous passage, \u201cJesus wept\u201d (probably because of the trivia question, as the shortest verse in the Bible), before the grave of Lazarus whom He was about to raise from the dead. Weeping, perhaps, touched by Mary and Martha\u2019s grief. But another time is particularly poignant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it,<\/em> <\/strong><\/em>saying, \u201cIf you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Jesus grieved for unbelief in the Holy City. Yes, He prophesied the imminent invasion and destruction of the city and its temple. Yes, He looked upon people who knew the Truth but rejected it. This scene is cited in Luke, chapter 19. Earlier, in chapter 13, we hear Him say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We live in a new dispensation; the Old Testament promises have been fulfilled\u2026 but its commands and warnings are still in the present tense. The United States might or might not be the New Jerusalem\u2026 but America as a Christian nation is Jesus\u2019s place today as was Jerusalem then. Or\u2026 was<\/em> His place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As our continent was visited, explored, and colonized, it was also, from the first settlers, claimed for the cause of Christ. By planted flags, by prayers. By promises. Natives were evangelized. The Declaration of Independence, which still inspires people around the world, knelt before the Creator. Governments, including the Constitutional Republic we still live under, were careful to acknowledge God and organize under Biblical principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today newcomers and new thinkers deny and insult these traditions, these pledges. The sacrifices of generations, the hopes of millions, destroyed as we said recently by the \u201cfoes of our own households.\u201d They invent new \u201crights\u201d to shred the heritage of the greatest nation in history. In the twinkling of an eye, America has gone from barely being aware of subversives and malcontents here and there\u2026 to being overwhelmed by anarchists, thugs, arsonists, looters, vandals, and murderers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surprising? Yes, many of us are shell-shocked. But\u2026 on one hand there should be no surprise, because America has methodically shackled religious liberty; removed God from classrooms and the public square; encouraged the promiscuous use of drugs and alcohol; allowed free expression of pornography and sedition; and promoted sexual deviance, abortion, marital abuse and dissolution, child and spousal exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But more surprising is that religious traditionalists and Christian patriots have allowed this to happen. As a rule they \u2013 we, excuse me \u2013 are merely sitting back and complaining to each other. This makes us as guilty for the destruction of all that America was, and could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One more Bible verse, from Hosea chapter 8: They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not only a warning to our enemies in the streets. It is a grim promise from God. Past and present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Jesus weeps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n