Monday, September 2, 2013

Ephesians 1:1a

The Will of God is an amazing thing and marvellous in all its way....the plan of salvation for all His creation.

Through it, much has been done, in history and in the present day, and much will still until it finally can see its conclusion, when all things are finally finished.

Through it I say, for some would rather say 'by' it, as if it itself were doing the doings. The plan is BIG, bigger than most conceive in their learning of it. We know than we do benefit from it, praises on High to The Almighty God and to our Lord Jesus, who have revealed in this chapter the compass and grandiour and the length and the breadth of this purpose of God to unite everything under the leadership of Christ, and to destroy all enemies of God. Its not about cleansing us from our sins only and saving us to Life only, but to cleanse creation of all impurity and that all things, on Earth as in Heaven, bask under the Light of God through Christ.

All these things said, to say it all again, very much many things have been have been done 'through' that will that God has......but......some well renouned versions of the New Testament do not bring that across, even others pervert the slight ambiguity of Ephesians 1:1. let us see how:

ASV: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus THROUGH the will of God

KJV: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ BY the will of God

Did you see that?
Petty, you might just say, and I grant you, theres not many letters, but what a word that can make such a difference, a world of difference!
What does it mean?
Well, when a version is done, other do come along and start building on it to make it clear to the audience what they think is intended by the original writer. Take as an example the NLT

This letter is from Paul,CHOSEN BY THE WILL OF GOD to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.
There, we can see that not only the transcriptor of the Word of God chose their bias by choosing 'by' rather that the Greek redition 'through', but further pushed that choice on our behalf by adding a word (chosen) to give us no other choice than to believe that Paul was personally chosen by the will of God to be an Apostle of the good news. And although chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, it is not here a true honest translation of the original writer's words, let alone thought.
It was THROUGH the magestic will of God as described above that Paul was able to apostolate. A different thought altogether... to me at least.
Look..... Am I writing this post by the will of God, or am I doing it through His will, which is that all men come to know the truth and be saved?
I let you be the judge of that, and of the Bible you may be holding in your hands right now.

Be ye Blessed forever.

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