Opus 2025-132: It’s Not Simple

One of the rationals that I often hear about needing a new translation of the Bible is that people can’t read such versions as the King James or the New American Standard because of the big words.  The theory is that we need to redefine some of these words so that they’re understandable to the population.  My translation of this statement is, “We need to dumb down the Bible.”

This is a disingenuous argument at best.  The idea that we cannot learn new vocabulary and new ideas is nonsense.  It is a statement of desire and sloth, not a statement of ability.

Why do I say that?  Well, if you have ever bothered to listen to young people today, and especially their music, you realize that they are constantly coming up with new words or redefining old words.  Rap music is famous for this.  You take one syllable words, and make them into five or six syllables if that’s what you need to fit your rhythm.  You take words that have a standard meaning that’s accepted by all of civilization, and you put a new meaning on it to fit your current cultural enclave.

In ordinary conversation you come up with totally bizarre definitions that fit you and what you want to say.  We see that in the acronyms.  My first association with the term GOAT was having a student call me a goat.  He considered that a great complement.  Because I knew that’s how he saw it, I just accepted it and rolled on.  Later on he told me that it meant Greatest Of All Teachers.  He lied.  In reality, it meant Greatest Of All Time, but the new definition fit his need at the moment.  Some of these acronyms everybody knows such as LOL but you only know them on sufferance.  Popular culture could change the meaning tomorrow and you would only find out about it when you were embarrassed in public.

So don’t give me this nonsense that young people can’t learn the meaning of regeneration or justification.  They can.  They just won’t.  Two reasons for this.  First, the adults in their life demonstrate the same resistance.  The second reason they won’t is because they know that by learning them they would become accountable for the meaning.

They will never rise to higher standards unless we have higher standards, maybe not even then.

homo unius libri