Wow Jeff!
You are so right; this article really is fascinating and has SOOO many implications for how we humans perceive and then relay our Spiritual perceptions! (Sorry I only now have gotten around to reading it!)
There are so many important things about this that fascinate me that it’s hard to narrow it down. But here are a few ideas and challenges for me…
– It seems the life and language of Jesus were in the context of Aramaic; but for social/pragmatic/and many other reasons, these words and concepts were transferred into the Greek. And IN the transfer, much was missed, much was altered from original intent, and it is OUR loss not to be able to grasp the original.
– It has long fascinated me that the in Islam, the belief is that the message and it’s purity can ONLY be transmitted in it’s original and “perfect” language – which is of course Arabic. And of course that raises my hackles because that means I am eliminated from consideration by that religion. (As if I’m going to become fluent in Arabic??)
– In a similar vein, I read a book recently which was given to me by my Muslim friend and colleague called A DEADLY MISUNDERSTANDING by former congressman Mark Siljander. And while both “sides” (Christian and Muslim) have their deadly misunderstandings, the Christian one stems from this very language issue that this article speaks of! He maintains (apparently he is one of these language genius’ who can pick up languages easily) that the entire intent of the word which has come down to us as “convert” (think Peter at Pentacost preaching ‘repent and be converted’) is actually more like “surrender yourself in faith to God”. He maintains it was NEVER the intent of Jesus to start a religious movement; rather to simply draw all to the ONE true God!
Which interestingly is just what the devout Muslim claims as well!
And all this because of the actual intents and meanings and original cultural contexts being subverted by language being inadequately accounted for in our attempts to seek what really happened and was meant and was said. etc etc.
VERY interesting Jeff – and I’ll be on the lookout for more on this angle in the days/months/years ahead!
TotalVictory
Bobx3