Back at home, my mother has a big navy blue Greek and Hebrew Bible. It contains the Bible in its original language and form with the literal English translations under every word. Because of this strictly authentic translation, the wording is always slightly off and seems a lot like those product instruction manuals you sometimes get that were obviously Google-translated from another language.
I’ve always loved looking through it, however, and one Christmas I read the account in Luke in its ‘original form’. I was immediately quite puzzled, however, when I saw that instead of Mary the mother of Jesus, the book was referring to her as ‘Miriam’. I later brought this up to my pastor and asked why her name was different in this Greek version and he said that that was simply the absolute literal translation of the Greek word used. Mary is a form of Miriam and at some point we got into the habit of referring to her as Mary, whether or not it was strictly correct.
This concept struck me a good deal – it had never occurred to me that perhaps the Bible could be wrong. Not that Mary’s specific name is of incredible importance, but if that detail was switched around, what else may have been?
Chapter 1 of Cosby reminded me a lot of that, especially as far as the section that talked about the word for ‘guest room’ verses ‘inn’. Taking it a step further, it was interesting to read about how it’s not always the language interpretation that is a little off, it can also simply be our own cultural backgrounds and understandings.
Personally I think that it’s quite exciting to think that the Bible isn’t exactly as I’ve imagined it. With the birth of Jesus especially, biblical stories that I’ve heard and seen over and over again for as long as I can remember have lost the wonder they’re supposed to inspire. When I think of the manger scene, I think of one of the glossy pages out of a ‘Birth of Jesus’ picture book my dad used to read to us on Christmas Eve. However, when new understandings force me to create my own image, it seems much more vivid and human. Somehow, having all the visual aids I’ve relied on for years taken away, I feel as though I am able to see it more clearly.
That is what inspired me from this reading, a logical glimpse of what life really may have been like not only at the time of Jesus’ birth but in Biblical context in general. People weren’t always beautiful and their skin wasn’t white and things weren’t always picturesque, but they were always real and authentic and messy.
Caroline's Encounters 