February 27, 2001

Monica,

You might wonder why I always refer to Father as just Father instead of the Father. That is one of the sad losses that we have in translation from the Greek. In the Greek every noun except names such as Jesus, Peter, and James have an article before them. There is no Jesus Christ in the Bible; it is Jesus the Christ. The translators took out most of the articles but chose to let the before Father. I think it is an important mistake because like all the thee’s and thou’s we still hear from Shakespeare and King James’ day, this just hold’s Father off and makes him seem farther away. Don’t you just feel more reverent and spiritual to say, "How great thou art"? Aren’t people 100 times more likely to believe a prophesy if it is couched in Shakespearean English? "Thus saith the Lord; thou wilt have...."

I wish the NIV translators had gone all the way to make the Bible really reflect the English connotation. Father is my Daddy. I don’t even use Father when I talk to him. I call him Daddy. We are in fellowship; we are in partnership. We even joke around with each other. I laugh uproariously here "alone" sometimes.

The translators took an article out that should have been left in. They deleted the word a from the passage at the cross,

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"

That sounds nice. The Romans were conscious of God also. No, that is nice New Age teaching, but the Romans believed in many gods, and the Greek actually says, "Surely he was the son of a god."

We have lost a lot in translation from Hebrew and Greek. The different meanings of the word love are important, but we just say, "love." We use good for all the different meanings of the word in the Greek. The word know is so important, yet lost are the different words from the Greek. There is a word for knowing that in as Satan knows God, which is just aware that he exists. There is knowing that we know, as we like to say--deep down conviction of the truth. There is knowing God that is the very definition of eternal life in John 17:3. Talk about intimate fellowship and worship! That knowing is the way Adam knew Eve and they had a son. Your knowing of Father will produce something.

Now you know why I don’t talk about thy Father or the Father. I talk about your Father or maybe just Daddy.

Love,

Dad