The Curmudgeon's Bible - II Thessalonians 1
*“Translation is the art of failure.” * - Umberto Eco
I'll be the first to admit it.
Translators have a hard row to hoe. Producing a competent and engaging translation of scripture is a very challenging proposition.
During my lifetime, I've learned just enough of the original bible languages (primarily Hebrew and Greek) to become really dangerous, so take this curmudgeon's viewpoint with a grain of salt.
Welcome to "The Curmudgeon's Bible."
In this second entry of my occasional series, "The Curmudgeon's Bible," I'm going to show you another "epic fail" in translation. This one is based on an underlying doctrinal predisposition.
Study to show yourself approved unto God.
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My target today is II Thesalonians 1:9.
“They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,”
- II Thesalonians 1:9, ESV (emphasis added)
Blinded by their doctrinal pre-dispostions, the translators of most modern renderings of the bible have inserted the word "away," which is not in the original language and which has no business being there.
If you visit http://biblegateway.com, you can see this egregious error in most of their long list of translations:
Amplified, CEB, CJB, CEV, ERV, ESV, EXB, GW, GNT, ICB, ISV, J.B. Philips, LEB, TLB, MSG, MEV, Mounce, NOG, NABRE, NASB, NCV, NET, NIRV, NIV, NIVUK, NLV, NLT, NRSV, NRSVA, NRSVACE, NRSVCE, OJB, RSV, RSVCE, TLV, VOICE, and the WE.
A sad state of affairs, indeed.
Despite the context, every one of the translations I've listed have superimposed their private theological vision on this passage. In doing so, they intentionally obscure the plain meaning.
Stated simply, the theological view these translations promote is that "hell" means "eternal separation from God." The plain sense of the passage, however, is that "hell," God's just judgment, is actually the very flaming presence of Jesus / God himself.
As translations go, the KJV and other older translations were at least honest about it. They typically use the simple word "from" rather than "away from."
There is, however, a clear winner:
The Jubilee Bible 2000 translation makes the text very plain, using the preposition "by" to convey the simple meaning of the passage.
Translating the verse honestly and in the context of Jesus' second advent in flaming fire, taking vengance, the Jubilee translation reads:
“who shall be punished with eternal destruction by the presence of the Lord and by the glory of his power,”
- Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) (emphasis added)
That's right, Dear Reader, it is the very presence of the Lord Jesus, and the flaming glory of his holiness that will consume his adversaries. Paul is simply describing the same event that is described frequently in the Psalms. Here is a partial list of Psalms that vividly describe this event:
"Let him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup."
- Psalm 11:6
"Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew;
he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire."
- Psalm 18:8-13
"You will make them as a blazing oven
when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
and fire will consume them."
- Psalm 21:9
"Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
before him is a devouring fire,
around him a mighty tempest."
- Psalm 50:3
"As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;
as wax melts before fire,
so the wicked shall perish before God!"
- Psalm 68:2
"As fire consumes the forest,
as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
so may you pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your hurricane!"
- Psalm 83:14-15
"Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around."
- Psalm 97:3
The flaming judgement of Jesus' appearance.
Photo courtesy of anna marie and http://pixabay.com
What is my conclusion?
If you're going to let theology influence your translation one way or another, at least let it be informed by a preponderance of other scripture. Read your whole bible. Be sure your translation fits both local and global context.
More from the Curmudgeon:
Jesus and Nicodemus
Second Thessalonians Chapter 1
The Word "Church"
The Word "Angel"
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I think of Gehenna, the valley of ashes and the fires that don't go out. That haunted my childhood and made me wish I was never born. Frightening visions with a lot more Dante than God in them. Tradition and the Bible...yeah, been down that road before...don't have an answer for you other than God's grace
Those are compelling metaphorical images. However, in them I see grace that neither medieval monks nor modern churchmen for the most part will acknowledge. I believe that God will mercifully extinguish his enemies, not sadistically torture them for eternity. I am persuaded that this is in fact the preponderance of what scripture teaches.
Unfortunately, that's not what Jesus said. He talked about Hell more than anyone else and didn't mince words:
Mark further quotes Jesus, "9:48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
And this parable...
Hi, Stan, nice to hear from you!
However, before you unwittingly misrepresent Jesus and the predominant thrust of his teaching, may I ask you to review a couple of counterpoints to your remark about how much Jesus talked about hell?
Did Jesus preach hell more than heaven?
and
More About Hell?
I'm not at all trying to represent "hell" as a picnic or a joyful outcome. It is a fire, an unarguably painful and fearful end, but it is an end and not a perpetual torturing.
Let's look at the verses you've quoted:
Yes, the fire is eternal. That says nothing about what it consumes. There is no implication other than destruction when a mere mortal is introduced into an eternal fire.
This very verse uses time conditional language, the word until - How long does the torture endure? UNTIL he should pay back all he owed.
EDIT: Not to mention ALL THE PSALMS and II Thessalonians 1, just quoted from in this article...
Some day, when I finally get my "round tuit", I shall write a more complete series of articles on this. Meanwhile, take care, Brother Stan! :)
it's a less horrific possibility, but how do you annihilate a spirit? We're a mixture of dust and divinity
."We're a mixture of dust and divinity"
I don't believe this to be quite accurate. While we are definitely made "in God's image," that does not confer eternity upon us. The concept of an "eternal soul" is a Greek idea, not a biblical one. The very first mention of death was to Adam.
"...from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Literally, "dying you will die." Adam began dying the day he ate. Paul tells us the rest of the story in Romans 5:12 "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—".
Death is death, not "eternal life in flames." All of the sacrifice imagery in the bible, all the Psalms I've quoted, speak of death and of perishing. The writer of Hebrews tells us this: " for our God is a consuming fire."
Stated a slightly different way, life and more particularly eternal life is a gift — a gift that we do not possess until and unless it is given to us. Jesus said "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."
Eternal life is the opposite of "perish." Perish is what happens to non-sheep. It is the natural end of man. We desperately need this gift of eternal life if we wish not to perish. John chapter 3 verse 16.
yeah, I don't want to get into an annihilationist argument - sorry, but it gives me heartburn
No worries...
One day in the Glory, one of us will be able to say to the other "Told you so!" for-ever... ;) :D LOL!
I regret, for your sake, that there won't be any more ghosts for you to write about in those days... other than historically speaking, oh, and a Holy one... ;) :D
I have heard many compelling interpretations of scripture suggesting that cleansing flame rather than punishment is intended in many depictions of "hellfire."
I believe that, even as scripture is a two-edged sword, the presence of God will serve both purposes.
For those of us who are believers, it will be the final cleansing and purging of every taint of sin or stain in our existence, leaving us pure and pristine and absolutely regenerated.
For those who maintain their rebellion against their maker to the very end, it will be a just and terrifying retribution that metes out pain in the same measure as they have done to others in their lives, but upon completion of that task, it will mercifully consume and completely extinguish them.
I believe that the same flame of Jesus' personal presence will also purge and restore the entire physical universe, utterly renewing it to a super-Edenic state.