Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie, Job 6:28.
We live in a generation wherein evidence means little. Personality and feelings hold far more sway than something having solid evidence. Accordingly, the new bibles undergird that behavior. Job challenges his friends to look straight at him. He makes it clear that if he lied, it would be very evident. In other words, he is a man known for his integrity who could not hide it if he lied and they know it.
Abraham Lincoln once refused to take a man's case. When the man wanted to know why, Lincoln told him that he knew the man to be guilty. He told the man that he would probably just blurt out to the jury that the man did the thing. Lincoln knew that he wasn't good at lying. He was not called Honest Abe for nothing.
Look how the modern versions handle Job's plea to his friends. They portray Job here as a sleazy used car salesman.
NIV: “But now be so kind as to look at me.
Would I lie to your face?
If I have learned anything in my years on this earth, it is that when a person asks me if I think he would lie to me, I'm pretty sure he would. Likewise the ESV denigrates Job.
ESV: “But now, be pleased to look at me,
for I will not lie to your face.
This is a strange statement. Apparently the only way to be sure if Job is telling the truth is to make sure he is looking at your face. If you were doing an email exchange with him, writing letters back and forth, or just shouting from room to room, there is no guarantee that Job would not lie. You had to make sure he was looking at you.
The New King James Version isn't much better.
NKJV: Now therefore, be pleased to look at me;
For I would never lie to your face.
I really wouldn't want a reputation as someone who could only be trusted in one on one encounters where they could study my face.
What did Job really say? He told them that by looking at him, they could be content. He is not asking them to take his word that he is honest as the first three examples said. He is saying that if he lied, it would be obvious. "It is evident if I lie." Job had built a lifelong reputation for honesty and any observer who knew him would instantly know if he was lying. What does "evident" mean?
Oxford English Dictionary (OED): Evident: Clear to the understanding or the judgement; obvious, plain…
A Few simple rules to life:
If a girl needs to tell you that she is pretty, she probably isn't.
If a child labors to convince you that he did a good job, he probably didn't.
A Christian who needs a bumper sticker to proclaim his faith has probably never made anyone suspect he was Christian any other way.
A man who labors to convince you he is honest, probably isn't.
The NIV, the ESV and the NKJV all have Job trying to convince his friends that he was not a liar. The King James Bible which is the word of God says that Job stood on his reputation and told them that if he lied it would become immediately evident. He needed no further proof.
Another word used in your King James Bible is "evidently". He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius, acts 10:3. It didn't say he saw a vision about the ninth hour. It says he saw a vision evidently about the ninth hour. The Lord wants you to know that what Cornelius saw was "distinctly visible or perceptible; with perfect clearness" (OED).
Cornelius later described that vision to Peter and explained that evidence; behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, Acts 10:30. The vision was not some vague shadowy thing that was hard to understand. He saw it evidently.
The Apostle Paul described the gospel as it was preached among the Galatians. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?, Galatians 3:1. When the gospel is preached scripturally there is much power in it. Jesus Christ is not just set forth, he is set forth evidently.
Through the foolishness of preaching and by the power of the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ became "distinctly visible or perceptible; with perfect clearness". The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians; For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, 1st Thessalonians 1:5.
When a King James Bible is preached with conviction, and when Jesus Christ is preached therein, he becomes real to those who hear. It is a supernatural conversion that is its own evidence. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1.
תגובות