Over-Speak Confusion

So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air, 1st Corinthians 14:9.

I am currently finishing up a book which I find to be both instructive and maddening. It is instructive because it is written by a master at his craft. It is written by a man who has been a pastor for over 50 years and has delivered many married couples from the bondage of misunderstanding Ephesians 5:23, which when misunderstood turns the husband into an abusive bully.

The author is a holy man of God who graduated from Tennessee Temple in the 1960s when they still produced godly graduates. They were also steeped in the error of the day thinking that the King James Bible was accurate in that it followed the majority text, but that only a knowledge of the underlying Greek could ever really get to the truth of what God is saying.

As I read his sentences I have two reactions. I marvel at his insight and wisdom of exposing the hollow cheap way in which most pastors exposit Ephesians 5:23 (the Husband is the head of the wife), and I rejoice as this author demonstrates from scripture that that is a sacrificial headship, not a dictatorial headship. Then I cringe after he uses a perfectly good verse which said exactly what he says it said, and highlights its meanings by giving Greek or Hebrew definitions. He has made the simple truths that he has so carefully culled from scripture and life experience over the years and made them a little tougher to grasp by using over-speak.

As an example he quotes 2nd Corinthians 12:1; I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. If you spoke that verse to 1000 people who had rudimentary English Skills, 999 of them would get it. There would be one overeducated lunkhead who by searching for a deeper meaning would stray into left field, but the verse says exactly what Paul wanted it to say. Paul said it in Greek, we read it in English. Our author, by training is not content. He exposits the Greek. He writes, "His choice of word for "vision" Is the Greek "optasia", referring to a visual presentation whether awake or asleep".

He compounds the over-speak with the word "revelation wherein he quotes the Touch Bible App by showing us the Greek word "apokalypsis" means "to unveil something for display, to make it known, to be manifested, to appear, to make known to all". If 999 people out of a 1000 could understand 2nd Corinthians 12:1 just fine as it is written in your King James Bible, why confuse them? Now the reader is invited to read the verse as "We will come to visual presentations given while I was awake or asleep and things to be manifested, to appear, to be made known to all". That is a perfect way to obfuscate a perfectly understandable verse.

Imagine being the leader of your country and that you are negotiating with a hostile country. You are using an interpreter. Your hostile counterpart says in his language and according to his understanding, "We would like to disengage from our current nuclear standoff. Your interpreter turns to you and begins defining variant meanings to the words used. "We, (or a collective pronoun indicating both you and him, or his country, or those in his country to whom he feels loyalty), would like, (a possible desirable outcome or preference indicating an outcome beneficial to their needs), to disengage, ( cause to cease from joining, stop a union, no longer act in tandem), from our current, ( speaking of that which is now as opposed to future or past reality) nuclear, (having to do with the nucleus of an atom, or any relationship involving a central point for joining, or dealing with radioactive materials), standoff, (inflexible counter positions, to stand askance one from another).

Your interpreter has not helped you. He has hurt you. He has made the plain light of truth dim and confusing. He has subverted your power of reasoning by overwhelming it with far too many choices. What every leader of a nation needs when negotiating with a foreign leader is an interpreter who he can trust. He needs someone who can hear in one language, understand in another language and repeat what he has heard in the tongue of his employer. We have a bible which past generations did not understand that they could trust. We have a bible translated by men who understood what God was saying and by the Holy Ghost interpreted it for us in the English Tongue.

I will finish this man's book and be grateful to the man who wrote it and to the man who sent it to me. I will overlook the foible of a man who received his education and cut his teeth in the ministry before the great body of evidence on bible preservation and translation that we have today was made public. I will learn and profit from this man. I will also beg you the reader to keep it simple. Just quote your King James Bible.