An Obadiah Slope column
Setting the Bible Free: Obadiah still gets asked about how to get permission to use a slab of the Bible in print, maybe for a church handout or a book. Most English bible versions let you print 500 verses on the proviso you acknowledged them. Here’s the NIV and Amplified Bible permissions page, for example. That details how Mr Rupert Murdoch will let you use his Bibles! (Newscorp owns Zondervan and Thomas Nelson.) It covers what most people will want to use. When the Sydney Anglicans wanted to print gospels of Luke – The Essential Jesus – they simply translated it themselves to save on the 5 or 10 per cent various versions would have charged them.
But now two recent English Bibles have now been put in the public domain. The Berean Bible and Majority Bible texts are officially licensed for free under the Creative Commons license system many readers will be familiar with – it places on record that these Bibles are free to use. They join the WEB Bible, also online, free, but not a new translation, it is an update of the American Standard Version (ASV).
You can print, place online, and quote them.
There is a translation committee, but the Berean Bible has been tested and refined by reader feedback during the years it has been available on the Biblehub website. Four “translation tiers” offer an Interlinear, a literal word-for-word translation, a modern English Study translation and an amplified version.
(For technical Bible nerds, the Berean Bible is based on the Alexandrian manuscripts, and the Majority Bible is based on the Byzantine texts. If you don’t understand that sentence you are free to run screaming from the room. Obadiah won’t mind.)
Obadiah thinks maybe that the Bible publishing business – at least in English – will adopt a free online model. (In other countries, there are other models, the Dutch Bible Society has a subscription model based on a smaller pool of translations.)
Some big Bible translation players are in talks to make open source Bibles the new standard. These include Biblica (which owns the NIV and licenses it to Zondervan and some Bible Societies), Tyndale (the NLT Bible), and some arms of Wycliffe.
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Hospital pass: not missing a chance to pass on the good news, Sydney Anglican minister Gordon Cheng engaged in conversation with his anaesthetist – before a cataract operation. Here’s how he told his FB friends:
“I got to have a gospel conversation with the anaesthetist. He told me the Bible was too long and it should just have one word, ‘Peace’, which was the message of all religions. I said Christianity was unique–all other religions have the message ‘DO’; Christianity alone has the message ‘DONE’.
“It may not be the world’s best idea to start an argument with your anaesthetist right before the operation, but in this case, I thought it was worth it.”
Did the anaesthetist see eye-to-eye with Gordo?
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Minority voice: For someone who really can’t sing – it was embarrassing to have a church choirmaster as my father – Obadiah dares to offer a musical opinion. Are we too critical of “Jesus is my boyfriend” Songs?
This thought occurred to Obadiah as we sang “Holy, there is no-one like you” or “Build my life” in church last Sunday.
“[Verse 1] Worthy of every song we could ever sing
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Oh, we live for You
“[Verse 2] Jesus, the Name above every other name
Jesus, the only One who could ever save
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Oh, we live for You
“[Chorus] And holy, there is no one like You
There is none beside You
Open up my eyes in wonder
And show me who You are
And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me”
It was written by Brett Younker, Karl Martin, Kirby Kaple, Matt Redman and Pat Barrett and originally recorded by Barrett.
To be fair, this song gets more theological as it goes on. But these opening sections can fit the “boyfriend” criteria – of inserting someone else’s name and seeing if it makes sense of a sort.
Yes, it works as a song about being obsessed with, say, Martin or Judy. Well, as far as your musical ignoramus, Obadiah, is concerned. Except maybe for that one word “save” in verse 2.
But having listened to a sermon that we should be ardently pursuing Jesus just before we sang this – why should we not sing as though we are obsessed with him?
Why not live as though we are obsessed with him?
Being obsessed with Jesus like this amounts to “Jesuolatry”.
We should be obseessed with ” God Most High” or “YHWH”. After all, Jesus himself was. We may broaden our vision of God to embrace a Trinitarian view if we wish (I don’t). Serious evangelical authors suggest we should embrace a “robust trinitarian faith”. That is at least authentic. Jesus-obsession is not.