The
more I look at Brian Simmons the greater my concern. Follow him and
down the rabbit hole you go to a world so unfamiliar to the keenest
Bible student you simply must take his word for it, and that is
troubling.
In a 7 minute video he tells the story of the woman at the well. The familiar story is related, along with some Brian Simmons flourishes, then he says, ‘The Lord, when I was translating John 4, said, ‘Well, she has a name. Would you like to know her name? Her name is Photini.’
In a 7 minute video he tells the story of the woman at the well. The familiar story is related, along with some Brian Simmons flourishes, then he says, ‘The Lord, when I was translating John 4, said, ‘Well, she has a name. Would you like to know her name? Her name is Photini.’
There
is already a question
mark over his claim to be a Bible ‘translator,’ his work
sounding more like an act of channelling than translating, as he
‘shares the heart of God.’ Having related this revelation from
God about the woman’s name, he goes on to relate what happened next
to Photini. You might be forgiven for thinking he is continuing to
relate what God told him. After all, he begins by saying God told him
her name. However, he tells us you can check what he is saying on
Wikipedia and assures us what historians affirm.
The
story of Photini, as he relates it, comes from a long-standing
Eastern Christian tradition and can, indeed, be checked
out on Wikipedia. How much credence we are to give it is
another question, but we can be sure that all we know from the Bible
is in John 4. The problem I have with this is how God apparently told
him her name, and he looked it up on Wikipedia, from which he,
seemingly, gets the rest of her story. Did God say, ‘If you don’t
believe me, look it up on Wikipedia?’ I must be frank, my first
instinct is to reach for my Bible, but that’s me. Of course, if he
started with Wikipedia and then...let’s not go there.
He
mentions ‘Sod,’ and ‘the land of Sod,’ several times in this
story and this is apparently key to his flights of fancy. It bears
investigation and I will come to that in another post, but the point
here is Brian Simmons is not translating the Bible, he is rewriting
it, using any and every resource that comes to hand and calling it
‘revelation.’
Today's
text for comparison is Romans 12:2
‘Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of
your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ ESV
(35 words)
'Do
not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what
God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.' NIV
(37 words)
‘Stop
imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be
inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation
of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as
you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.’ TPT
(47 words)
Twelve
more words than the more literal ESV, Ten more than the dynamic
equivalence NIV. I do wonder, at the rate he adds words to Scripture,
how heavy his finished Bible is going to be, and will I be able to
carry a printed edition to church?
Of
course, this is not translation so much as exposition. This is Brian
Simmons ‘preaching’ the passage in the passage. Now we can test
what Brian Simmons thinks against what we know the Bible tells us. In
his verbose way he does bring across the meaning quite well, but
notice the focus of his exposition. Resisting the pattern of the
world, seeking a renewed mind, is to the end we should know and live
out God’s will.
What,
in legitimate translations, is the ability to test and know God’s
will, for Brian it is ‘power,’ to ‘live a beautiful life.’
The focus has changed, subtly, but clearly enough, from the perfect
will of God to the beautiful life of the believer. These things are
not, of course, mutually exclusive, You may believe they relate one
to another, but they don’t stand side-by-side in the text.
Discerning and following the perfect will of God may, or may not,
lead to a beautiful life, but that is exposition, not translation.
In
the previous verse Paul writes, ‘I appeal to you therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship.’ ESV
We
seek to discern God’s will so we can offer our lives as living
sacrifices, to the one who made us and remade us, offering up
spiritual worship. We discern and offer up what is ‘holy and
acceptable to God.’ This may be beautiful but the focus is God and
not me.
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