I once knew a man named Greg who was an amazing fellow, not much younger than I am, and this was about 1985. Greg got Saved. He joined a church that followed the Holiness traditions.
Now Greg liked to drink a beer or two on occasion. But his new religion said that was a sin. So he stopped drinking. But as with anything that is banned, human nature is to want it more. To give you an example, I started smoking when I was about 9 years old. I tried to quit for years, and even did a few times. I can tell you from personal experience, it’s nearly impossible. The more I tried to quit, the harder it was to quit – to the point that I was willing to go to nearly any extreme to get a cigarette. This is why bans don’t work. They discovered that in the 20’s when they banned alcohol.
Long and short of it is, Greg self destructed. He went from openly drinking a few beers on occasion, to drinking heavily and in secret. He would go to church, pray for forgiveness, rededicate his life to Jesus, then fall away about a week later, if that long. Just before
his drinking cost him his job, he asked family and friends to help keep him from drinking… and in the end he started buying cough syrup to get drunk on.
I looked into his situation and tried to find the ban on alcohol in the Bible. And do you know what I discovered? It’s not there. There is a passage or two that say not to consume too much alcohol, but there is no ban nor is it listed as a sin.
Everything we say and do, especially in a professional capacity, has an impact on others. In Greg’s case, a false doctrine hurt him badly. So let me share a few things I’ve learned, then show you a verse that has been misunderstood and caused great harm and how to understand it using four tools.
Few Seconds. Shift in focus.
Translation is as much art as function. Wars have been fought over bad translations. To do it properly, you need to do more than just a one to one translations of words, or you end up ordering Pancake Suzie on a menu. Those who speak multiple languages know this intimately.
To translate you need a number of things, and this list is not exhaustive.
Knowledge of the two languages. If you don’t know the meanings of the words, then you have no place to start. But knowing the meaning of the words is not enough. That’s why I referred to Pancake Suzie. Many of you have had Crepe Suzette, right? If you know just the definition of the words, then you can do a one to one translation, sometimes. It will be bad, stilted and occasionally hilarious – but it can also be dangerous.
The second thing you need is intimate knowledge of the two cultures. If you go to France, they love to argue. But if you argue with your hands open, it is far different than if you argue with closed fists. If you’re in a PortoRican household, and someone says, Tu Edes Puelco,” if you don’t know the culture you’ll not know if they were being friendly or insulting when they said you were a pig. Knowing the society and the norms is mandatory to get a good translation. The more different the two cultures are, the more important this becomes.
The third thing is Language Drift. I’ve personally seen Language Drift in my lifetime. At one time Queer simply meant someone had an odd personality. A fag was a cigarette. And a Punk was – at first – a rotten tree, then a stick you used to light a fire, and lastly an out of control young person. Language drift is dangerous, because it can change the meaning of many things and create great misunderstandings.
Lastly is cultural or personal bias. In the case of a dominant or personal culture, you mentally apply your culture to their culture. Your norms and perspectives are overlaid over their norms and perspectives. For instance… The bible uses the term slave or servant, but that is a mistranslation. The actual word is BondWoman or Bondsman. Now, Jews did practice slavery, but in the 6000 years before Jesus, their standards shifted many times. One standard that mostly stayed the same? They saw taking a man, woman, or child into their home as a bond servant as a kindness. They worked for seven years, and then were generally freed. You can see this in action with Jacob’s bondage to Laban. Bias is not intentional most of the time. It’s just how you see the world.
Romans also used the term servant, but to them it meant MEAT that did something until it died. Basically the same words, but vastly different meanings.
Now, let’s get to the verse.
Matthew 5:28 King James
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Matthew 5:28 NIV
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The words are not exact. The literal translation is this…
Now I say you because all sees woman to the advantage of… I’m going to stop there.
Let’s focus on one major issue that shows that the verse is not accurate. If this translation is correct, then every single one of you have has looked at someone of the opposite sex with lust, and every one of you has committed adultery. That’s what it says. Whoever looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery, and since that’s a mortal sin… you’re all DoooooOOMED! And no I am not going to sing the doom song. No I won’t.
So since this is clearly not right, I set out to find why it’s wrong so I could understand it better. The method I used is the four lenses of translation.
Most of the words mean what you think they mean, but there are two that do not. Lust, and Adultery. Let’s talk about those two words, then using the definitions, I will retranslate the verse and let you see how it will then make much more sense. Remember, words matter, and a singe word can be more powerful than the largest bomb, and kill more people.
Two effective words are in use in this verse. Adultery and Lust.
In the New Testament, the closest word to the greek word lust, is the Hebrew word Covet. It has no sexual connotations at all in Hebrew or Greek. The word literally means, “Strong Desire.” Not just Desire, but STRONG Desire. The alcoholic seeking a drink, a smoker wanting a cigarette, Jesus wanting to be with the Disciples.
Yeah, got you.
Your minds went to the most common English use of the word. This is an example of Cultural Bias. The word I referenced is Epi Fem mayo. It’s used in Matthew 13:17 and translated as “Men have desired to see those things which you see…” In Luke 16, “And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell…” In Luke 17, “”The day will come when you will desire to see the days of the Son of Man…” And lastly, “Luke 22, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.”
If Matthew 5:28 is not talking about sexual lust, then what is it talking about? To understand, you have to know a little of their culture. King David and Bathsheba was a warning to young men. Don’t mess with the wife of a married man, if even King David could not manage it, what hope do you have. So Jesus was saying in a different way Exodus 20:12, “You shall not covet your neighbors wife.” I’ll put it all together in a minute. But it’s not about having sex, but about having a strong desire to take a woman away from her husband. Covet her. Want her as your own.
Likewise, the word Adultery. Now, you may not know this, but in Jewish culture, it is not a sin to have sex outside marriage unless you fail to marry the woman. In Exodus 22, “If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride price and she shall be his wife.”
Remember cultural bias?
We live in a monogamous society. They did not. From kings to the common man, polygamy was not only common, but acceptable to them. There are many examples of marriage documents where a wife agreed or disagreed with him taking a second wife. So they would not have seen the word adultery to be a man sleeping with a woman he was not married to. In fact, the actual definition of Adultery in Greek and Hebrew was, “A man having sex with a woman married to another man.”
So Jesus was offering a warning. He was saying, “If any man strongly desires to take the wife of another man away from him, he has already committed adultery in his heart.” It was a warning. A strong, “Don’t even think about it, you won’t like what happens and you’re going to get yourself in trouble.”
This verse, much like the one that destroyed Greg’s life, has been misused by many over the two thousand years since it was written. And over time as definitions have drifted away from their original meanings, the verse has taken on a new meaning that would have shocked someone from Jesuses time.
Now, my advice and my conclusion. If you read a verse in the Bible that doesn’t sound right, or tickles that inner spirit that tells you something is wrong, then take some time and look at it closely. Look at the words, the culture that gave birth to those words, and the definition drift that has possibly given the verse new meanings that were not originally there. I want to see each and every one of you solid and healthy in your faith. And thank you for your time.