EPISODE DESCRIPTION: What if one misrepresented word changed the course of humankind? What if one translation gave way to unthinkable injustice—when it was never intended? We do this more than we realize because we hold our thoughts as truth when they are nothing more than Thought.

Episode theme song (outro) ‘Recognise’ by MARLOE.

 TRANSCRIPT

Howdy, welcome back. Happy Friday

(I love Fridays). 

So if you've been following along with these fleeting thoughts of mine, you know that I recently watched a documentary called 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture.

Now, I felt so many things about this documentary, as you can imagine.

Basically, I’m going to sum it up for you in one sentence, as do they in some of their messaging. 

Read?

The first time the word ‘homosexual’ appeared in the Bible was…

…you guessed it—1946. 

Uhhh. What?

[whew]

I was excited that someone had uncovered the fact that there was a mistranslation from Aramaic to Hebrew, to Greek, or however, the translations funneled down—I think the way I just stated is accurate—and that the Greek translation to English errantly interchanged a type of person (a homosexual) with a horrific act of dominance and lack of consent (between a man and a boy); singlehandedly lumping homosexual persons into the camp of things that God supposedly abhors. 

And so of course I was championing this documentary, right?

But, I was also slightly angry at the fact that some people question whether the error today is not an error when they successfully failed to question it when the error was made. 

Watch it for yourself and see if you find holes in it. 

The good news is it cracked up something open, while people, especially in the evangelical community are hellbent on not caring if it was mistranslated.

It reminds me of back when I was doing publicity for authors, I had an opportunity to talk on the phone with Shirley Roper Phelps. You know, of the Fred Phelps clan in Kansas Westboro Baptist Church people who go to funerals and celebrate when gay people die? I mean, they go to funerals for a lot of reasons to celebrate that God “hates.”

That was a really fun conversation. 

I tried to make a case that even if Jesus himself told her she was wrong she’d argue with him. 

Man, this is how people get stuck in thought. It’s amazing. It’s amazing how we land on something, we give it meaning and we are going to, no matter what evidence is put in front of us, we are going to continue believing it—do or die.

And there are preachers, people of the clergy, of faith, quoting that homosexuals should be killed because the Bible says that they should, when all along if they would just change the poorly translated word to what it originally meant, we’d live in a whole different world.

Just think of the weight of that. Just think of that one thing; that one error.

Man, I had so many emotions during and after watching that. 

I learned a long time ago that science has discovered something about dolphins feeling emotions at a hundred percent. And that they let 'em go, right? The emotion washes over 'em, they feel 'em in every way they can and then they go away. They feel sadness, anger, whatever the emotion is, they feel it 100% and then they move on.

And I've always been one of those people.

For the most part, I can let things go, but when I’m gripped by a thought and an emotion comes in—especially something so close to home like this—I can get really like, just gripped. 

Then I have to pull back from it, look at it, and see…

So I did this. I attempt to do this. I was talking to a friend of mine because I was seemingly paralyzed by the emotion of “those f#@* so$@!”

[I sounded like the dad in A Christmas Story just cussing and banging away at the heater downstairs…]

I was just going on and on, and it was beautiful because she mirrored back to me, “Hey, isn’t this an amazing playground for what you are trying to do in the world?” 

It’s about this bigger piece, about division piece I’m wanting to help eradicate; this us/them narrative, and this “I can’t be in your tribe because you don’t agree with me.” Or “I can’t be in this family because we don’t see eye-to-eye .

Because if you know me and you've listened to Daughter Father Dance, my other podcast, you know, I have my own personal problem with the evangelical ilk.

I recognize this. It’s a sticking point for me because I don't trust them. And I think about,”Okay, well, they feel the same way about me. They don't trust me. They think I'm abhorred by God, and that I should be killed.”

So, I’ve gotta work on that, and I know this. I know, as she says’ it’s a great playing ground. 

So, watching the movie, 1946, has been for me working through and looking at how flared I get about these things. How much weight I give the thought that ‘evangelicals are not to be trusted.’ 

How do I deconstruct this in a way that's constructive and not buying into the very thing I'm accusing them of buying it of? And that is pointing fingers and saying, “You're bad and you're bad and God hates you and you should go to hell and you should be killed.” 

And I mean, I don't want anybody to be killed, but I'm not helping bridge the divide if I’m just getting all hot and bothered about “these people.” Right? I’m doing the exact same thing I wish they’d stop doing to me. 

So that's all to say that today's thought I want everyone to consider is, if it’s evidential in that documentary that Sharon “Rocky” Roggio brought to light with the help of these beautiful humans is true, that's a powerful error that can be brought to light and free a lot of imprisonment we've put people in, and we've put ourselves in. 

We've put constructs of religion in place in a way that has marred people and, consequently has marred our relationship with Divine. 

Now, finding our way back is on us. But think about if this error had never been made, what a more inclusive place we’d live.

So how beautiful, ultimately, is this film that is opening conversation about rethinking something as huge as this. The subtitles is pretty powerful; “The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture.”

Holy moly. 

One word.

The thing is, it’s a story of many people’s minds thousands of years ago. It's a story. 

And yes, If you're a believer, it’s a true story. You believe Paul and Peter and Luke and John and Mark and everybody had the best intentions when they interpreted what Jesus said. Or that the authors of the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, were accurate and didn’t have agendas. 

As we’ve discussed, even historical data is penned (and later translated) by people who have perspectives and agendas. 

That’s what we do. And that’s what we have to keep an open mind about. 

And by the way, where’s Mary Magdeline’s Gospel and all those other people there? I’m always confused by that. 

But anyway.

There’s a great piece in there by a Orthodox Rabbi, Steven Greenberg and he refrereces the Old Testament and how the Hebrew bible… well, I’ll let you listen for yourself. 

There’s so much here and in that doc. But the takeaway relative to thought is that some of the “facts” can and are incorrect.

It’s just thought coming in——and we decide what we do with it. And what we do with it creates our life experiences. 

And I’m suggesting that we strongly encourage one another ourselves to stop trying to say our life experience and the thoughts we land on and give meaning should be everyone's life experience in thought, and just as important as you’ve made yours,

Call it what it is. See it for what it is, because I think we'd all be happier if we could get some space from ‘my thought’s are the right thoughts.’

Errant translations, when you attempt to oppress others, are not a good use of giving meaning to thought, by the way. 

So 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture.

Take a look, see what you think. 

Feel free to reach out to me if you want to talk, I’m always up for these conversations. 

Have a great weekend. 

I will see you on Monday.

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The podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jenée Arthur.
Cover art by Jenée Arthur
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