Justification Theology
“This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, . .” Acts 7:38
Congregation – Loss of the authority of God’s Word as it is written leads to re-reading the text to fit our life experience, to fit the framework of a preconceived theology. When this happens, translations in the name of theological correctness alter the text rather than presenting the paradoxes and difficulties. This is not simply theological subterfuge. The attempt to make everything “right” comes from a deep-seated commitment to the Greek idea of truth, namely, that there can be no unresolved, paradoxical or alternative elements in the one correct theology. So, the translations smooth the text or add or subtract from it to produce readings that are compatible with the theology. This verse is a perfect example.
Stephen is defending himself before the Sanhedrin. In his speech, preserved for us in Greek, he says that Yeshua was the one with the “congregation” in the wilderness. At least, that’s what the translators want you to read. However, the Greek word here is ekklesia, exactly that same word that in every other occurrence is translated with the English word “church.” Why do the translators change the word from “church” to “congregation” in only this instance? The answer is theological. The translators of this version (NASB) are committed to replacement theology. They believe that God replaced Israel with the church. They believe that, as a result of Israel’s continued disobedience, God removed His covenant with Israel and began a new plan with the “church”. And, of course, the “church” didn’t begin until Pentecost. Therefore, Stephen’s use of the word ekklesia cannot be translated “church” because that would mean that Stephan recognized that the “church” was the same as Israel and that Yeshua was with the “church” at Sinai. So, the word is changed to “congregation” – and you never knew what happened.
For nearly eighteen hundred years the Christian church has propounded the idea of replacement theology. Nearly every mainline denomination espouses this doctrine. You will often hear it referred to under the terms “spiritual Israel.” The idea is that God is now working with spiritual Israel (the church) until the last days when somehow physical Israel will once again be reunited. Most of the early church fathers (whom we venerate) claimed that the reason the Jews are so terribly mistreated in the world is because God is punishing them for rejecting the Messiah. In other words, they deserve what they get, including the Holocaust, because they were responsible for Jesus’ death. Even Luther pronounced this sort of hatred of the Jews. You can still find it among many Christians today.
As if that were not bad enough, there is a second, even more damaging result of this replacement idea. Under replacement theology, the Old Testament is Jewish and the New Testament is Christian. Therefore, Christians are no longer subject to the Old Testament. We are under grace, not law, so none of those Old Testament commands apply to us. The result is a loss of instructions about living. The Torah doesn’t matter to us. What matters is the “law of love,” something that is defined by a kind of built-in vagueness that ultimately comes down to my inner experience with Christ. Since there is no essential connection with the actual words God spoke to Israel, I am free to translate the text without its cultural context and Hebrew worldview. I end up with The Message, a “translation” so removed from the culture of the original that it no longer refers to anything about Israel and God’s instructions to Israel. This is a complete loss of the Hebrew worldview – and the way that God communicated about Himself in a particular language. With this perspective on translation, I am quite free to translate ekklesia as “congregation” in this verse and never bother to tell you that it is the same word I will translate as “church” every place else.
The original text requires thinking in Hebrew. It isn’t possible to be a tourist in the Bible. You can’t just pull out your handy phrase book and hope to really know what God is saying. You must enter into the culture and absorb the culture’s way of viewing the world. The church today does not do this. It converts the text to our culture rather than moving us into that culture. It shifts the paradigm to what fits us.
Every translation operates from an interpretive scheme. You undoubtedly read your Bible in translation. So, do you know what scheme your Bible uses?
Topical Index: Bible, Translation, ekklesia, Church
