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Chris Hedges, Christian, Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, Ecclesiastes, King James Bible, New King James Bible, Peter Hitchens, religion, script, Scripture, the Bible, Time
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.
What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
__________
From the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, verses 1 through 13.
As the New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges says, “…reading Ecclesiastes is like reading Beckett.”
This is from the New King James translation, the only version of the Good Book that I’ll pick up. Peter Hitchens defended the KJV (over other versions) like this:
The King James Bible Versus the Sid James Bible
“…We have now had two generations brought up to believe that nobody and nothing has the right to tell them what to do, or to restrict or restrain themselves – especially in what they regard as their private life.
And they can tell within minutes of encountering the Authorised Version of the Bible, that it is their enemy’s weapon. This is because it is not simply a translation, but a poetic translation, written to be read out loud to country people in large buildings without loudspeakers, to be remembered, to lodge in the mind and to disturb the temporal with the haunting sound of the eternal. In this it is very effective…
As for ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ and ‘ye’, these remind the reader or listener that they are in a poetic and eternal context, not reading Harry Potter or listening to the radio news.”
Read his brother’s similar and equally spirited defense of the NKJV below:
“To seek restlessly to update The Bible or make it ‘relevant’ is to miss the point, like yearning for a hip-hop Shakespeare.
‘Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward,’ says the Book of Job. Want to try to improve that for Twitter?”
The picture above was taken on Inch Beach in Ireland.
john said:
Always, always, always a beautiful and moving quote. And bravo on your Bible stance. I agree, 100%!
jrbenjamin said:
Glad you’re in agreement… your openness and appreciation for the words of a creed you don’t exactly prescribe to is truly commendable — something I need to work on in approaching others’ beliefs and cultures.
johnallenrichter said:
The Bible is certainly a wonderful resource for strengthening one’s faith, especially when shared in numbers I believe. As an almost life long Catholic I was brought up to believe that ideal strongly, but was also taught other things like assembling on Sundays was actually mandatory, eating meat during lent on Fridays was sinful, and so many other things which in my mind really only amount to so much tradition having been passed down through centuries and eons of ignorance and silly thinking in my opinion. I don’t share many of those beliefs anymore and its because of a few very simple words that I do believe: That in His new covenant God would write His laws upon our hearts and minds and that we have no need of another telling us of Him – for we already know Him.
While I agree the Bible can be a wonderful resource, I’m afraid I also believe that the quote “…We have now had two generations brought up to believe that nobody and nothing has the right to tell them what to do” – is a large part of my new belief system as well. It’s not so much those who follow the laws written upon their hearts, but those that don’t who present the greatest problem in my opinion…… But certainly an interesting conversation…
Mike said:
A titanic issue laudably reduced to a clever juxtaposition of sibling contrasts – Christopher would have appreciated being given the last word.
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