They Died How: 1 Samuel 6:19-21
In asking questions, we get to truth. I had a great conversation recently with a friend where I was reminded that spiritual experiences often start conversations rather than end them. The journey of spirituality is about seeking truth. We’ll reach the end eventually, but I am not there yet. I have more questions to ask.
Biblical translation matters. This story is a great illustration of this. The translation I read and recommend is the ESV, because it is as close to a literal word-for-word translation as I’ve found. That’s what I want in a Bible. In being a word-for-word translation, the main downfall is leaving constructs like idioms to be understood by the reader. Other bibles handle idioms better, but in doing so give away the literal translation feel.
Why is this important? The ESV says the men of Beth-shemesh died because they looked upon the ark. That didn’t sit well with me today. Yes, God warned the people to place the ark behind curtains to ensure people didn’t see something they weren’t supposed to see. The Hebrew people knew to revere the ark.
However, the ark spent seven months among the Philistines. It came back on a cart pulled by milk cows. The people in the fields who saw the ark wouldn’t even know to look away until after they saw the ark. Furthermore, if looking upon the ark caused death at God’s hand, why didn’t the Philistines die? Pondering this, I asked questions.
When talking translation, we have more than 24,000 remnants of Biblical writings dating before 1000 AD. Some are complete, others are but fragments of a single book or chapter. For the Old Testament, these remnants fall into two broad categories: remnants written in Hebrew and remnants written in Greek. The Greek texts indicate the people died looking upon the ark while the Hebrew texts indicate the people died looking into the ark.
Why go with the Greek text? The translators probably did it for consistency. The Hebrew texts indicate 50,000 people died whereas the Greek texts indicate 70 people died. Fifty-thousand deaths feels a bit large for a relatively normal ancient town, especially if they all looked into the ark.
This is why translating the Bible is difficult. Should translators go with the Hebrew text and write 50,000 people died from looking into the ark or should they go with the Greek text and write 70 people died looking at the ark? Or is there truth in between? Perhaps 70 people died looking into the ark?
There is no perfect translation. Human translators are flawed and choose between equally ancient sources sometimes nuancing the same story differently. That doesn’t make the Bible wrong, it makes it a translation. It does mean, though, we should never read the Bible with our brain on auto-pilot. The Bible is a document needing to be read with an inquisitive mind ready to ask questions as shown here. In asking questions, we get to truth.
