Acts 20:7 (KJV)
And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
I find in this text an example of how a “spiritual” interpretation of a Bible passage can be assumed, carried forth, and then become doctrine and practice.
The Bible says, “upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…”
- That they came together is plain.
- That it was the first day of the week is clear.
- That they broke bread is also obvious.
But a huge leap takes place regarding this breaking of bread. Gill, Clarke, and Barnes all say this was not a normal meal but the Lord’s Supper. Barnes says that apparently the early Christians observed the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. All of them find the authority to call this the Lord’s Supper not from the plain sense of the text (the words mean to share bread—it’s a meal) but from the Syriac Version of the Bible, which changes the Greek word for bread into “the Eucharist.”
The Syriac version took a liberty with the words of the Bible. Scholarship accepted their liberty as authoritative, Bible teachers teach this is the Lord’s Supper, and now certain denominations observe the Lord’s Supper weekly.
First, the plain sense of the passage is bread, not the Eucharist.
Second, the Greek word in the Received Text is bread, not the Eucharist.
Third, the context seems to indicate this is a nourishing meal and not the Eucharist because Eutychus received strength after his fall from eating.
The King James translators were careful to give us the wording of the Received Text in English translation. They worked to make the text understandable, so the words are frequently arranged as we would speak them in English and not as they would have been ordered in Greek. They also added words when necessary to complete a thought that was given in the Greek but not as obvious in English (and then they placed those words in italics so we could see which they are). Sometimes they even chose not to translate a word but to anglicize the Greek (the word baptize is an example) so as not to force their own interpretation upon the text. But they did not take liberties with the text. They gave us the plain meaning of the passage so we could hear the Holy Spirit tell us the application.
It’s not helpful at best, and at worst, dishonest to make a version of the Bible that is really just an interpretation of it.
#BiblicalInterpretation #ScripturalTruth #PlainSenseScripture #TrustTheText #KJVAccuracy
Breaking Bread: The Importance of Plain Biblical Interpretation
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Thank you for sharing this brother.
ReplyDeleteI am only too happy to write. :-)
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