I’D LIKE YOU TO DO something for me if you can spare the time. Tell me what you think about something I’m going to put in the Casual English Bible paraphrase I’m writing. It’s for the Gospel of Mark, which I hope to release this week.
What you’re about to read is from a familiar passage in Mark. But I’m presenting it with what I hope are more contemporary words. Pardon the footnotes, but sometimes we need a little help with Jesus.
Tell me if you think I’ve gone too far. This is Jesus talking, though paraphrased with a poetic cadence:
“If your hand is what makes you sin, cut that thing off.1
It’s better to go one-handed into heaven2 than two-fisted into hell.
There, the fire never stops.There, worms3 don’t die and the fire won’t stop.4
If your foot is what makes you sin, cut it off.
It’s better to go crippled into heaven than dancing into hell,
which is where you’ll get tossed with both feet.There, worms don’t die and the fire won’t stop.
If your eye makes you sin, pull it out and throw it away.
It’s better to go into God’s Kingdom with one eye
than to see what hell is like with both eyes.There, worms don’t die and the fire won’t stop.” Mark 9:43-48 Casual English Bible
What do you think? How does it compare with the Bible translation you usually read?
Lyrics for a praise band?
I doubt these lyrics would ever make it into the Sunday set of a praise band.
But I like the beat and I can almost hear a guitar playing and someone singing the chorus, slightly off key:
There, worms don’t die and the fire won’t stop.
There, worms don’t die and the fire won’t stop.
There, worms don’t die and the fire won’t stop.
There, worms don’t die and the fire won’t stop…
And on and on until you get to wondering if you’re the worm and the song won’t stop.
Notes
1 9:43. Heads up. Not heads off. Jesus would not encourage us to cut our heads off if our heads make us sin. Ditto for hands, feet, and eyes. Bible scholars agree Jesus is using hyperbole in 9:43-48. It’s an exaggerated way of talking about self-discipline, and about the strategies we need to use to distance ourselves from temptation. Some people in ancient times as well as modern have taken these words of Jesus literally. They have cut off important body parts. That’s missing the point Jesus is trying to make, scholars say. Temptation doesn’t start with those body parts. It comes from deep within, and has to be dealt with there, long before the body parts get involved.
2 9:43. More literally “life,” referring to eternal life.
3 9:44. The Greek word for “worm,” skōlēx, can mean an earthworm, maggot, or grub. In many ancient stories, worms like these show up to feed on buried corpses.
4 9:44. This phrase, repeated in 9:44, 46, 48, is deleted from many Bible translations because it doesn’t show up in some of the oldest copies of the Gospel of Mark.
You are a good writer and I read your work almost every day. Yet,when I read this about cutting hands off etc. it bothered me. It seemed like too much for the passages in the Bible are so misunderstood and this writing just made me think more people would take this more literally than ever. I got cold chills and I rarely do that with your writings and I’ve learned a lot from them. Thank you!
Hey there, Wanda. Imagine what kind of chills you would have gotten listening to Jesus say it himself. Hopefully, he found a way to give the crowd some clarification, like I tried to do in the footnotes to this section.
As a rule of thumb, I prefer to keep all my body parts for as long as I can. Temptation can’t have them. God gave them to me for as long as they last. And I’m going to take the mileage as far as it will go.
Granny warned my mom when mom said she was going to marry my dad, “You think twice before gettin’ hooked up with them Millers. They live long and die hard.”
Thank you for your reply.
I would have gotten cold chills to be close enough to Jesus to hear him say anything.
In my opinion there’s two( or maybe more) kinds of cold chills. One from sheer joy, another from fright.
Nevertheless, I enjoy your writings and have read some of your books that I like very much.
Have a great day!
It is repeatedly said of the wicked, Their worm dieth not, as well as, The fire is never quenched. Doubtless, remorse of conscience and keen self-reflection are this never-dying worm. Surely it is beyond compare better to undergo all possible pain, hardship, and self-denial here, and to be happy for ever hereafter, than to enjoy all kinds of worldly pleasure for a season, and to be miserable for ever. Like the sacrifices, we must be salted with salt; our corrupt affections must be subdued and mortified by the Holy Spirit. Those that have the salt of grace, must show they have a living principle of grace in their hearts, which works out corrupt dispositions in the soul that would offend God, or our own consciences.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.
So Mr Henry thinks the Worm is a wicked person and he may well be right. If he is right then those that believe the soul is consumed are wrong.
So is the worm a wicked person or something else?
George, I don’t know what to make of the worms. But that repeated phrase doesn’t show up in the oldest copies of Mark. So I’m not sure how much energy we should give to it. Whatever it means, it doesn’t sound good.