Is Your Church Teaching the True Word of God?

One of the funny phenomena of Greek grammar is that sometimes the verb in a sentence is omitted and you have to figure out what it is from context. Sometimes it is implied from earlier in the passage (often the last verb is meant to be repeated) or just a form of the verb “to be” is meant. An example of this is in 2 Corinthians 5:17, which most modern English translations render as something like, “if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation.” However the Greek leaves out the verb “is” and the subject “he.” It simply reads, “If anyone is in the Messiah — New Creation!” Under the ordinary translation, the subject of the verb is the “anyone,” the individual who has been incorporated into the Messiah. Thus it would mean that the individual now has an opportunity to start their life over and to re-prioritize their life according to God’s ways, to re-channel their energies in obedience and holiness rather than sin. Of course this is all good, but is that what the verse is getting at?

Another option is that the subject of the verb is “new creation, giving us a translation like, “If anyone is in the Messiah, there is a new creation” (NRSV) or “if anyone is in the messiah, the new creation has come!” (TNIV). Supporting this interpretation is the observation that when Paul uses the term “creation,” he generally uses it in terms of the whole creation, not a part of it, or one individual within it.

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Then we come back to 1 Peter 2:13:

Ktisei is a variation  of ktisis from 2 Corinthians 5:17 above. Here the translation is “institution” instead of “creation”. The context of “subjection to every human creation or institution” for the sake of the Lord has been changed to “subjection to every human government”. If you see the difference between the original intent and the new translation circa 1890, I can only hope that you will begin to question the other means to subjugate people to the will of the “government”. As always, it is up to you to decide.

My lesson learned is to go back to the original Hebrew and Greek instead of reading man’s interpretation to have us serve man instead of God.

David DeGerolamo