THE STUPIDITY OF “‘TIL DEATH DO US PART” DOCTRINE, PART 2

April 10, 2020

This is “No Bullshitting,” and today’s topic is The Stupidity Of ‘Till Death Do Us Part’ Doctrine, Part 2. We appreciate your reading.

Now, somebody please tell me—what is so special about sex to make it the only reason that a man or woman may divorce his or her spouse? Guess what; I’d rather my wife has sex with a million men, than to have her kill me just once!!! So, if I find out that she tried to kill me once; I am running as fast as my feet can carry me, far away from her—like a bat out of hell! People, I ain’t waiting “till death do us part” when she finally succeeds to kill me; no doggone way!!! And, anybody that tells me to stay and die is definitely an enemy that wants me dead, and, I would treat the person as enemy, period!

Come on; pastors; give me a break, will you! Stop preaching that nonsense. I refuse to accept that Jesus Christ, who I know to be extremely wise, actually said that I must stay and be killed by my wife—no, sir!!! So, what then do I believe happened? Human errors and human mischief; that’s what—oh yes, indeed!!! The original manuscripts of the books that make up the bible as inspired by God, were tampered with by man.

I insist that there has been a huge mistake or misunderstanding somewhere along the line—from the original script of the scripture, which was written in Aramaic and Greek; then translated to the English language. The primary culprit in my argument, therefore, is Trans-linguistic Factor.

Trans-linguistic errors come from the fact that meanings often change when a word or phrase is translated from one language to another. Such deviation, very slight though some may be, can cause sizeable incongruity problems—yes, indeed! Some sections of the bible (the Old Testament) were originally in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic; and the New Testament in Greek. My trans-linguistic errors position is given credence in a very instructive footnote contained in the “Fifty Bibles of Constantine I” as submitted to Emperor Constantine in the 4^th century, thus: “This is the usual way in which Eusebius’ text is translated, but there are more possibilities, because the (Greek) phrase ‘ἐν πολυτελῶς ἠσκημένοις τεύχεσιν τρισσὰ καὶ τετρασσὰ διαπεμψάντων ἡμῶν’ has many meanings.”

So, the bible transcribers themselves admitted that the bible is fraught with trans-linguistic errors or ambiguities; that the original ‘codices’ or manuscripts were not perfectly transcribed to carry the exact meanings intended by the authors. And then, the first English translations were written in what I call the ancient syntax (like “thou art,” instead “you are”), which now had to undergo other translations into our contemporary grammar.

Now, unless these translations were/are truly entirely supervised by God Himself, the end results have been liable to be fraught with human trans-linguistic errors. And, we do know that God did not supervise the translations; hence, some of the words or phrases in the various versions of English bibles today are not purely what the authors meant when they wrote them in the original Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek. Indeed, even the contemporary English versions of the bible do not use the same words across the board; they interchange synonyms of varying degrees of meaning.

Take the simple example of the words ‘city’ and ‘town.’ The King James Version (KJV) of the bible may use ‘city’ in the same passage that the New International Version (NIV) prefers to use ‘town.’ This may not be the best example to cite because the difference may not be very significant; however, for the momentary want of another more significant example, it will suffice to make my point. You and I know that the two words are not exactly the same meaning. Generally, they mean basically the same thing, but a town is not as large as a city in contemporary usage. So, does the word in the original Hebrew text say ‘city,’ or does it say ‘town,’ or does it use both words???

Depending on the circumstance, it may make a little difference if we know exactly the one in the original Hebrew text, so that we may determine how big the location in question was. Was it small as a town, or big as a city in the contemporary sense? Apply this insignificant example to more significant words or phrases, and then you may begin to appreciate my argument here.

I will take it even closer home with the version of the bible in my own Igbo language of Nigeria. In this case, by the grace of God, I have enough grasp of both the English and my vernacular languages to know that the translation is definitely, certainly not anywhere near perfect in terms of exact meanings. Actually, some of my Igbo words are not even existent in English—not exactly! Hence, the translators had to make do with the closest words that they could find, which, obviously took away some of the meanings intended by the original English words. Same thing happens if you translate Igbo to English. Now, when you add the translation issues from Hebrew or Aramaic to English, then you can see that my Igbo Christian brethren who can only read the Igbo bible are actually affected by second or third generation of trans-linguistic errors.

Other human flaws that might have resulted in this huge mistake that I speak of concerning marital divorce include—typographical error; human ignorance; and just pure human mischief. Brief expatiation of these factors will suffice here. Let’s start with human mischief and selfishness; going back to the 1^st Century AD when Emperor Constantine turned Christianity into a State religion. God did not have a discussion with the emperor and his cabinet to influence the doctrines of Christianity or the contents of the bible in any form, but they did! The emperor decided some of the Christian principles that were accepted or rejected or altered, as he turned Christianity into a State religion. He was human, and naturally, some of the decisions were made to suit his personal caprices and beliefs. In some cases, the beliefs, the environment and culture of the Roman Empire replaced the contents of the original scripts that were disagreeable.

I posit that the doctrine of “Till Death Do Us Part” was most likely one of the ideologies that Emperor Constantine introduced; and they ascribed it to Jesus Christ. History does show that there are so many cases of tinkering and changes in the original Christian scripture to suit the caprices of selfish individuals or groups—a story for another day.

And then, there is the simple matter of human typographical or similar errors in the compilation of the bible, which—with the constant periodic revisions—could have happened any time between the first English bibles and today’s versions. For example, I detected a clear error in the “Latino Heritage” version of the bible, in the Book of Amos 4, verse 4, which says, “Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three days…”

Logic from the rest of the content of the passage, and a look at other bible versions—including “King James Version (KJV)” and the “New International Version (NIV)”—reveal that the correct phrase is three years, and not three days. Check it out yourself. Now, are you beginning to catch my argument?

Transcribers and typists could have changed what Christ said about divorce through typographical and transcription errors at any stage during the long history of translations.

The Afro-Beat Music legend of Nigeria, the late Fela Anikulakpo Kuti once said: “Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense.” And, I say to Christian pastors—Pastor, don’t preach us nonsense! My life is worth much more than sex (adultery); and, when a wife wants to kill me, I am not waiting until she commits adultery before I scram…I ain’t Bullshitting you!!!

#Don’tLetDeathDoYouPart

This is “No Bullshitting,” by Harry Agina.

Here’re the links to Parts 1 & 3:

Part 1:

THE STUPIDITY OF “‘TIL DEATH DO US PART” DOCTRINE, PART 1

Part 3:

NBB SUNDAY-SUNDAY MEDICINE: “THE CRY” BY OSINACHI & THE STUPIDITY OF “‘TIL DEATH DO US PART’” DOCTRINE, PART 3

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