Paula

All the more reason to cling to good interlinears and not depend upon Strong’s (which is largely circular with the KJV) alone but make use of other dictionaries such as Liddell-Scott.

I like the scripture4all interlinear because it puts the grammatical parsing with each word. Their concordat approach has obvious advantages, but also seems to make them come up with some pretty obscure English equivalents; I’ve had to go to the dictionary many times, thinking “Aw, come on, that’s not a real word!”, only to find it there (albeit sometimes only used in archaic form).

And I agree, Cindy, that those who are revered as scholars have dropped the ball in a big way. But it’s just like the scientific community; you develop a reputation, then fight like a banshee to protect it, even if your theories are proved wrong by the research of others. Every human institution become political.

And that’s why Jesus didn’t set one up. He spoke only of relationships and attitudes, of humility and service. The very term “servant leader” is an oxymoron, an example of Orwellian doublespeak. But without heavy organization there is no one to boss, no one to corrupt, no way to politicize the Body.

Legalism is the fruit of pride and control. And it’s everywhere, not just in the “gender wars”. The Hebrew Roots movement is trying to put us back under law, many denominations insist that every believer be under a Pastor’s (i.e., CEO’s) “covering”, tithing is still pushed, many want to dictate “proper” worship, or devise dress codes, on and on and on. And those who control the scriptures have the high ground.

I do believe they’ll start burning Bibles and Christians again soon. One scapegoat after another will be labeled The Enemy.