Today I had the choice of readings for the Second Sunday after Christmas Day and for the day before Epiphany. Of the readings in the
Revised Common Lectionary for 5 January 2014 I chose to reflect on John 1:1-18.
The world knew him not John 1:10c
The Gospels at times remind you of that
Sesame Street song, "One Of These Things" with the way that John's Gospel is so different from the other three. That doesn't mean that translators haven't tried to take advantage of that to harmonize John somewhat with the Synoptics or to close off possible avenues of what they consider to be heresy and thus force Christ into a form of their own choosing. John 1:18 is an example of that. The KJV chooses to turn the statement that the Father has but one Son into a statement that Jesus Christ is the Father's only
begotten Son.
Now the Gospel of John certainly recognizes that Jesus was born of flesh. His mother and brothers are mentioned in chapter 2 in the episode of the Marriage at Cana. Yet this gospel has a strong tendency to make clear that Christ is more than the fleshy Jesus as for example n John 8:58. Placing additional stress, not supported by a literal translation, upon Christ being the only begotten Son of the Father is clearly an attempt to forestall Adoptionism.
This isn't too surprising, since of all of the gospels, John is probably the friendliest to the Adoptionist viewpoint (or heresy if you accept the Nicene Creed). I don't strongly hold to Adoptionism, tho I am attracted to it. The exact nature of Jesus is one of those theological issues I need to resolve for myself, but I just have not done so as of yet. I'll admit I do not yet fully perceive the nature of the Christ. Indeed, it is possible I may never know him fully in this life. However, having a translator attempt to close off one possible interpretation of Christ's nature crosses the line from translating into editing the Bible and I do not appreciate it.
(You may have noticed I have chosen to modify the format somewhat from earlier ones. Doing the BBCode for the verse numbers is somewhat time consuming, plus the more readable translations are still under copyright. So unless I make reference to more than one or two verses out of the reading, I'll content myself with the references.)
