Viva la holistic, contextual teaching.thedoc wrote:And proper interpretation is dependent on proper translation.Walker wrote: Proper interpretation is found in the meaning and context of the words, not opinion.
"To my knowledge Jesus never wrote anything down, he only spoke and others wrote it down. Part of the problem with the ancient languages is that there was no punctuation or spaces between words, either in Aramaic or Greek of the time. Translation was a lot of guesswork and the imposition of the translators beliefs onto the finished work. For example Jesus said to one of the criminals "Itellyoutodayyouwillbewithmeinparadise", where do you put the spaces and punctuation, "I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." or "I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise." slight difference in the meaning. For myself, I favor the latter as Jesus didn't go to paradise on Fri. when it was spoken.
Also I play the 1st movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on piano, yet Beethoven never wrote a "Moonlight Sonata" he wrote "A Sonata in the form of a Fantasy", the name "Moonlight" wasn't applied till 4 years after Beethoven died. I have been playing the piece for a long time, and to me it has started to sound like a rainstorm with thunder, so that is the way I have been playing it. I can't help wondering how much the playing has been influenced by the name that has been applied, as opposed to how Beethoven originally envisioned the piece. Of course each player must follow their own view of the music, the written work is only a guide, and not a concretely dictated means of how to play the piece.
People interpret the US Constitution in lots of ways, too.
However, the proper interpretation is in light of the Declaration of Independence.