|
Homilies
Back
to Homilies menu
Sweet Charity
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not charity, I am become as a
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1
Paul’s celebration of agape is perhaps the best known passage in his letters, and it has found an honored place in the classics of world literature. The King James Bible translates the Greek word as “charity,” which, in contemporary English, usually means alms-giving. So most modern translations render agape as “love,” but this too has its problems, since few words have been so debased by the language and life-style of modern culture as “love.”
The Biblical meaning of the word is “to wish another well;” it conveys a sense of benevolence, regardless of shared affections or personal attraction, for which the Greek word is eros. Agape is a way of life; in fact, it is the only way of life that will last. In the present age spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge afford us incomplete and indirect access to God. But when we are in direct communion with God these gifts will no longer be needed. In God’s presence faith will become sight, hope will be fulfilled, and agape will last forever.
These 13 verses convey a concise, powerful, and poetic message that needs no explanation. When I was a child I heard them read at assembly by the school principal, who happened to be a woman, and they made a deep impression on me, in part, because in those days there was only the King James Bible.
“It lives on the ear like a music that can never be forgotten; its felicities often seem to be almost things, rather than mere words.” (Frederick Faber) The KJV, Adam Nicolson observes, “has the air of irreproachable authority, which is the essence of sacred ritual.”
“The Translators made a ceremony of the word, turning words into a tangible experience and adopting them as markers and symbols of the divine.” In the KJV you find “immediacy, dignity, and a sense of deep musical rhythm. The spoken word is the heard word, and what governs acceptability of a particular verse is not only accuracy but euphony.” Appeal is made to “the auditory imagination. that feeling for syllable and rhythm, penetrating far below the conscious levels of thought and invigorating every word.”
Last Easter the TV broadcast “Sunday Morning” featured a presentation of the many versions of the Bible currently available. One of the persons interviewed was a black preacher. When asked which he translation he preferred, he replied, “The King James; it sounds more like the Bible.” I am glad that it is still read here at the Good Shepherd.
September 23, 2007
back
to top
|
