 |  |
"Far above all" seems, in the eyes of our critic, to be an awful mistranslation of
Scripture; we are told that its presence is "a blot on the A.V. translation" and "a
corrupting canker that ought to be removed". We note in passing that the R.V. retains the
offensive word. We are told, and rightly so, that distance is denoted in Greek by makros
and makran. This, however, is beside the mark. The English language has developed
during the course of centuries and acquitted many idiomatic expressions which are an
intimate part of every speech. When Dickens wrote the words: "I go to do a far, far
better thing" he needed, according to our critic, correction in the use of a language of
which he is reckoned to be a master. When Paul, in Phil. 1: 23, speaks of something "far
better", we are to be robbed of our accepted idiomatic use of the word simply
because "far" also stands for distance. So in such passages as: "Suffer ye thus far"
(Luke 22: 51); "The day is far spent" (Mark 6: 35). Looking back to the second
paragraph of No. 1, we find that we have used the word there: "far more than can hurt
us", and "so far as we can see". To our ears certain accepted phrases in use in America
are displeasing. Should we be justified in speaking against them in the manner of our
critic? He himself uses the word "far" with no thought of distance in his own comment
on II Cor. 5: 2: "Even the apostle, in his infirmity and distress, never chooses death, but
always suggests a far better alternative." Should we be justified in pulling this to pieces
because "far" means distance? The expressions, "far above all principalities" and "far
above all heavens" represent a justifiable use of the idiom expressing a sense of
greatness, distance in feet or miles being entirely absent from the mind. If any sphere of
blessing can legitimately be called "above" or "up above" or "over above", by what
argument can the addition of "far" turn such truth into a corrupting canker?
Out critic has no mean opinion of his own judgment in these matters:--
"No teacher who deliberately continues quoting the phrase `far above all' after having
been apprized of the fact that there is no warrant for the word far, is worthy of our
confidence . . . . . Withdraw the literature which flaunts this phrase and retract all the
false deductions which have been drawn from it."
But suppose this teacher has no regard for the confidence of any man compared with a
good conscience that seeks to be unashamed before God? Then the literature will not be
withdrawn. The apostle Paul was called "a heretic"; those for whom he suffered in the
truth left him, but he remained unmoved; he was still unashamed, he knew Whom he had
believed. He recognized the good deposit of the truth that had been entrusted, and though
at times, as he said, he became a fool in his boasting, and answered his critics, for the
most part he committed his cause to the Lord he served.
One further statement must suffice:--
"Romans has been wrecked and some of its stones taken to patch up an Ephesian temple."
The booklet referred to--Roman Stones for the Ephesian Temple--and the series in
The Berean Expositor under the heading "The Epistle to the Romans", provide a
sufficient refutation. We refrain from using stronger terms in the hope that our critic has