That's not what it means!
We are spoilt for choice when it comes to Bible translations. But we should not neglect doing our own groundwork to ensure that what we read, accurately conveys the original intent.
I’m reminded of the joke about a man who approached his vicar and asked him to pray for his hearing. “When did you start having problems with your ears?”, the vicar asked. “Who said anything about my ears?”, replied the man. “I got done for speeding. My hearing is next Thursday.”
Misunderstandings can be amusing but they can also have significant ramifications. For example, a misunderstanding about the meaning of a Bible passage can lead us into error but it’s also something which is often preventable.
What do I mean by that?
From the day that I was filled with the Holy Spirit I knew implicitly that the Bible was true and to be trusted. But I soon discovered that there were variations in the Bible translations I read as well as footnotes which pointed to variances or discrepancies.
For those reasons it is necessary to do our own groundwork so that we can settle on the most reliable interpretation of the original text.
In that most of us aren’t Bible scholars this may not work for us every time but the principle of seeking to understand the best possible meaning of a Bible passage is to be encouraged.
For example, John 3:16. Probably the most well-known Bible verse and yet one which is typically rendered incorrectly. Most translations proffer the following:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Except that the word ‘so’ is misleading.
Either God loves or he doesn’t! His perfect love isn’t on a graded scale - it doesn’t need quantifying. The reason it doesn’t make sense is because it is a wrong rendering.
To explain why let’s look at the NLT translation which I believe is more accurate.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
The ‘so’ is better rendered ‘this is how’ (as in the NLT), ‘in this manner’ or ‘like so’. If you then read the previous two verses this better rendering will make sense because they give us a context for John 3:16.
Another wrongly rendered word in the Bible is ‘church’.
The word used in most of our Bibles for ‘church’ alters the original Greek word ‘ekklesia’ to make it mean something different. In fact, it is a translation employed in the Septuagint of the Hebrew word qahal which means ‘assembly’ or ‘gathering’. By using ‘church’ - a term with ecclesiastical inferences - instead of ‘ekklesia’, we have come to think of church as a building where believers assemble rather than the assembly of the people themselves. This subtle shift has led to a massive misunderstanding of how people view church.
My final example, to encourage us do our own legwork, has to do with a common phrase that I frequently hear bandied around in Christian circles.
“Jesus is praying for you”.
It’s a fact that Jesus did pray for us - check out John 17 - but this popular mantra is actually based on two Bible passages that as far as I can see have nothing to do with praying. The confusion has arisen because of reading the Bible at a superficial level. What I mean by this is that the word causing the confusion is ‘intercede’. As we know, a word can have many meanings, as is the case with this one.
The two Bible verses in question are these:
Hebrews 7:25 - ‘because he always lives to intercede for them’.
Romans 8:34 - ‘Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us’.
Here’s the thing. Neither passage makes any direct reference to Jesus praying for us although they both use the word intercede.
The verse in Hebrews is part of a larger passage giving a history of the Jewish priesthood and concludes by making the statement that none of this is now necessary because Jesus has become the fulfilment of the priesthood - making a permanent priestly intercession for us.
The verse in Romans is simply a reminder that Jesus stands in the gap between us and God and declares those who believe in him, “not guilty”. We are justified through Jesus. Intercede in this instance means that Jesus intervenes [legally] on our behalf.
As a side note to my last point, scrolling back in the Romans passage to verses 26-27 it talks about the gift of tongues and how in employing this gift the Holy Spirit intercedes (prays) for us.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
If Jesus were praying for us, this gift would be unnecessary!
The three examples I have given are for the purpose of encouraging us to be diligent in our study of the Bible. God’s word is an amazing gift and not only must we approach it as a book that is true and to be trusted but one which we read with integrity and studiously.