Monthly Archives: September 2012

Has the Text of the Bible Been Corrupted Over Time?

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The first ever question in the Universe was uttered by the crafty serpent to Adam’s wife Eve in the Garden of Eden, why would he ever need to change what is obviously a winning tactic? He knows that unless doubt is countered, it will lead to skepticism, and in due course, outright unbelief.

In former days it was just scholars who needed to be aware of this kind of material. Yet now that the blatant attacks on the Bible have gone mainstream in the media through men like Dan Brown and Bart Ehrman, Christians in our day need to be armed with answers. Here’s what we know:

The Jews had an unparalleled reverence for the Scripture. As the book of Deuteronomy expresses it, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus quotes this verse in response to the devil’s first temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4).

We can determine Christ’s view of Scripture with even greater certainty from His words in Matthew 22. In the context of quoting from the book of Genesis, He said, “…have you not read what was spoken to you by God…” (Matt. 22:31) According to Jesus, when the text of Genesis is read, you are reading words spoken to you by God. To say that Jesus had a high view of the text of the Bible would be a huge understatement.

But that is not all. In Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” This is hugely significant. A “jot” is the Hebrew letter “yodh”, the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is also the smallest letter. A “tittle” is the small decorative spur or point on the upper edge of the yodh. If you can imagine a tiny letter with a slightly visible decorative mark (similar to the dot used in the lower case letter “i” in our English language), the meaning of Christ’s statement becomes abundantly clear. Jesus was saying that not even the smallest letter or even a tiny mark above a Hebrew letter will ever disappear from God’s law, until all is fulfilled. He not only believed that inspiration extended to every word, but to every tiny mark on the page.

For an orthodox Jew, nothing was more sacred than the word of God. This meant that when it came to making copies of the Biblical text onto scrolls, each Jewish scribe was meticulous in the extreme, viewing his task as a high and holy calling. Tradition tells us that each scribe would actually take a bath before writing the name of God on a scroll, even if it appeared only a few words apart in a verse. Multiple references meant multiple baths!

As is the case in a number of other languages, each letter in Hebrew has a numerical value. This means that each line in the text could be given a numerical value, as did each page and each scroll. If the number total of the copied scroll was not the same as the original, the entire copy was burned. Similarly, if a letter even touched another letter, the copy would be destroyed and the scribe was asked to start his work all over again. Talk about precision!
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Leadership Lessons from the Tortoise and the Hare

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Darren Hardy writes:

… you know I am a fan of the story of the tortoise and the hare and the lesson it teaches about how hardworking, consistent and steady-paced people (or reptiles) will eventually overtake the fast, talented, experienced but complacent people (or mammals). Someone recently shared with me an adaptation of the story that makes a poignant leadership point. It goes like this…

After getting his hare butt kicked by the tortoise so many times, the hare finally wised up and realized it was because he was being overconfident, unfocused and inconsistent (maybe he read The Compound Effect; hey it’s possible!).

Newly enlightened he decided to make some changes and challenged the tortoise to a rematch. The tortoise accepted his challenge.

This time, the hare ran with all his might and didn’t stop, relentlessly and persistently until he crossed the finish line. This time the hare won!

The moral of the story? If you think focus and consistency is amazing when applied to the slow and steady, imagine what’s possible if applied to the fast and talented.

But the story doesn’t end here…

This time, it was the tortoise that did the soul searching and he realized that if the hare didn’t stop, there is no way he could beat him…. unless! He thought.

He decided on a different course and he challenged the hare to another rematch. The newly emboldened hare, of course, agreed.

With the lessons learnt from his previous failure and his new disciplines in mind, the hare kept on running once the race started and didn’t stop until the route led him to the bank of a river. He was taken by surprise and he did not know what to do, since he could not swim. There were no bridges in sight and no one to ask for directions. As he racked his brain, thinking of ways to cross the river, the tortoise strolled slowly along, dived into the river, swam across it and ultimately, finished the race before the hare.

The moral of the story? Know your strengths and take on your competitors in areas of your core competency.

But that’s not the rest of the story…
With the hare and the tortoise spending so much time together racing, they became rather good friends. They also developed a mutual respect for one another as they realized that they are both different and they have different strengths. They decided to race again, but this time, as a team.

As the race started, the hare carried the tortoise and they sped to the riverbank. There, they switched positions and the tortoise ferried the hare across the river. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they crossed the finishing line together.

They completed the race in a record time that both of them could never achieve if they were to do it alone. They also felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they’d felt earlier.

The moral of the story? It’s good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies but unless you’re able to work in a TEAM and harness each other’s core competencies, you’ll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you’ll do poorly where someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. And being supportive team members is necessary for a team to advance.

There are more lessons on teamwork to be learned from this story…

Note that the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could, but was not doing as well as he wished.

Imagine how long it will take the hare to learn how to swim! Or for the tortoise to learn to run fast. In this day and age when the environment changes at lightning speed, we have to learn to work with people who have strengths in areas that we do not.

It is the same in business, if we can collaborate with people who are experts in areas that we are not familiar with, we will realize that our market and opportunities suddenly becomes bigger.