Week 19 Nehemiah 8
There was a big public gathering in this chapter where Moses’ laws were read out loud to the crowd. Nehemiah says that the readers explained the law. But in the next verse he breaks down the process into several steps. The readers: read from the book, from the law of God, translating (the note in the margin says explaining) to give the sense so that they (the audience) understood the reading.
I wanted to see how other bible versions described this event so I looked at four other translations. They were all pretty consistent in breaking down the exercise into Four Steps:
• Step 1: the readers read the words of the Law
• Step 2: the readers then translated (or clarified or interpreted) the text (the different versions used different words)
• Step 3: the meaning was explained (so a jump was made – a pretty important jump – from What-Does-the-Text-Say? (Step 2) to What-Does-the-Text-Mean? (Step 3)
• Step 4: the final outcome? Hopefully it was understanding.
I negotiate Steps 1 & 2 & 3 so I can get to Step 4.
These steps make complete sense to me. Each day I start by reading. I do my best to make sure I’m clear about the words and the language. Then I can discover the meaning of those words & the meaning of the whole passage. Finally – if I’m successful – I understand.
Note: quotes from Nehemiah 8:7 & 8 (NASB). The other versions I checked were: CSB ESV NIV & NLT. I posted on this chapter five years ago May 18/20 ‘reading the law’.