Derek,
It's really no mystery at all to sincere students of the Bible--persons who are not ignorant of Satan's ways--just exactly WHO that "someone" is that was behind the serpent in the Garden of EdenOK, fine, but it doesn't actually say so in the Bible. It may be implied, and you may think it's impossible to infer anything else, but it's not stated.
Nice of you to acknowledge that it "may be implied." And, I'm at a loss as to what "else" might have been inferred. And, insofar as it not having been "stated," did you not know that something that is implied means "to express or indicate indirectly"? Therefore, one might even say that what is implied can indeed be a fact. Of course there can be false implications as well. But where is the evidence for such here in this case?
Take for example the scripture located at 2 Corinthians 11:3, where according to Christendom's Living Bible translation it says: "But I am frightened, fearing that in some way you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to our Lord, just as Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden."That's exegesis, not translation.
You're correct, I absent-mindedly unintentionally said that the Living Bible was a "translation". It's in fact a paraphrased version of the Bible, in its entirety, which of course isn't a literal translation for that very reason -- it's actually several men's opinion of what the Bible meant, verse by verse for the most part. Of course I didn't really make the statement you quoted for the precise purpose of suggesting that this version was a translation. I said what I did in order to point out the fact that even its translators -- men who belong to Christendom's churches -- even THEY are not in the dark when it comes to understanding who was behind the serpent, making it talk.
Friday
.
Edited by - Lefty on 28 August 2002 3:30:16