Christian Living

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It was August 5, 2007 and as part of the Sunday sermon the wife of one of the leaders told the following story complete with pictures which were shown on the overhead screens.

She said, Here is a man, he is going on a long journey. He packs his sandwiches and a flask of tea. Then he climbs onto his donkey. Gittee- up! Soon he has left the town behind him. The sun is hot and the long climb up the hills makes his donkey puff. The path winds.

At about this time I say to myself, did she say up? ( Later I confirmed the fact by downloading the MP3 file of the sermon from the church web site. ) I know in my KJV Bible it says not up but down ( Luke 10: 30 ). I am also well aware of the fact the man went down into the valley and not up into the hills because I have been on the Jerusalem to Jericho road.

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ( Luke 10: 30 ).

On May 10, 1994 I traveled on a public bus from Jerusalem to Galilee. The route was from Jerusalem down to a point close to Jericho, then up the Jordan valley to the sea of Galilee. As I was leaving Jerusalem on the bus I heard Gods still small voice say to me, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. I got my Bible out of my bag and looked up the scripture in Luke 10: 30.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is basically downhill all the way see photograph. The Dead Sea which is close to Jericho is 1305ft (398m) below sea level whereas Jerusalem is well above sea level sea level and there is over 3000 ft (900m) elevation change in the space of 15 miles (24 km).

Going back to the story told by the woman. Later she mentioned that there were 3 thieves but the KJV says, thieves( Luke 10: 30 ) and does not specify the actual number. Later on in her story other obvious changes are made. She substituted the words:-

priest for bishop
Levite for judge
Samaritan for stranger.

The people involved in the leadership of this church are educated people. Am I being pedantic? I don't want to be over critical but why are these changes being purposely made?

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