history
A Peek into the Past
These are a few miscellaneous diary entries from women over the past two centuries. I always love seeing how writing and perspectives have changed. These aren’t long enough to be anything other than a little amusing, though.
June 16, 1806: “Pleasant morning total Eclipse of the Sun & the stars twinkled at noonday wonderful are the changes of nature but more astonishing the wonders of redeeming Love.”
April 27, 1861: “The weather being so bad, we were disappointed in our ride. On my way home dropped my bundle, & as I was riding alone on horseback had to get down & pick it up, as I had refused to let any one go home with me for fear of troubling some one. After remounting my horse shyed, & on looking saw a very large snake, just going to the field. Got home safe. It soon after poured down rain.”
July 2, 1907: “I think I am about the laziest person alive! All I have the gumption to do is to sit and dream of what I would do if I tried and what I am going to do. I think I have the brains to be rather smart if I only stick to it. Here I have wasted two weeks of my holidays doing nothing when I could have been practicing music or sewing. Hope I will improve.”
Politically Correct Scripture
My favorite Bible translation is the English Standard Version. I like it because it combines accuracy with readability. I like to read the ESV Blog occasionally, and yesterday I noticed a good post there. It was about how different passages of the Bible are viewed as “difficult” or “problematic” in different historical periods.
For example, in the Victorian period (late 1800s and early 1900s), atheists often complained that the Bible was not outspoken enough about the dangers of alcohol.
Isn’t it interesting how we think the Bible should fit our cultural standards? Two modern-day examples come to mind:
- Evangelical feminism. This arose in response to secular feminism. Suddenly biblical scholars were finding more “correct” and “contemporary” ways of interpreting Scripture in regard to women’s roles.
- Homos*xuality. Now that it is more accepted in the culture, some scholars have scrambled to find ways to reinterpret passages that have traditionally been interpreted as calling homos*xuality sin.
The moral of the story is, let’s not fall prey to the temptation to make the Bible say just what we want it to say for our time. The Bible is not always going to be politically correct. It certainly wasn’t when it was originally written!
Search
I'm Anna. I'm 22. I love reading and writing. I'm a recent college graduate living at home. And I hope you are blessed by what you read here.