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Question 3

David portrays the scribes and Pharisees as refusing to write Scripture in Aramaic even though most synagogue hearers couldn’t understand Hebrew, requiring a live translator; where do you see modern parallels to “protecting holiness” at the cost of understanding, and what might that reveal about our view of God’s Word and God’s people?

Another way to ask: The scribes and Pharisees kept Scripture in Hebrew even when most people spoke Aramaic. Where do you see churches today choosing “holiness” over being clear, and what does that say about how we view God’s Word and regular people?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests a modern parallel is insisting on archaic Bible language (especially the frozen 1769 KJV style) because it feels “holier,” even when people don’t understand it. That tends to reveal we value a religious prestige-language more than God’s stated desire for His Word to be understood by common people.

Support from Transcript:

David says Pharisees “wouldn’t allow the Scriptures to be translated into Aramaic…It had to be in Hebrew,” even though “the majority…could not understand Hebrew.”
The synagogue solution was a “special person…to translate…into Aramaic,” yet scribes insisted it was “too holy…to actually write it down in Aramaic.”
David contrasts this with God inspiring Aramaic portions of Daniel/Ezra, showing God did not share that “too holy” mindset.
He later says Christians repeated the same pattern: Latin Vulgate became “holy significance” and translation into common tongues was opposed as “degrading the Bible.”
He directly applies it to today: continuing with the 1769 KJV reflects “the trap” that “God’s Word needs to be in a holy language, not in the language that everyday people speak.”

Discussion Follow-ups What do our choices communicate about who we think Scripture is “for”—trained insiders or the whole church, including seekers and children?

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