A Tidbit of History Can Go A Long Way

I’m impressed by several Facebook posts in recents days regarding “history.”  So many ignore history—being concerned only with the present—the now.  It is history that helps us understand change and how our present day society and world has been shaped by those changes.  History is really inescapable because the past causes the present, and thus our future.  Just a tidbit of history can go a long way in helping us understand our world.

The first tidbit of history showed up on a Facebook post about homosexuality in the Bible.  The person posting was flabbergasted to learn that there was no word in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek for “homosexual” or “homosexuality.”  (These words weren’t invented until the end of the 19th century when psychology began to discover and understand sexuality as an essential part of the human personality).  How then, this person wondered, does the word “homosexual” show up in the 1946 Revised Standard Version of the Bible?  Now, that little bit of history (you can read further about it online) seems to suggest that the use of the word “homosexual” was more an ideological and cultural thing than it was a “translation,” especially since there is no word for “homosexual” in either ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek.  Little bits of history can go a long way—affecting attitudes and beliefs.  The important thing is, to know the “tidbit of history” which can help in getting to the truth.

This doesn’t mean that homosexuality was not known in the ancient world.  Jesus must have been aware of it,  and yet, as Jimmy Carter recently pointed out, Jesus never said a word about it.  “In all his teachings about multiple things — he never said that gay people should be condemned.”

Another little bit of history showed up on several Facebook posts about whether or not our nation was founded upon Christianity as many people seem to insist these days.  Just a few tidbits of history prove just the opposite—especially when these bits of history are the very words (thoughts) from the lips of our founding fathers.  Tidbits of history can go a long way to help us understand and become aware of a few kernels of truth.