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photo "of the month" in Poland(January 2005)-cyberwebsites
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... Other Story
John Steinbeck "East of Eden"
"Ten years nearly," said Lee.
"Well, the story bit deeply into me and I went into word for word.
The more I thought about the story,the more profound it became to me.
There was only one place that bothered me.
The King James version says this-it is when Jehovah has asked Cain why he is angry.
Jehovah says, 'If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.
And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.' (---)
Lee sipped his coffee. "Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible.
It was never new then. And it was different in this passage.
It says, 'Do thou rule over him.' Now this is very different.
This is not a promise, it is an order.
And I began to stew about it.
I wondered what the original word of the original writer had been that these very different translations could be made." (---)
" Lee," he said, "don't tell me you studied Hebrew! "Lee said, "I'm going to tell you. (---)
" I respectfully submitted my problem to one of these chinese sages, read him the story,
and told him what I understood from it. The next night four of them met and called me in.
We discussed the story all night long."Can you imagine four old gentelmen,
the youngest is over ninety now, talking on the study of Hebrew ? (---)
"After two years we felt we could approach your sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis.
My old chinese genthelmen felt that these words were very important too-- 'Thou shalt.' and 'Do thou.'
And this was the gold from our mining: 'Thou mayest.' ;thou mayest rule over sin.
The old gentelmen smiled and nodded and felt the years were well spent.
It brought them out of their Chinese shells too, and right now they are studying Greek.
"Samuel said, " It's fantasitic story. And I've tried to follow and maybe I've missed somewhere.
Why is this word so important ? "Lee's hand shook as he filled the delicate cups.
He drank his down in one gulp. " Don't you see ?" he cried. "
The American Standart translation orders man to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance.
The King James translation makes a promise in 'Thou shalt', meaning that men will surely triumph over sin.
But the Hebrew word, the word timshel-- 'Thou mayest' --- that gives a choice.
It might be the most impotrant word in the world. That says the way is open.
That throws it right back on a man. For if ' Thou mayest' -- it also true that ' Thou mayest not.' Don't you see ?"(---)
And I feel that I am a man.
And I feel that a man is a very important thing -- maybe more important than a star.
I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul.
It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never
destroyed -- because...
...'Thou mayest.' - Timshel !
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all photos by Jordan
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