Image: countess and dwarfs stroll through paris
(click to see full size)

This image was inspired by some wild and wonderful conversations going on in the comment thread of two posts at Better Bibles Blog. An object lesson about exegesis (Puzzling the Bible 3) led to a “long twisted discussion” as one commenter calls it about truth, postmodernism and Snow White and the seven dwarfs. Then another post (Text and notes) about the notes in the NET Bible gets seriously side-railed by the Countess of Pembroke and all sorts of lovely leaprie. The comments, misunderstandings, and clarifications are fascinating and often hilarious.

My question is simply this: If a group of contemporary native speakers can get this confused trying to understand one another, what hope do we have of deciphering the Bible?

As J. Alfred Prufrock said, “That is not it at all. That’s not what I meant, at all.”