Your True Self Identity
How Familiar Bible Translations Hide Your True Self Identity From You
What Your True Self Identity? Isn’t
- It isn’t a book about “what the Bible says” about your true self identity.
- It isn’t a faith-based Bible study
- It isn’t a faith-denying attack on the Bible.
- It isn’t about trying to prove that any part of the Bible is true or false.
- It isn’t about trying to persuade you that the Bible is eternal truth or made-up stories.
What Your True Self Identity? Is
Instead, Your True Self Identity is about “what Bible translations say that the Bible says about your true self identity.”
- Whether you’re a believer or a non-believer…
- Whether you’re an avid Bible reader or have never read a word in the Bible…
- Whether you’re aware of it or not…
It’s hard to escape familiar claims about “what the Bible says” about who you are based on isolated Bible verses. Such claims are commonplace in our culture.
Does the Bible Really Say That? Series books focus on the blind spot in claims about “what the Bible says.” Unless you can read the Bible in its original languages, you are reading translations of ancient documents. The result is that original meanings get lost in translation. What “the Bible says” in its original languages is not always what translations claim that “the Bible says” on any particular topic.
Every Bible Is a Translation
The most important fact you can know about the Bible is that it was not written in English or French or Spanish or any other contemporary language spoken in any part of the world today.
Every Bible you read is a translation of ancient handwritten manuscripts. The original biblical languages were Hebrew, Greek, and a few words in Aramaic. No one alive today speaks any of these ancient languages. Even Modern Hebrew currently spoken in Israel isn’t the same as the Hebrew in the Bible.
Have you ever tried to understand another language? If you have, you know how difficult it can be to understand exactly what someone else is trying to say to you.
If it’s hard for you to understand another contemporary language, imagine what it’s like to read ancient manuscripts written in ancient languages.
This is why no one alive today can know exactly what the original words meant in long-lost original manuscripts.
Why Do Bible Translations Matter to Your Identity?
Translators choose the words you read on the pages of your Bible.
This means that Bible translators can distort original meanings of these Bible verses.
This doesn’t mean they are doing it intentionally.
Even with the best intentions, translators are affected by unconscious assumptions, unquestioned beliefs, cultural blind spots, theological intentions, and particular purposes.
These distortions can affect your beliefs about your own true self identity.
Misleading Translation Choices in the Gospel of Matthew
Your True Self Identity focuses on specific misleading translation choices in Chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew.
Whether or not these misleading translation choices are intentional or unintentional, these translation choices can hide your true self identity from you.
What You Get In Your True Self Identity
Your True Self Identity contains 8 parts, a Prologue and Postlogue, and a Foreword by the renowned persuasion expert, Dave Lakhani.
Prologue: A Story of Mistaken Identity
Part One: Original Sin and Your Identity
- Chapter 1: Are You Living Under a False Identity?
- Chapter 2: The Doctrine of Original Sin And Your Identity
- Chapter 3: Augustine’s Search for Identity
Part Two: Your Name and Your Identity
- Chapter 4: What Defines Your Identity?
- Chapter 5: Your Identity as a Sinner
Part Three: The Bible and Your Identity
- Chapter 6: Gatekeepers of Your Identity
- Chapter 7: The Effect of Sin Juice On Your Identity
- Chapter 8: Identity Questions in Matthew 18:6
- Chapter 9: How One Word Can Change Your Identity
- Chapter 10: Gnats, Camels, and Your Identity
Part Four: Mirrors of Your Identity
- Chapter 11: The Bible as a Mirror Of Your Identity
- Chapter 12: Love and Identity
- Chapter 13: Church Teaching and Your Identity
Part Five: The Identity Of Jesus In Matthew
- Chapter 14: The Gospel of Matthew As an Identity Story
- Chapter 15: The Identity of the Messiah
- Chapter 16: The Identity of the “Real” Jesusk
- Chapter 17: Identities of “The Little Ones” and The Elites
Part Six: Identity Questions Of The Hero
- Chapter 18: Identity Questions Of a Fatherless Man
- Chapter 19: Identity Tests with Allies and Adversaries
- Chapter 20: Claiming the Identity of The Messiah
- Chapter 21: Identity of the Successful Hero
Part Seven: Identities of Those Who Trap Little Ones
- Chapter 22: The Identity of the Greatest In the Kingdom
- Chapter 23: Identities of Those Who Lock the Kingdom
- Chapter 24: Hiding the Identities Of the Culprits
- Chapter 25: What Is the True Identity Of the Lost Sheep?
Part Eight: Freedom To Become Your True Self
- Chapter 26: Symptoms of Your False Identity
- Chapter 27: Claim Your Perfect Identity
Postlogue: Seeing Your True Self Identity
in both paperback and Kindle ebook versions.