NL-Day004 Genesis 7-8; Job 4; Mark 3

12/29/24 • 19 min

Most people find out about the DBRP through the YouVersion Bible reading app on their smart device. If you are one who has found out about these podcasts through some other means (such as via Apple Podcasts), then I want to make you aware that the Bible app created by YouVersion is wonderful. You can subscribe to the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan within the app, then reading along with these daily podcasts is very easy. Just start your episode using your podcast player, then go to your day in the YouVersion Reading Plan. Please be aware that you can turn on the YouVersion app’s audio for the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan. If you do this, a very nice Alexa/Siri-like voice will read the devotional introductions to the three readings for the day, and after that the voice for the Bible you select will read the Bible readings. This makes a great way to add variety to your daily listening if you get tired of my voice, however, there will be no prayer at the end.

I again want to express my gratitude to Tyndale House Foundation for their permission to publish the full audio of the NLT Bible through this podcast series. The full copyright attribution text is found at the end of the episode notes for each podcast.

Based on my experience as a Bible translator, I have made a few changes to the text of the NLT for these podcasts. These are for the sake of clarity and naturalness for those who are only listening to the recordings without reading along. All of my changes are documented in the episode notes, sometimes with brief explanations.

GENESIS 7-8: In Genesis 5, we heard the overview of the descendants of Adam and Eve up to Noah. In chapter 6, Noah was further introduced. Also the reason for the flood was explained.

JOB 4: In chapter 3 Job cursed the day he was born and expressed his deep misery.

Remember that in the speeches of Job’s three friends we will see a mixture of truth and error. In particular, we should not follow Eliphaz’s example in today’s chapter. The Bible tells us repeatedly that we are not to trust or listen to communication from spirits. We will read the second chapter of Eliphaz’ response tomorrow.

MARK 3: In Mark 2, Jesus shocked his listeners by first forgiving a paralyzed man’s sins before actually healing the man’s body. And in three other events in chapter 2 we can see the beginnings of the conflict between Jesus and the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees.

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NLT Translation notes: Job 4:6 How come//Doesn’t] your reverence for God [doesn't/0] give you confidence?

[Perhaps you place too much confidence in your own integrity.//Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?]

[Translation note: I have interpreted the two questions in v6 as rebuking rhetorical questions and translated them as statements. See the note

at the end of Mark 3.]

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Mrk. 3:10 He had healed many people that day, so all the [other/0] sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch him.

23 Jesus called them over and responded with an

illustration. [It is not possible that Satan would drive out his own demons.”//“How can Satan cast out Satan?” he asked.]

33 Jesus replied, [“Let me show you the kind of people whom I regard as my mother and brothers!”// “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?]

[In verse 23, Jesus was not asking a real question. He was using a rhetorical question to open the topic he was going to teach about. In our translations in Indonesia, we frequently changed Jesus' rhetorical questions to statements. This is because in many languages (and really even in English) people do not use rhetorical questions as their topic sentence at the beginning of a teaching. So if we didn't change such questions to statements, our readers would wrongly think that Jesus was unsure about what He was talking about and that He often started by asking his audience for advice.]

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

GENESIS 7-8: In Genesis 5, we heard the overview of the descendants of Adam and Eve up to Noah. In chapter 6, Noah was further introduced. Also the reason for the flood was explained.

JOB 4: In chapter 3 Job cursed the day he was born and expressed his deep misery.

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NLT Translation notes: Job 4:6 How come//Doesn’t] your reverence for God [doesn't/0] give you confidence?

[Perhaps you place too much confidence in your own integrity.//Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?]

[Translation note: I have interpreted the two questions in v6 as rebuking rhetorical questions and translated them as statements. See the note

at the end of Mark 3.]

====

Mrk. 3:10 He had healed many people that day, so all the [other/0] sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch him.

23 Jesus called them over and responded with an

illustration. [It is not possible that Satan would drive out his own demons.”//“How can Satan cast out Satan?” he asked.]

33 Jesus replied, [“Let me show you the kind of people whom I regard as my mother and brothers!”// “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?]

Previous Episode

NL-Day003 Genesis 5-6; Job 3; Mark 2

How can you get more out of your Bible reading this year? My top advice is to SLOW DOWN! The readings in this plan take around 20 minutes if read aloud. If you read silently, you might finish in only 10 minutes. But if you skim through like that, you won’t retain very much! I suggest these two ways to slow down:

1. Read out loud to yourself. Read expressively. When you find that your first attempt didn’t quite have the right intonation, go back and read the sentence again. Take time to think about— and pray about, what you have just read.

2. Read along while listening to the Daily Bible Reading Podcast. This will definitely slow you down.

One advantage of listening to the podcasts is that each one ends with a short prayer that is aimed at helping you apply what you have just read. By the way, I normally don’t say an Amen at the end of the prayers. This is because I hope you keep on praying after the episode ends.

GENESIS 5-6: In chapter 3 of Genesis, the Lord gave his judgment against the serpent. God talked about the woman’s offspring (which is a collective singular noun) when speaking to the serpent, and said,

“her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.”

This is the very first prophecy looking forward to a Messiah and Redeemer who will crush Satan’s head. Just before that, there is another picture worth noting: God provided clothes for the man and woman made from animal skins. This is the first hint of the sacrificial system that prefigures Christ.

JOB 3: Today we read Job’s first speech. In the Bible— and especially in Job and the Psalms, we find out that God thoroughly understands and takes into account the fact that humans suffer. This is shown in the fact that such deep expressions of suffering are found in God’s Word— right from the earliest writings.

MARK 2: Yesterday in the second half of Mark 1, we read of Jesus miraculously healing people in Capernaum, and his refusing to stay only there. He preached and cast out demons all over the region of Galilee. The healing of the man with leprosy is notable because of the exchange between Jesus and that man, and also the results of the man’s not following Jesus’ instructions.

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NLT Translation notes:

Mrk. 2:5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, [PET: I have forgiven your sins.//your sins are forgiven.]”

[I will occasionally quote from the PET, which is the Plain English Translation. That is the English translation that matches our Plain Indonesian Translation (TSI). The PET was first created as part of the checking process for the TSI, and some parts have been published because so many Indonesians desire to learn English.]

9 [PET: Certainly you will have difficulty accepting that I said to this paralyzed man, ‘I have forgiven your sins.’ Will it be easier for you to accept it if I say to him, ‘Get up, pick up your mattress and go home’?//Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? ]

10 So I will prove to you that [I, the Son of Man have//the Son of Man has] the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 18 Once when John’s disciples were fasting and the Pharisees were [also] fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?”

[The translation should not give the impression that the two groups were joining together to fast.] 28 So [I,] the Son of Man [am/is] Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Next Episode

NL-Day005 Genesis 9-10; Job 5; Mark 4:1-25

Choose a good Bible version for your reading this year!I recommend that you choose a good meaning-based translation for your Bible reading this year, not one of the literal versions. I recommend that you use a literal version whenever you have time for in-depth study, but not for your daily devotional reading. Here’s the difference:

The advantage of a literal translation is that it gives you a word-for-word view into the _form_ of the original. The disadvantage of literal translations is that they cannot give you the _meaning_ in clear and natural English.

The advantage of a meaning-based translation is that it gives you the meaning of the text in clear, natural English. The disadvantage of the meaning-based translation is that they cannot show you the word-for-word form of the original text.

We need both kinds of translations! Use both kinds when you are doing in-depth study. But for devotional reading, my top choices are the New Living Translation and the Good News Bible. These meaning-based translations will help you be successful in reading the Bible in a year, because the text is so much easier to understand. Both have good scholarly backing and are reliable.

I don’t recommend using a paraphrase like The Message. The popular NIV is halfway between literal and meaning-based. (This means that you cannot immediately know if a verse is translated literally or more freely based on meaning.) One of the most popular literal translations these days is the English Standard Version. My advice is to NOT use the ESV for your devotional reading unless you have time for reading the notes in your study Bible.

GENESIS 9-10: In chapter 8 the flood receded. After everyone came out of the boat, Noah made a sacrifice.

JOB 5: In chapter 4 Eliphaz implied that Job’s guilt was the reason he was being punished: “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed? 8 NLT My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.

MARK 4: In chapter 3 we have seen that opposition to Jesus was mounting from the Jewish religious leaders. They were already plotting to kill him and saying he performed miracles by the power of Satan.

I want to comment briefly about the sin of blaspheming or reviling the Holy Spirit that we heard about at the end of chapter 3. Some people worry about whether they have done this and committed the unforgivable sin. Note the context here. The experts in the Law were saying the Jesus was working by the power of _Satan_. But Jesus was working by the power of the _Holy Spirit_. A person in a frame of mind like those Law experts will never repent. So Jesus was warning them, because they were mighty close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit by what they were saying about Jesus. I want you to know this: If you worry about whether in some past time you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, then you haven’t! If you are the kind of person who feels sorrow for sins already committed and are ready to repent of sin, then you have never blasphemed the Holy Spirit, nor are you likely to ever do so.

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NLT Translation notes: Mrk. 4:6 But the plant[s/0] soon wilted under the hot sun, and since [they/it] didn’t have deep roots, [they/it] died. [Seed is a collective noun, so the plants should be plural, even though Greek is singular, referring back to 'seed'.] 11 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secret[s/0] of the Kingdom of God. [Even though the word 'mystery' is singular in Greek, it is more natural in English to use plural 'secrets'. One mystery can contain many secrets. Jesus is opening the possibility of his disciples understanding many things that were previously unrevealed to mankind. He is not saying he has given them just one secret.] 13 Then Jesus said to them, [“How could you fail to understand the meaning of that parable? If so, you will be hopeless at understanding all my other parables!”//“If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables?”][Some translations translate this verse as two rhetorical questions. Jesus is using the RQ as a mild rebuke. When we do rebuking RQs in English, I think we tend to make them shorter.] 22 [Similarly/For] everything that is hidden [now/0] will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light. [Greek has a 'gar' connector here which is often translated as 'for'. But 22 is not a REASON for 21, but instead is showing the point of similarity with 21.]