Posted by Yong TM (202.172.43.132) on February 19, 2003 at 13:28:19:
In Reply to: Order of verses in Bible posted by Khew Chee Keong on February 17, 2003 at 15:37:56:
As with all writings, I think it is not formulatic, meaning one cannot make a blanket statement about order, and have to evaluate based on the whole writing.
For example, in the case of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, clearly it is not about order, because the word 'fruit' is singular. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is a fruit with 9 flavours! One is not to 'work' towards them one by one (which is why some people say they are not patient 'yet'; which is not correct), but exhibit them all at once. So a person cannot claim to exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit when he is consistently an angry person, but quite kind most of the time.
Other passages are often argued to have order in place. For example, 1 Corinthians 12: 7 - 10 has often been used by conservatives to argue that in the order of gifts, the speaking of tongues is the last gift. This may be technically so, and sounds convincing, but I think strictly speaking, one can only say that the apostle Paul listed it last, thereby implying that it is of his last concern. Paul did not say that they are the least gift.
But further down the chapter, clearly an order was given in 1 Cor 12: 28, where Paul said God appointed first the apostles, second prophets, third teachers, and then workers of miracles, etc. He spoke later in verse 31 that we should desire the greater gift. Therefore, one can conclude that being a teacher of the WORD is a greater gift than speaking in tongues or working miracles. The emphasis now on signs and wonders therefore go against biblical principles (then again, the other side will argue that if you don't even have the small gift, how do you get the better gift?).
My own feel is that much of scripture describes whole-ness rather than order. Sanctification in the Christian sense is not like other faith, where one attain one state after another, like getting different belts in karate. The Bible describes the whole redeemed person and what he is like; not stages of how to attain that likeness, because we are saved by grace, not by works. Order does matter in cases I have mentioned earlier, in church office, gifting, historical sequence of events to come, historical processes of salvation, etc; but pertaining to the individual, I tend to read the BIble as talking about the whole.
And on the order of phrases and rearranging them: because I am bilingual and use bilingual Bible, I can tell you that the phrases in English and Mandarin are often in different sequences, due of course to the language expression rules. Therefore, your question on sequence in not relevant because all versions are translations. Only in the original language of Greek and Aramaic in the NT and Hebrews in the OT does your question apply. But generally speaking, I doubt if it makes much difference because as mentioned in other portion of this site, the Bible is a collection of literary works, and so it does follow literary rules. It is not a collection of magic chants, so the sequences should not matter unless it is about stated order.