Subject: Overcome by the power of God? |
Bible Note: Dear Steve...Forgive me if I misunderstand. I did find in my NIV where the men "..drew back and fell to the ground." And there is no capital "h" in v6. And in the NLT "...they all fell backward to the ground!" And there is no capital "h" in v6. And in the NASB "...they drew back and fell to the ground." And there is a capital "H" in v6. So did they fall backward or not? It is a time like this that I wish I could read the Greek. The difference in translations, in this case, may be more significant than I first thought. I study using the NIV and that is why I answered the way I did. I am not kidding about my Army story. But my experience differed in training versus combat duty. You are right if your experience was during peacetime. In a training situation there was no fooling around. But in a combat situation it was a tension reliever. Really. And Jesus was not the enemy in any case, He was the objective of their mission but no threat to them. Peter maybe :) More importantly, are we suggesting that this detachment went ahead with an arrest eventhough they had experienced the power of God? What then about Pauls jailer in Acts 16:29-30? He, the jailer, was also a trained Roman guard and was impressed by what he saw but he did not put Paul and Silas back in jail as would have been his duty. So it is difficult to say that Roman soldiers would "never" do this or that. Maybe John 18:4ff is not exhaustive enough to come to any conclusion. I do not know of course but I will follow this debate. God Bless...Jensen |