Dear Students of the English Bible Lessons,
We’ve heard from many of you over the last few years about the use of translations other than the King James Version of the Bible in the Golden Text and Responsive Reading of the Christian Science Bible Lessons. Some of you feel that it is harmful to the depth and purity of the Lessons and against Mary Baker Eddy’s intention. Others of you feel the inspiration and contemporary directness you find in these texts are in keeping with Mrs. Eddy’s occasional use of alternate translations and are essential to keeping “abreast of the times” (Mary Baker Eddy, Church Manual, p. 44).
The fact that these viewpoints seem opposite and even irreconcilable might well alert all of us to a prophecy of Mrs. Eddy’s: “There will be greater mental opposition to the spiritual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has ever been since the Christian era began” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 534).
