Cotton Patch Gospel

Posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

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I just received my copy of the new Logos product (http://www.logos.com) The Cotton Patch Gospel.  There are times when I wish that I could say to Logos, “just put me on the list for all of the new products.” Alas some are better than others and having to make a choice is good for the soul.  This book is one that I have been waiting for.  It is an unusual version of the New Testament, quite unlike any that you have read before.  This paraphrase of the New Testament is a work of contextualization done in the 1970s by Clarence Jordan.  Here is an example of the story of the ten lepers from the Cotton Patch standpoint:

Luke 11. While he was on his way to Atlanta, he went through the ghetto of Griffin, where he was met by ten winos who stood at a distance and yelled, “Mister Jesus, have mercy on us!” When he saw them he said, “Okay, go show yourselves to the doctor.” And as they were going, they were cured. Now one of them, realizing that he was cured, turned around and shouted at the top of his voice, “Praise God! Praise God!” Then he got down before Jesus and thanked him. This particular one was a black man. So Jesus said, “Weren’t there ten of you that got healed? Where are the other nine? Well, well. So didn’t any of them come back here to praise and thank God except this black man, huh?”
He said to the man, “Get up and go. Your trustful action has been the making of you.”

As you can see, this is a version that was meant to be read on the street by those that were not in the towers of academia, but were dealing with the realities of life.  Here is the parable of the good Samaritan in Cotton Patch style:

Luke 10:25. One day a teacher of an adult Bible class got up and tested him with this question: “Doctor, what does one do to be saved?”
Jesus replied, “What does the Bible say? How do you interpret it?”
The teacher answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your physical strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.”
“That is correct,” answered Jesus. “Make a habit of this and you’ll be saved.”
But the Sunday school teacher, trying to save face, asked, “But … er … but … just who is my neighbor?”
Then Jesus laid into him and said, “A man was going from Atlanta to Albany and some gangsters held him up. When they had robbed him of his wallet and brand-new suit, they beat him up and drove off in his car, leaving him unconscious on the shoulder of the highway.
“Now it just so happened that a white preacher was going down that same highway. When he saw the fellow, he stepped on the gas and went scooting by.
“Shortly afterwards a white Gospel song leader came down the road, and when he saw what had happened, he too stepped on the gas.
“Then a black man traveling that way came upon the fellow, and what he saw moved him to tears. He stopped and bound up his wounds as best he could, drew some water from his water-jug to wipe away the blood and then laid him on the back seat. He drove on into Albany and took him to the hospital and said to the nurse, ‘You all take good care of this white man I found on the highway. Here’s the only two dollars I got, but you all keep account of what he owes, and if he can’t pay it, I’ll settle up with you when I make a pay-day.’
“Now if you had been the man held up by the gangsters, which of these three—the white preacher, the white song leader, or the black man—would you consider to have been your neighbor?”
The teacher of the adult Bible class said, “Why, of course, the nig—I mean, er … well, er … the one who treated me kindly.”
Jesus said, “Well, then, you get going and start living like that!”

This raises a question for us all.  When does translation turn into commentary?  In the most recent issue of Christianity Today there is an ad with a quotation from New Testament scholar Scott Hafemann in which he says that “every Bible translation is a commentary in disguise.” While I certainly know what Dr. Hafemann meant, and have often said similar things to my own Greek students, we must never forget that the reason that scholars learn the languages is to make the Word accessible to the public.  While it is true that all translation does carry with it something from the translator, even in translation the Word of God is sharp and powerful (albeit not as sharp as in the original languages).  It seems to me that what Mr. Jordan has done here is exactly that, however one must always be careful about the difference between making the Word accessible, and changing the text’s original meaning.  I have written a paper on this called Contextualizing the Parables for a Post-Modern Generation.  Do a google search on Lamerson and parables and you should find it, if not let me know and I will find and post the paper.

For now, always remember that God gave us his word not to keep to ourselves, but to share with other people.  You may have to change your vocabulary a little, depending on to whom you are talking, but never take that as a license to change the word. The Word is strong, just let it out to do its work.

All Cotton Patch quotations are from the electronic version of Jordan, C. (2004). The cotton patch gospel. Originally published separately in 4 vols.: The cotton patch version of Matthew and John, 1970; The cotton patch version of Luke and Acts, 1969; The cotton patch version of Paul’s Epistles, 1968; The cotton patch version of Hebrews and the general Epistles, 1973. (Lk 10:25). Macon, Ga.: Smyth & Helwys Pub.

Tolle Lege,

DrSamLam