Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. – Psalm 17:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 12, 2013): Psalm 17

How much does culture impact what the Bible says? That is the argument that rages over the new translations that have been released in the past few years. It was a major issue over the release of Eugene Peterson’s “The Message” which purported itself to be a translation written in the language of the street. So some would argue that it is better leave the modern translations behind and go back to the King James Version which they consider a purer translation. So, I know that I am a bit weird, but sometimes as I look at a phrase in the Bible and I wonder – is that really what they said or have we interpreted it to mean something that may not be far off of what the writer intended, but not exactly what the writer said. And that is what happened as I read this passage, specifically, I started to wonder if David really used the phrase “the apple of your eye.”

The first thing I did was go back to the King James Version (because it is a purer version – and yes, that was sarcasm) and see what it said in this passage. And it says, surprisingly, “the apple of your eye.” My next stop was to search out the etymology of the phrase, and I found out that the phrase was used in the 8^th century, but with not quite the same meaning that we would give it today, it was used by Shakespeare with a meaning closer to what we would give it to day, and it was used in several places in the Bible. So my next step was to see how this passage reads in the original Hebrew. And the original Hebrew uses the word pupil and emphasizes the feminine. So this verse might be more literally translated as “Keep me at the center of your vision like a lover; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” And I admit that I kind of like that.

So where did the phrase “apple of your eye come from?” I think it was Shakespeare. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare writes this –

Flower of this purple dye,

Hit with Cupid’s archery,

When his love he doth espy,

Sink in apple of his eye.

Let her shine as gloriously

As the Venus of the sky.

When thou wakest, if she be by,

Beg of her for remedy.

Shakespeare in his great genius connects the center of the vision (the pupil) to a female lover and he phrased that connection as “the apple of the eye.”  And the English translation of the Bible reflected that thought – and culture had impacted the phrasing of the Bible. The Kings James Version was never intended to be a lofty version of the Bible. It was “The Message” for the seventeenth century. And it does not really matter whether you prefer being “the apple of God’s eye” or “the center of God’s vision like a lover” – either way we understand what David was saying – God, keep me in a place where I am important to you.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 19