The Sunday Mail
South African author of the “Mirror Bible: A selection of key New Testament texts paraphrased from the Greek”, Francois du Toit, was in Harare last week for the Mystery Revealed Mirror Word Grace Conference hosted by Shekainah Glory Ministries Global. One of the highlights of the conference was the launch of the Shona translation of “Mirror Bible”, translated by Bishop Shelton Mudyaro and endorsed by Reverend AA Muchechetere. Tendai Manzvanzvike (TM) caught up with Francois (FT). The following are excerpts.
TM: What is your mission in Zimbabwe?
FT: I’m here to launch the Shona translation of the “Mirror Bible” which is a project that is very, very dear to my heart, and I’m so excited that it’s the second language other than English that we are releasing it.
TM: And, what is the Mirror project?
FT: It’s a translation that I call the “Mirror Bible” simply because the centrality of the message of the Good News is key to the understanding of the mirror rather than the display window. For long we have studied scripture so diligently, but almost with a display window mentality, a window-shopping mentality.
I’m sure that when people go to big cities and they walk past displays of fantastic wares, they imagine themselves wearing that dress or driving that car. But it’s all just an imaginary thing because there is a price tag.
And for so long, we’ve interpreted the Bible like that; where we have to study the promises of God and it’s like it’s wonderful, it’s attractive, but there is a price tag to it that has kept us feeling unworthy to really live in that reality until like the beautiful story of the ugly duckling, there is a mirror moment when you realise, that you’re not looking in a display window, you’re looking in a mirror.
And the most beautiful thing to me is that God did not send Jesus as an example for us, but to us because we have forgotten what manner of people we are.
Jesus did not come to compete with Moses and Mohammed or Buddha and all our religious interpretations of God. He did not come to compete with our guessing games. He came to make the invisible God, the Father of the human race, visible again in human form.
So I wrote on the back cover of the “Mirror Bible” that the most accurate translation is the incarnation – the word made flesh.
I discovered that our beings are not just made to have glimpses of God, but to become the most of God who has come to dwell in us.
Jesus came to prove that God did not make a mistake when He made humankind. He made us in His image and likeness. That’s why Jesus says if you have seen the Father, you have seen me. He came to endorse the original plan of God, to exhibit His image in human form.
TM: How did you conceive the Mirror project?
FT: Forty years ago I studied at Pretoria University and for the first three years we were exposed to the Greek and Hebrew languages – the Hebrew, being the original text of the Old Testament and the Greek the academic aspect. The New Testament was written in Greek and even 200 years before Christ, the Old Testament was already being translated into Greek because it was the academic language.
What I appreciate about the Greek language is its richness. It carries several components, and so often in our translations we have neglected to scrutinise these individual components and we’ve inherited meanings of words that we’ve printed in our bibles that are not accurate.
Please note that I’m not attacking any translations because thank God, I read many, many translations. But often in our traditional interpretations, we’ve lost a lot of the original thought and we’ve brought in words that have influenced certain ideas and certain doctrines.
And, in the “Mirror Bible”, my desire was to go and draw key chapters first of all, although it’s a work in progress which I started in 2006 and fully in 2007. But, initially the intention was to just highlight key chapters, key understandings that unlock the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.”
But so often, we fall short of reading that verse and say, well, you just have got to believe it. But in the very next verse, Paul explains the source of faith.
Paul also says in Ephesians 4 says that there is only one faith that matters. If Jesus is what God believes, then God is wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ.
Everything that the prophets pointed to when they predicted the suffering of Christ and the subsequent glory, we understand that here we are dealing with a God that is completely sold out of the idea of redeeming His image and likeness. So, Jesus did not come to start the Christian religion.
TM: What do you mean?
FT: I am saddened today, when all our denominations and Bible translations are the most splintered in society. There is no group in society that is more divided than the Christian community. And, that was not the idea of God.
Jesus did not come to divide, but to reconcile. But, we have reduced even our understanding of the Christian faith with a mixed message.
TM: Notwithstanding, why this plethora of bible translations?
FT: I think the Bible is the most important book on this planet. I wrote in the beginning of the “Mirror Bible” what I call the incarnation code, and I mention that the Bible is still the world’s best seller: “The Bible is a dangerous book! It has confused and divided more people than any other document. Yet its profound and simple message continues to appeal, overwhelm and transform the lives of multitudes of men and women of any age or culture.”
That’s what this translation is all about. It is focusing on hearing the original: reincarnating it. That’s basically the philosophy of the “Mirror Bible”.
I remember in 1974 when I fell in love with Lydia my wife. I was working in Namibia and she was in South Africa. We had to correspond. Before I posted the letter, I’d read it again and again, anticipating her reading it.
That so impacted my study of scripture. Something ignited in me because I am not reading a boring book. When you fall in love, something ignites and you cannot hide it. I was 19-years-old when I said I don’t want to read another boring book, but that I want to discover this thing that John says God is love.
So, that was an early stirring of the heart for me to start studying scripture. Thanks to Lydia and those letters from her. I could not wait to go to the post office, expecting her letter and when the letter arrived I’d kiss it. It was a holy moment. We have lost so much of that in modern Christianity.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:15, “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.” But with unveiled faces, we behold the glory of God in the mirror. We’re no longer living in some context of futuristic ideology. God has revealed himself in the flesh. This is what the prophets yearned for.
You know that miracle of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son? In all three parables, the word lost refers to ownership. You cannot be lost unless you belong. We have always been God’s own even from the beginning, before time was. This has got nothing to do with anything that we did. Jesus unveils grace to be the eternal intend of God. Grace was through the incarnation, to highlight God’s original intent.
TM: How should readers use the “Mirror Bible”?
FT: Use it as a study tool to highlight that we did not happen as God’s afterthought. We’ve always been on the mind of God. Scripture is not something written to entertain us religiously. Jesus is not hiding somewhere in the pages of this book; neither is He hiding somewhere in history or into the future, or somewhere in space. He is reflected there in the scripture to be unveiled. This is the most exciting message that we can carry.
Everything that grace pointed to is now realised in Jesus Christ and brought to clear view in the gospel. It is my joy and love to take to the nations the full understanding of the love initiative of God.
TM: Your final word to Zimbabweans…
FT: We are here to fully embrace Zimbabwe and the love of God, even to the most remote parts, to those whose faces we won’t see, but I see them in your face. We are not here to promote some new club. We want you to discover the essence of Christ’s love (1 Corinthians 12). I declare over Zimbabwe that the future is very bright, for your time has come. Zimbabwe, your future is bright. Amen!
