Build Your Filters

(Proverbs 7:2 KJV)  Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Literal translation has a lot to say for it.  Unfortunately the translators of the Bible like to interpret and expand on the simple Hebrew.  The most common translation of this verse includes the word “apple” (380) when the literal meaning is “pupil”.  The NASB at least has the decency to give that in the margin.  I think the word “apple” is simplistic and condescending.  It is cute but ignores the depth of the meaning.

The “commandments” (4687) of God are not something you make a pie out of or get a little twinkle going about.  It is not a fruit that comes in many varieties and has a sweet flavor.  They are the gateway through which everything we see and read must pass.  The pupil may get larger or smaller depending on the amount of light but it is still the only way for light to get into a healthy eye.

So?  If you hand an orange to someone who has never seen any fruit and say, “Would you like an apple?”  They will thank you and take it.  If you try to pass off deceit as truth to someone who filters everything through the established word of God, at best you get laughed at.  Build your filters, one verse at a time.