HIS MASTER'S VOICE

 

    "The label on all RCA records contained a picture of a dog listening to an old Victrola with the caption 'His master’s Voice.' Dr. Eugene Nida of the translation department of the American Bible Society has pointed out that the dog listening to the Victrola will hear an imperfect transmission of his mater’s voce because the needle scratches the surface of the record. However, no matter how scratchy the record sounds, the needle cannot obliterate the sound of the master’s voice – the message still comes through.

        “Expanding on this concept little more, we can see that the Bible is represented by the record and that the imperfections of human nature and the limitations of human knowledge are represented by the needle. The passage of time is represented by the turn table. Just as any record becomes scratchy in time through wear, so is this true (though in a lesser degree) with the copies of Scripture. But in spite of these limitations (the direct product of human freedom and its resultant sin), we can still hear our Master’s voice, just as the dog does on the record label. The 'scratches' are also being 'erased' as time goes on by archeology, by older and better texts, and by scientific discoveries. More of the 'original' is thus being 'dubbed' back into the copies, so that year by year we are getting closer to the 'master tape' from which all the duplicates (copies of manuscripts) were recorded. Thus the accuracy of the Bible copies increases rather than decreases. The clarity of the message improves steadily with the passage of time, and the fidelity of our Master’s voice is now growing clearer and clearer.”

 

Dr. Walter Martin

“Essential Christianity”