00:00:10 To convey Bible truth correctly,
00:00:12 we must read from the Bible
00:00:14 and our Christian publications accurately.
00:00:18 To do this, we must prepare well,
00:00:22 pronounce each word correctly,
00:00:25 and speak clearly.
00:00:27 As our brother reads Matthew 24:43, 44,
00:00:31 try to identify some common mistakes made in reading.
00:00:35 To answer that question, notice what the Bible says at Matthew 24:43, 44:
00:00:41 “But know one more thing: If the housekeeper had known when the thief was comin,’
00:00:44 “he woulda kept awake and not allowed his house to be broken in two.
00:00:48 “On this account, you two prove yourselves ready,
00:00:51 because the Son of God is comin’ at an hour that you do not think it to be.”
00:00:55 Do you think that the householder
00:00:57 might have been distracted by the reading?
00:00:59 Likely.
00:01:01 Making any of these errors could convey
00:01:04 a lack of respect for the material
00:01:07 or change the meaning of the verse.
00:01:10 Let’s watch a better example.
00:01:13 To answer that question, notice what the Bible says at Matthew 24:43, 44:
00:01:18 “But know one thing:
00:01:20 “If the householder had known in what watch the thief was coming,
00:01:23 “he would have kept awake
00:01:25 “and not allowed his house to be broken into.
00:01:28 “On this account, you too prove yourselves ready,
00:01:32 because the Son of man is coming at an hour that you do not think to be it.”
00:01:37 Much better!
00:01:39 To become effective at reading aloud,
00:01:42 we should work to develop good habits in our personal reading.
00:01:46 Strive to understand the meaning
00:01:49 and to observe all punctuation marks.
00:01:51 For instance, at Matthew 8:3,
00:01:54 Jesus did not say to the leper:
00:01:57 “I want to be made clean,”
00:01:59 but rather: “I want to! Be made clean.”
00:02:03 Running through the exclamation point
00:02:06 completely changes the meaning.
00:02:09 In other verses, we have to emphasize the right words
00:02:14 in order to convey the intended meaning.
00:02:16 For instance, how would you read 1 John 2:1?
00:02:20 Let’s watch.
00:02:23 “My little children, I am writing you these things
00:02:26 “so that you may not commit a sin.
00:02:28 “And yet, if anyone does commit a sin,
00:02:30 we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one.”
00:02:36 Because the brother stressed the word “father,”
00:02:39 he gave the impression that Jesus Christ is the Father,
00:02:42 which was clearly not the writer’s intent.
00:02:45 Let’s give our brother another chance.
00:02:48 “My little children, I am writing you these things
00:02:51 “so that you may not commit a sin.
00:02:53 “And yet, if anyone does commit a sin,
00:02:57 “we have a helper with the Father,
00:02:59 Jesus Christ, a righteous one.”
00:03:03 This time, the speaker made it clear
00:03:06 that the helper is Jesus Christ.
00:03:09 We should also be careful not to place undue emphasis on function words,
00:03:14 such as prepositions and conjunctions.
00:03:17 For instance, at 1 Timothy 4:16, instead of reading
00:03:22 “you will save both yourself and those who listen to you,”
00:03:27 why not emphasize the verb to convey the full meaning of the text?
00:03:32 “You will save both yourself and those who listen to you.”
00:03:37 Clearly, there is more to accurate reading
00:03:40 than simply pronouncing words correctly,
00:03:43 yet even that can be a challenge at times.
00:03:46 Where can you find help to pronounce a word or name correctly
00:03:50 —even Bible names?
00:03:52 You can look them up in a dictionary,
00:03:54 listen to an audio recording of the publication,
00:03:58 or ask a good reader for help.
00:04:02 Accurate reading adds to the dignity of the message we preach.
00:04:06 It allows our listener to focus on the message
00:04:10 rather than be sidetracked by any mistakes.
00:04:13 Most important, it honors Jehovah God.
