This is something from my scripture study that I posted on Facebook this morning, and thought might be worth preserving here.

Do you know the “slave Bible”? Published in 1808, it is an expurgated text, leaving only those parts of the Bible that were “safe” to preach to enslaved people. It preserves all of the “submit to authority” verses, deletes any mention of Israel escaping Egyptian slavery, and so on.

I noticed a few days ago that the visit of Nicodemus to Jesus (John 3) is missing, and I’ve been puzzling over why. Then today I found this, by Mary MacLeod Bethune:

“My teacher had a box of Bibles and texts, and she gave me one of each for my very own. That same day the teacher opened the Bible to John 3:16, and read: ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

“With these words the scales fell from my eyes and the light came flooding in. My sense of inferiority, my fear of handicaps, dropped away. ‘Whosoever,’ it said. No Jew nor Gentile, no Catholic nor Protestant, no black nor white; just ‘whosoever.’ It meant that I, a humble Negro girl, had just as much chance as anybody in the sight and love of God. These words stored up a battery of faith and confidence and determination in my heart, which has not failed me to this day.”

The enslavers had a better grasp of the power of the Bible than I do.