TED演讲：依照圣经指导原则生活的一年(3)

 　　The second reason I undertook this is because I'm concerned about the rise of fundamentalism, religious fundamentalism, 第二个原因我决定这样做，是因为我对基督教基本教义的兴起有兴趣，

　　and people who say they take the Bible literally¹, which is, according to some polls, as high as 45 or 50 percent of America. 很多人声称他们完全依照圣经。根据调查有百分之45或50的美国人，按着圣经的教导过生活。

　　So I decided², what if you really did take the Bible literally? 所以我决定看看，真正依照圣经教导行事会怎样?

　　I decided to take it to its logical conclusion and take everything in the Bible literally, without picking and choosing. 我决定接受它和它的逻辑上的推论，接受一切圣经上字面的说法，不去挑选。

　　The first thing I did was I got a stack of bibles. I had Christian³ bibles. I had Jewish bibles. 首先，我找到一堆圣经。我有基督教圣经。我有犹太教圣经。

　　A friend of mine sent me something called a hip-hop bible, where the twenty-third Psalm⁴ is rendered as, 我的一个朋友送我一本叫做“嘻哈圣经”，其中诗篇第23中所称

　　"The Lord is all that," as opposed to what I knew it as, "The Lord is my shepherd." “神是一切”，相对的，就我所知应该是“神是我的”。

　　Then I went down and I read several versions, and I wrote down every single law that I could find. 然后我阅读了几个版本，并且我写下每一我能找到的律法。

　　And this was a very long list -- over 700 rules. 这是一个很长的清单--超过700条律法。

　　And they range from the famous ones that I had heard of -- The Ten Commandments, love your neighbor, be fruitful and multiply. 并且这些包含一些有名的律法，一些我曾经听过的--“十戒”、“爱你的邻人”、“多结果子和生养众多”。

　　So I wanted to follow those. And actually, I take my projects very seriously, 所以我要遵循这些。我很认真执行这个计划

　　because I had twins during my year, so I definitely take my projects seriously. 因为这年我生了双胞胎，所以我确实认真的执行这计划。

　　But I also wanted to follow the hundreds of arcane⁵ and obscure laws that are in the Bible. 但是我想按照这上百条在圣经中神秘且晦涩的律法。

　　There is the law in Leviticus, "You cannot shave the corners of your beard." 这些是在利未记中的律法--“胡须的周围不可损坏。”

　　I didn't know where my corners were, so I decided to let the whole thing grow, and this is what I looked like by the end. 我不知道哪里是我的周围，所以我决定留胡须，这是我最后看起来的样子。

　　As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time at airport security. 你可想而知，我花了很长的时间在机场安检部门。

　　My wife wouldn't kiss me for the last two months. So, certainly the challenge was there. 最后的两个月，我太太不肯亲我。所以，当然这是一项挑战。

1 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 psalm   

n.赞美诗，圣诗

参考例句：

• The clergyman began droning the psalm.牧师开始以单调而低沈的语调吟诵赞美诗。
• The minister droned out the psalm.牧师喃喃地念赞美诗。

5 arcane   

adj.神秘的，秘密的

参考例句：

• The technique at one time was arcane in the minds of most chemists.这种技术在大多数化学家心目中一度是神秘的。
• Until a few months ago few people outside the arcane world of contemporary music had heard of Gorecki.直至几个月前，在现代音乐神秘殿堂之外很少有人听说了戈莱斯基。