The KJV translates John 14:2 as “…in my Father’s house there are many mansions…” but most other translations use ‘dwelling places’ or ‘abiding places’ and some find this irritating. I’ve been listening to and reading Aslan Roars; Aslan (*seen note below) who hosts the website, tells us that the original Greek word means “abiding place”. Aslan wants us to understand that God is not building us a royal palace, complete with all the materialism that implies. Instead, he wants us to concentrate on the idea of “abide”.
I appreciate that. But it’s not enough to just take someone’s, even an archbishop’s, word. We need to meditate and explore this verse as it has much to offer. When we get done I hope you’ll see that, even with little words like abiding place or mansion, God is truly amazing.
First, I’ve always regarded John chapters 14 – 17 as a separate teaching, not really a part of the narrative. In that I violated my own rule to always consider any Scripture in context. Remember, the Bible originally had no chapter divisions or verse numbers. The context here is that Jesus has just told Peter he would deny Jesus three times. This prediction is followed by “Do not let your heart be troubled…” and the statement that God’s house has many abiding places. I am grateful to Aslan for reminding me to pay attention to the context. Probably best to read the Bible without paying any attention to the chapter and verse numbers, except for reference.
Aslan insists that the word the KJV translates as ‘mansions’ should be ‘abiding places’. This makes sense considering that the KJV uses ‘abide’ in chapter 15. If you carefully read the Bible you’ll see that it insists that we ‘abide’ with Jesus in the ‘here and now’; not in some future Eden-like garden. True, there is indication that we will join Jesus when we die. But not much is said about that. Instead, it’s all about what we do with the time we’re given. (J. R. R. Tolkien has Gandalf say something like that in Lord of the Rings.) Matthew calls it “The Kingdom Of Heaven”. John calls it “Eternal Life”. The Gospels make it very clear: Heaven or Eternal Life or Salvation happens now, before you die. If you are not in The Kingdom now, you won’t be with Jesus in the afterlife. (Some believe in Purgatory; if there is such a place it still holds true that you won’t be with Jesus when you die.)
The Newsboys had a song about their Father’s House. It was a big, big house with a big big table and a big big yard. They named the song Big House. The song doesn’t have the word ‘mansion’ in it, yet almost every Christian would know what the song is about. The yard is big enough to be a football field. There is room enough for everyone. That is one point: The Kingdom of God is big enough for everyone. That, I believe, is one point the KJV makes when using ‘mansion’; the house is big enough for everyone. But let’s look deeper.
Now, as I meditate on these chapters of John’s Gospel, abiding in the vine and the many dwelling places in the House Of God, I ponder the reasons the KJV translators used ‘mansions’. The Gospel writers might have used ‘villa’. But that word, like palace, would have too much negative baggage attached. The word they did use is, according to Mounce, “monē”. The KJV uses this word only one more time, Mounce says. That’s in verse 23 where the KJV translates it as “abode”.
The Gospel Writers were not proposing “pie in the sky by and by”, as some interpret the word ‘mansion’, but a spiritual kingdom in the here and now. So I did some research. I found an online copy of “A Table Alphabeticall, conteyning and teaching the true writing, and understanding of hard usuall English wordes, par Robert Crawdrey (1604) (+ text version)”. So we have an actual document in the form of an early dictionary which tells us what the general population thought the word ‘mansion’ actually meant! Crawdrey says it means nothing more than “an abiding place”. See below for the link to the reference.
Therefore, Aslan was correct. And so were the KJV translators. Aslan, rather than go through all this etymology like I did, just says that we need to look at versions other than the KJV. We need the translations of the Bible that keep up with the changes in language. We translate Shakespeare’s plays into modern English to understand them better. Unfortunately, when we do, some of the poetic style of the language is lost. Others have covered this much more completely than I need do here.
The story, however, does not end with the changes in language. There’s much more. God, in His wisdom, does magical things. So, as the meaning of the word changed, so did our cultural understanding of the universe. I’ll offer two popular images.
First is the TARDIS, the time traveling spaceship of Dr. Who. For those who are not familiar with the British TV show, Dr. Who travels through space and time in his TARDIS, which, when observed from the outside, looks like a British Police Call Box. (That’s just a bit larger than an old fashioned telephone booth. About 10 feet high and 5 feet wide and deep.) But inside it’s huge. The TARDIS has a swimming pool, library, bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms and much more. (This information can be found with a quick Internet search.) All these rooms are found inside this 10 x 5 x 5 foot box.
Second is the camping tent Harry Potter uses. I suspect most everyone is aware of the Harry Potter novels. The tent in the fourth novel, The Goblet of Fire, looks from the outside like a normal camping tent. But inside there are many rooms, including a kitchen.
These two examples of cultural understanding show that we in the 21st Century are aware of things that can be bigger on the inside than the outside, if only in fiction (and the minds of mathematicians and physicists).
Therefore, let’s reconsider the KJV translation in modern terms. “In my Father’s House are many mansions” describes something that just might be similar to the TARDIS and the magic tent. A house that’s much bigger on the inside than on the outside. Consider 1st Corinthians 2:9 & 10.
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (NKJV) (St. Paul references Isaiah 64:4).
And that’s the image of a house that contains many mansions. For these ‘dwelling places’ are not hovels or single-wide mobile homes. They are ‘mansions’, spiritual dwelling places that let us abide in Christ as the branch abides in the vine (John 15). Few of us are intimate with the nature of grapevines. The process of grafting a wild branch onto a cultivated main branch is not something we experience. But we do understand something bigger inside than out, like a TV or a computer. Or a house so big that it contains a football field, such as the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play. Or, most especially, the LOVE God has for us.
For the Love of God is bigger than you can imagine. God’s purposes are much more intricate than you can imagine. God’s “house” is big enough for everyone and everything. The banqueting table is more than sufficient. Remember, he fed 5000 men plus women and children with a few fish and some bread (John 6:1-15). On at least two occasions Jesus filled the fishing nets Peter was using with an impossibly large catch (Luke 5 and John 21). His house is a big big house. We can play football, American or FIFA, there’s room enough for both!
*Unfortunately, I didn’t record the date of the audio devotional posting because I wasn’t aware that I would be writing this. The Aslan Roars website doesn’t seem to archive the audio devotionals. But you don’t need to listen to it to understand this post. Again, Aslan Roars is at https://aslanroars.org/
The link to the ancient dictionary is:
“mansion” is the eighth word from the top of the page.
The link to “Mounce” in the text is a link through Bible Gateway to their website and their copy of Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament.
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium LINK