Last night was the junior high Sunday School class pizza party. We had .8 inches of snow falling at that time, so as you can imagine (Chris) I was thrilled to be driving across town to church. Actually I felt fairly confident in my skills. It was the IDIOTS around me who thought it might be fun to slam on their brakes and slide all over the road that didn't amuse me so terribly much. Finally, after the driver of the car next to me tested her brakes on a BRIDGE - I decided to switch roads and take my chances on a back road.
I climbed into the church van for my inaugural ride and Pastor Brian said, "Ever done a donut?" (Do I look like the kind of person who does donuts? I put on my seat belt to drive across a parking lot!) So, before I'd had a chance to search for said seat belt in the van, I found myself grabbing onto the seat because he proceeded to spin the van around the parking lot. I asked him if it was okay if there was a puddle in the seat.
But anyway, the pizza was amazing and we had fun...and the following item came up for discussion. He took a poll at our table, and I agreed with Stevan, the author of the blog that brought up the topic. Here's what he posted. What do you think?
The Sunday School song, “This Little Light of Mine” - sung by thousands of us church-kids growing up has been brought to new light (pun not intended, but I laughed out loud when Jess pointed this phrase out to me) this week in my life.
My beautiful wife ‘called me out’ on some of my lyrics as I sang them aloud:
“Hide it under a bushel, NO!”
To which she said, “No, No, No - it’s, ‘Hide it under a bush, Oh No!”
To which I replied, “you’re an idiot.” (maybe it wasn’t that harsh…)
She then got ’scientific’ on me and said, “a bushel is merely a unit of measurement and can’t actually impede the flame of a fire, but a bush is a literal object that could be placed above a flame to cause it to extinguish.” (okay, she didn’t really say these exact words, but you get the picture…)
To which I replied, “you’re an idiot.”
To which she replied, “Google-it.” (the solution to ALL marital strife)
A quick Google-search (more-importantly, a Wikipedia article) reveals that sure-enough a “bushel” is merely a unit of measurement, and not synonymous with the bushel basked we’re all familiar making with our cupped hand while singing this song. I also found enough lyrics defending BOTH of our “right answers” via Google.
So, stevansheets.com readership… what is it? Is it:
01. “Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine.”
02. “Hide it under a bush, Oh NO! I’m gonna let it shine.”
03. “Hide it under a bushel basket lined with fire-retardant fabric, Oh NO! I’m gonna let it shine.”
Please advise this twenty-something who’s childhood theology is based upon your answer to this question.
3 hours ago
10 comments:
I left this comment on Stevan's blog:
"The KJV says this: "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house" (Matthew 5:15)
Since the song is a way of remembering that passage, I am going with bushel."
Did you just leave that one or did I miss it when I read his comment list? Good answer! I agree it's bushel. We're studying Moses in Sunday school, so Wesley, Lauren and I agreed that to hide it under a bush would lead to a second Moses experience.
I remember singing bushel too. I went to Webster's dictionary. One meaning is the basket holding a bushel of something, like apples.
It's "bushel." No question. I was a kid before you were, and it was a bushel even WAY back then.
But if you think about it, the original Greek would not have said "bushel." It would have had the word that Greeks used for baskets that held a bunch of apples. And then the Brits, who wrote the King James translation of the Greek, would have used the Old (or Middle) English word that everyone back then understood. And perhaps at the time "bushel" meant the basket and only after time did the word come to mean the measure for that size of basket.
And besides, it's a song. People use poetic license when they write songs.
To be fair to his wife, the church she attended when she was little may very well have taught it to her as a bush. Silly them, but if you stick a lit candle under a bush, the bush doesn't hide the flame. It catches on fire.
Sorry for such a tome...
"It was the IDIOTS around me..."
EXACTLY!
I always thought it was 01. But 02 makes more sense.
Sing 03 "in time" and you could hurt yourself.
Gotta agree wholeheartedly with Skyepuppy. It's "bushel" no question.
I think that Steven's wife did what we all do from time to time...she heard the words not quite right, learned her version and is determined to be right....even if she's wrong.
That's just my opinion of course!
Tina - well webster's can't be wrong! didn't they teach us that in school?
Skyepuppy - You thought about it much harder than i did! But I'm glad you agree. :)
Chris - singing AT ALL could make me hurt myself - and a variety of those around me. I see that it is snowing again - so I'll try to avoid the open road so as to not BE one of the idiots.
Christina - Kurt (boss) told me about some site to go to where they list correct song lyrics and then what people have been known to sing - I'm going to check it out tonight. this one might need to be on there!
Bekah, I posted on Steven's blog too: it's bushel. I agree with Kristin's reference to the Bible passage and with Skyepuppy's idea that hiding it under a bush would start a fire (not to mention that it doesn't really make sense.
but, in fairness, it's not Jess' fault if she was taught the words wrong. She was just an impressionable child who sang it the was she heard it, you know?
Jaena - You are right - in fairness to Jess. I've had my share of the same problem. In fact, I found that website where people list what they thought a song was saying in comparison to the actual lyrics, and I was so excited to find someone else who thought the "when the roll is called up yonder" really said "when the roll is called a byonder." It took me forever to figure that one out - and I spent years wondering what a byonder was. You hear what you hear!
Oh and PS - did my scrapbook pages of all the christmas card pictures, so your family is securely preserved in the photo archives!
This is Jess--Stevan's wife! I actually learned it bushel, but later in life thought it was wrong. After all of these comments on my hubby's site, I came to the conclusion that it was bushel because I grew up with KJV everything and Matt 5:15 in KJV says it all!:-)
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