"On Mondegreens and the Bible" by Andrew Nash
We all know what mondegreens are, even if we didn’t know they had a name. Mondegreens are when a person believes they understand what someone else is saying or doing, often song lyrics, but they are often wildly off.
American writer Sylvia Wright coined the phrase in a 1954 Harper’s Magazine essay in which she described her mom reading from “The Bonnie Earl O’Moray:”
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been,
They hae slain the Earl O’Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
Wright later found out the correct fourth line was “And laid him on the green.”
Alyson informed me once the chorus to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue” was not “We built a shed, it’s a lonely view,” but rather “With the birds I’ll share this lonely view.”
The best example in our family comes from our daughter, Evie, who once thought the lyrics to “Jesus Loves Me” were:
Jesus loves me,
Yes, I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong.
He will eat us;
He is strong.
A mondegreen is something that you think you understand, but it turns out your misunderstanding took you in a direction that was never intended. How many times do we do the same thing with the Bible? How often have we taken phrases, verses, even chapters of the Bible that we thought we knew for years have truly been misunderstood?
It was a revelation for our family a few years ago when we heard Connie preach about the true meaning of “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” We thought we knew; but we were way off. I grew up in the church; my Dad’s a pastor for goodness’ sake, but I had the wrong interpretation.
We cannot close ourselves off to things that may challenge our view of God. When we open ourselves up and admit “Maybe I’ve been wrong,” it’s a vulnerable moment, but a teaching moment. It teaches us how much bigger or kinder or more forgiving or more connected our God is. It’s enough to make you sing Jimi Hendrix’s famous lyrics from “Purple Haze”: Excuse me, while I kiss this guy! (Or something like that.)