Once, when a boy, my father was riding on a train.

Seated next to him was an elderly lady who asked those questions elderly ladies ask young people seated next to them.

When my father’s stop arrived, and he rose to leave, the lady had him pause and handed him a pamphlet, “What Every Jewish Boy Should Know.”

My father, always respectful of his elders, accepted the pamphlet and thanked her, exiting the train smiling broadly.

Every time he told that story, the same broad, youthful smile accompanied its telling. Though he was not Jewish, he advised me the pamphlet proved helpful, providing information universally relevant to adolescent males — no matter their religion or denomination.

The time came when I needed that pamphlet, but it had been misplaced; I had to struggle through adolescence without it.

Though no longer young, I still have questions — not the same questions; others, unanswered, ones that also cause me to struggle.

Earlier this year, the Temple Beth-El Jewish congregation extended an invitation to our community to attend an outreach featuring Rabbi David Whiman. After a 45-year absence, Rabbi Whiman was returning to Alpena for a visit.

I resolved to attend, confident it would be interesting, but I also hoped for something more, a hope born of sentimentality and the memory of my father’s smile.

Maybe they would have a pamphlet — a follow-up covering the issues I now faced — one entitled “What Every Elderly Jewish Man Should Know”? Perhaps it, too, would have universal application, but I had little hope of finding one.

So, you can imagine my surprise when — though not in pamphlet form — I nevertheless found some answers.

Rabbi Whiman told a story of the woman who, when shown the Old Testament scrolls of Torah written in Hebrew, commented, “That’s not the Bible!” Asked why she thought so, she replied, “It’s not written in English!”

This caused me to wonder, how many people would react the same way to the New Testament books written in ancient Greek? And I wonder how many people know that we don’t have the originals of any of them. Or that many errors occurred in the copying and translating of the copies we do have.

As long ago as the third century AD, a church father, Origen, writing in Coptic or Greek, complained as follows:

“The differences among the manuscripts have become great, either through the negligence of some copyists or through the perverse audacity of others, they either neglect to check over what they transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they make additions or deletions as they please.”

As Professor Bart Ehrman of Chapel Hill observed in his best selling book, “Misquoting Jesus”:

“Not only do we not have the originals — we don’t even have copies of the copies of the originals, or copies of the copies of the copies of the originals. What we have are copies made later — much later. In most instances, they are copies made centuries later. And these copies all differ from one another, in many thousands of places.”

It’s a fascinating journey to read and consider what people who have devoted their lives to studying the ancient religious texts have written, scholars like Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels, Bruce Metzger, Kristin Swenson, and others.

Not long ago, a tradesman was working in my home. Perhaps believing he was fulfilling some misguided evangelical obligation, he advised me he had begun attending a new church, one with no tolerance for LGBTQ people.

When I questioned the basis for his intolerance, he responded, “It’s in the Bible,” uttered with a conviction that, for him, settled the matter.

I couldn’t help believe his confidence was misplaced.

Rabbi Whiman spoke of three Crowns that followers of the Jewish faith aspire to: The Crown of Torah, The Crown of Priesthood, and The Crown of Kingship.

There are times when a Torah scholar’s interpretation is in error, or a king or a priest misbehaves or is mistaken; so, there is a higher crown to follow — a crown of integrity, goodness, and compassion; one attainable by all and that is above all others — The Crown of a Good name.

God has endowed us with free will.

Is not this highest crown similar to The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and similar to Christ’s teaching: “Love thy neighbor as yourself”?

Are they not all preeminent teachings, directives devoid of intolerance and hate — goals to which we all can and should aspire?

Which causes me to conclude:

That justifications for hate found in obscure New Testament passages were miscopied, misconstrued, or wrongfully introduced by undiscerning human hands.

That Biblical support for hatred has always been a big mistake.

That someone should put that in a pamphlet.

Doug Pugh’s “Vignettes” runs weekly on Saturdays. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.