The claim
“You know the great story in Micah in the Gospel and you know it talks about justice rolling down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
“But before these words in that verse it says: ‘Have done with people who are just presenting images.
“‘Have done with people who are just talking or singing songs that don’t mean anything.
“‘Have done with the irrelevancies. Get to the centre point.
“‘Let justice roll like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.'”
Gordon Brown, New Testament Church of God, 2 May 2010
The background
It’s the final Sunday of the election and Brown, Cameron and Clegg are all completing whistle-stop tours of different parts of the country.
Gordon Brown’s been out and about in south London, and one of his stops of the morning was to speak to the congregation of the New Testament Church of God in the constituency of Streatham.
Mr Brown, who declared himself a “penitent sinner” earlier this week, reminisced about attending church twice every Sunday with his father, who was a minister in the Church of Scotland. “I listened to his sermons and I learned from them,” he said. But how accurately did he learn his bible?
The analysis
FactCheck have asked the Labour party for the exact biblical reference and the translation of the bible that Mr Brown was quoting from, but at the time of writing had not received a reply.
But Mr Brown did specifically mention “Micah in the Gospel”. Now, Micah is in the Old Testament in the bible. In general the term “Gospel” usually refers to the four books in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or as another translation to “good news” in reference to the message of the New Testament.
Delving into the Old Testament, Mr Brown would still need to flick a few pages forward from the book of Micah to find his verse – situated in the book of Amos.
The New King James Version (NKJV) provides an exact replica for Mr Brown’s quotation of Amos 5:24, but the earlier verses are not such a perfect match.
It reads: “Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
“Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
“But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.”
In fact, the nearest translation FactCheck found was from The Message bible – created from 1993 to 2002 as a contemporary language translation, by which time Mr Brown was already Shadow Chancellor and then Chancellor.
And perhaps it has some words all politicians could heed:
“I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it.”
The verdict
So, while Mr Brown was in the right ball-park with his knowledge of the bible, he may need to brush up on the specifics.
Yes, the verse is from the prophets towards the end of the Old Testament, but it is the book of Amos, rather than the book of Micah, he was referring to. Still, credit to the prime minister for only being a few pages out.
