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We also need to understand the both Hebrew and Greek are far more expressive than English. So to me it is silly to argue which English translation is better. They are translations.

The Bible I decided that it might[t be of value to give a background to the book that we call the Bible. Catholic Bibles mainly differ from Protestant Bibles in that they include some ancient writings, generally called by Protestants, The Apocrypha, that is not included in Protestant Bibles Some other differences are very minor and not significant. Origin: All of the Biblical books began as written documents (Autographs) written well before printed documents existed. We do not have any of those documents. All we have are copies of the original documents. Those documents do contain some scribal errors. But, they are highly accurate and the minor errors are commonly seen in comparison with other copies which we have. The New Testament was written in Biblical Greek (Koine Greek) which differs from the modern Greek language of today. Scholars understand that language very well today. Those documents also contain Individual words from other languages that were spoken in Palestine in the time when the writings were prepared. The Old Testament was mostly written in Biblical Hebrew, which differs form the modern Hebrew of today. However, a little bit of the Old Testament was written in Aramaic, which is well understood today. Aramaic is a close cousin to the Hebrew of that time. All those who spoke Hebrew were likely able to understand Aramaic. Translation: The Bibles that you purchase today have generally been translated in one to the following three types: Formal Translation sticks very closely to the original text. It is commonly used for doctrinal study, preaching and by scholars. Dynamic Translation attempts to present the authors thinking in a manner that is easly understood in the translated language. Paraphrased translation attempts[as to present what the translator thinks the author wanted to say, into the translated language. The careful student of the Bible will need to understand the background of the Biblical material and the process of producing the copies and the methods of translation. However, that student can rest assured that the Bibles of today do contain what God wanted humans to know.

September 9, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning from London, which enjoyed its rainiest day in months yesterday: proper pleasure and pain. There’s more news below — including the outcome of a match at the U.S. Open that ended, like, four hours ago. But today I want to start in Germany. Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, faces pressure from the far right. Nadja Wohlleben/Reuters On the right You may have missed it. I almost did, amid the pleasures of a long weekend: The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party won big in a small state election on Sunday and could become the first far-right party to govern a German state since the end of World War II. How big a deal is that? Our Berlin bureau chief, Jim Tankersley, offers one way of looking at it: The AfD’s win puts the mainstream conservative who is the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, into a fight for political survival. Merz is supposed to hold power until 2029, and his allies aren’t trying to get rid of him. But pressure is rising on his right flank, and more regional elections this month may show that voters see him “the wrong man for the job at this time,” as a major German newsmagazine put it. The AfD’s success, however isolated, is clearly a problem for Germany’s leadership. It is also a problem for Germany, my colleague Katrin Bennhold wrote yesterday. I appreciated the wide view she took: When I was growing up in Germany, the conventional wisdom was that the far right would never again gain a meaningful foothold in our politics. Our Nazi past, the argument went, had immunized voters against the appeal of such parties. And our post-Holocaust constitution had powerful tools to help prevent it. The rise of the anti-immigrant, far-right AfD over the past decade has made clear the first argument was wrong. The second? We’ll see. Katrin crunched some numbers. On Sunday, the AfD didn’t just win more than twice as many votes as its nearest rival. It also won with the biggest regional voter turnout that Germany has seen since reunification in 1990. In a lot of places, those facts would add up to a mandate to govern. But not in Germany, which has for nearly eight decades used a kind of firewall to prevent the rise of parties that the political mainstream deems extreme. It doesn’t want another authoritarian, another Hitler, to gain power. But now it faces a question. Here’s how Katrin put it: Are these efforts to sideline the AfD in the name of democracy actually undermining democracy? The AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund raising a thumbs up after Sunday’s election. Matthias Schrader/Associated Press AfD’s rise It’s an interesting question, perhaps a scary one. The AfD came into being in 2013, a year when Angela Merkel, the center-right chancellor at the time, went back into coalition with her party’s traditional opponents on the center left. That meant, basically, that whatever party a German voted for would result in the same government. The AfD, with its angry, nationalist, populist stance, represented a protest vote — functionally meaningless. No longer. Its ranks swelled in number and passion. Now it’s the most popular party in the country. In other words, the firewall could be falling. And that, Katrin writes, suggests that the AfD’s victory on Sunday could mark a new phase in German politics, one “in which mainstream parties accept that the way to defeat the AfD is to offer voters a platform they actually want to vote for.” THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran The United States said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers. Iran retaliated by launching missiles at Jordan. The global price of oil reached $100 a barrel this morning. That’s nearly 40 percent higher than at the start of the war. Iran is taking a more aggressive approach to the war. It fears its hold on the Strait of Hormuz is slipping. More on the Middle East Britain, Canada and France announced sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israeli opposition politicians called Benjamin Netanyahu “unfit” for office after the newspaper Haaretz reported that he had been warned of major Hamas plans before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Netanyahu said he would sue the paper. Saudi Arabia said it would retaliate against the Houthis after attacks by the Yemeni militia that Saudi authorities said had injured 73 civilians. Artificial Intelligence Gary S. Settles/Science Source OpenAI said its newest model had solved one of the great unanswered questions in mathematics, the “Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem.” The problem looks at equations that describe the movement of liquids, like water, and gases, like air. They’re important for weather forecasting. In the Courts The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to let it use a federal citizenship database before the midterms to screen voters. The Supreme Court denied a request from Missouri officials to use a redrawn congressional map that would give Republicans an edge. Soon after, a judge in Missouri ruled the other way, ordering the state to use the map. Politics Naval pilots worry that their job, with its catapult takeoffs and high-G-force turns, causes traumatic brain injuries. The Navy refuses to investigate, a scathing House report said. Iceland condemned a social media post from President Trump that showed the American flag covering the country — as well as Greenland, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean states. The secretary of the Smithsonian is stepping down, after months of criticism from the White House over how the institution presents American history. Lindsay Clancy Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asked Trump for a pardon on murder charges she faces in the killing of her three young children even though the president cannot grant clemency for state-level charges. The case ended in a mistrial because one juror refused to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity. Other jurors described their frustration. Other Big Stories The pilots of the Amazon cargo jet that overran a runway in Miami were not fully in control of the aircraft and appear to have considered aborting the landing, according to federal investigators. An air traffic control problem in Britain has caused the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights, sending disruptions rippling across the globe. A FRIGID SHORTCUT Sources: Kpler; NASA Earth Observatory. Pablo Robles /The New York Times This week, a container ship is finishing a journey across the top of the world. It’s part of China’s plan to shave two weeks off the Asia-to-Europe trip — a plan that requires special vessels and higher insurance premiums. Many experts say that’s not commercially feasible. But climate change and instability in the Middle East could change their calculations. OPINIONS Charlie Greene’s father died on United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11. The solidarity he saw in that day’s aftermath demonstrated what a country that comes together can look like, he writes. A new child care policy championed by JD Vance shows that he doesn’t want to help married parents so much as hurt single mothers, Jessica Grose argues. The Anniversary Sale is on: Morning readers, enjoy our best offer. Celebrate 175 years of The Times with savings on unlimited news, puzzles, recipes, sports and more. $1/week for your first year. Save now. MORNING READS Jean Chung for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. You just need to log in. Virtual taekwondo: Is it anything more than a glorified video game? Gaping hole: A sinkhole opened at Nicolas Cage’s home in Malibu. See the photo. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about Senator Roger Marshall, who as an ob-gyn sued more than 700 of his patients for debts. TODAY’S NUMBER $3,000 — That is how much money, per book, Anthropic must pay to authors whose works it pirated in training Claude, its chatbot. Authors would split the proceeds with their publishers. Which is a nice windfall when you weren’t expecting to be flush this weekend, but lemme tell you: It’s a pittance in reward for writing a book. U.S. OPEN Ben Shelton Matthew Stockman/Getty Images It was the latest-running night in U.S. Open history. After nearly four-and-a-half hours of play, Ben Shelton, an American, beat the defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, at 3:33 a.m. Eastern. It was a big day for the Americans. Frances Tiafoe came back to defeat Alex Michelsen. Tiafoe will face Shelton in a semifinal Friday, guaranteeing that an American man will reach the final. On the women’s side, the top seed, Aryna Sabalenka, retained her No. 1 ranking by beating Linda Noskova. She’ll next face Jessica Pegula, who won her own all-American match against Emma Navarro. RECIPE OF THE DAY Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times I had an outrageously good dinner at Ballymaloe in Cork, Ireland, this past weekend, and now all I want to do is hack a recipe for the restaurant’s blini with dressed Ballycotton Bay crab. Or, at least, I want to make blini tonight and put something on top of them. The blini alone — buckwheat nutty and tangy with buttermilk — are superb. And what a canvas! If you don’t put fresh crab on them, then how about smoked salmon and crème fraîche, or smoked haddock with a little drained yogurt? Maybe just diced cucumber and crumbled marinated goat cheese? You’ll feel like a million dollars eating those. IN ONE CHART Note: Includes Jan. 1 to Aug. 15 each year. Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence, U.S. Census Bureau International Database. Christine Zhang/The New York Times The movie industry boasted that this summer was one of its most lucrative ever. That’s true. But it’s also misleading: Box office records don’t take inflation into account. Judged by another metric — ticket sales — this summer looks much less impressive, as the chart above shows. Read the full story, which puts the season into context. A NEW ALBUM Sara Bareilles Meghan Marin for The New York Times Sara Bareilles, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who successfully detoured from the music industry to musical theater and then to television, released her first album in seven years last month. “Good Grief” is a song cycle in 14 tracks: plaintive, bristling piano ballads haunted by the deaths of close friends, including Gavin Creel, the beloved Broadway actor who died in 2024. Melena Ryzik, a culture reporter, profiled Bareilles. There are a lot — a lot — of tears. More on culture A mature live oak tree on its way to a new home in Los Angeles. Environmental Design The latest flex in rich-people horticulture? Getting big trees installed where once there were no trees, as quickly as landscapers can plant them. It’s “boys and toys,” a landscape designer based in Newport, R.I., told The Times. “It’s, My tree is bigger.” The photographs are fragrant with money. “Taipei Story,” R.F. Kuang’s seventh novel in eight years, is “her most sophisticated by a mile,” Lauren Christensen writes in a rave review. It’s the story of a Chinese-born, American-raised college student spending the summer in Taipei, and it skips the genre influences of Kuang’s earlier work. “What’s left,” Lauren writes, “is pure literary fiction,” narration that “is just what thinking feels like.” Not sure what you feel like reading? In the video below, the Book Review’s MJ Franklin recommends books based on your mood. Click to watch. The New York Times THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Listen to Miley — Cyrus is just Miley now — as she delivers a meta-throwback to the synthesizer-driven dance-pop of MTV’s heyday. That’s “Bass Persuades,” available on the apps. Harness the post-Labor Day back-to-school energy and set some goals. Shield yourself from the elements with the best umbrellas tested by the stylish, practical pluviophiles at Wirecutter. (I’m feeling very 🇬🇧 these days.) GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were facelift and facilitate. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands.

🛢️ Charted: Heating oil sticker shock Data: FactSet, Axios research. Chart: Axios 📈 Oil hit $100 a barrel this morning as the war with Iran inflames tensions across the Middle East. Go deeper. Home heating oil bills are likely to be massive this winter in the Northeast, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. Benchmark U.S. home heating oil futures have leapfrogged highs hit in late 2022. U.S. heating oil futures are up just shy of 30% over the last three months. And they're up about 120% since the start of the year.

💰 Vance's secretive donor network Network skyboxes line the GOP midterm convention at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP DALLAS — A secretive donor network closely aligned with Vice President Vance drew Cabinet members, lawmakers and major GOP donors to a "cowboy-chic" bar last night for a marquee pre-party ahead of the Republicans' midterm convention, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports. Why it matters: The donor group, Rockbridge, has become an influential hub for conservative donors and operatives as Vance prepares for a likely White House run in 2028. 👀 Inside the room: Between 200 and 250 people attended the private welcome reception at The Rustic. Attendees included Dallas businessman and major GOP donor Ray Washburne, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Trump 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, former Trump White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, investor Hal Lambert and professional bareback rider Rocker Steiner. 💰 Trump today will host an RNC fundraiser where admission to a "roundtable" is $250,000 per person, according to an invitation obtained by Axios. A photo with Trump will cost $88,600. Share this story. 👉 You heard it here first: Paige Willey, the top deputy to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, is leaving the White House for a private-sector job at month's end, Axios' Marc Caputo has learned ... Go deeper.

⚡ Insiders warn AI could kill all humans Via X Three Anthropic researchers went public last night with chilling concerns about out-of-control AI, warning it could destroy humans this decade. Anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon wrote on X, after resigning yesterday to sound the alarm: "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger." Anthropic alignment-science lead Evan Hubinger responded: "Jacob is correct here — we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to." (When I went to bed, this tweet had 1 million views. When I woke up, it had more than 10 million, and still soaring.) Samuel Marks, Anthropic scalable-oversight lead, added: "AI developers believe their technology could cause human extinction (or similarly bad outcomes). This could happen in the next few years. In general, the more senior the employee, the more concerned they are." Why it matters: They're hardly alone. Their warnings came just days after top OpenAI leaders, including CEO Sam Altman, said AI is speeding into a scary, uncontrollable phase. Via X Warnings from inside the AI giants point to an epic shared dilemma: Slow down and risk falling behind, or press ahead and risk losing control. The companies are full speed ahead, even as they practically beg for regulation or a global pause, Axios' Maria Curi, Madison Mills and Ina Fried report. The big picture: Calling this unprecedented would be a gross understatement. You basically have the fastest-growing companies in human history warning their products could harm or even destroy humanity. Critics say Anthropic and OpenAI are hyping their products to raise their valuations and invite regulation that would benefit them alone as the dominant incumbents. But we've been talking with dozens of people inside these companies for months, and they've sounded increasingly spooked and concerned. Given they see models not yet released to the public, it seems reckless not to take them seriously. 🏛️ Context for readers from Mike & Jim: This is self-evidently scary stuff — and these vague warnings are impossible to validate or appraise. But we think readers, especially members of Congress and those in relevant federal agencies, need to be aware that the AI creators themselves see potential catastrophic outcomes absent a shift in how America, China and others review and release more powerful AI models. 💡 How to think about this: Nobody is warning AI is an imminent high-level threat. What they're saying is that the technology keeps improving faster than they thought possible and will soon be able to self-improve (recursive self-improvement). Once that happens, it gets even better, faster ... and much harder to predict or control. Go deeper.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY September 9 1956 Elvis Presley makes first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” Elvis Presley appears for the first time on the popular "Ed Sullivan Show." With 60 million viewers tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1850 California becomes the 31st state in record time 20th Century 1919 The Boston police department goes on strike 21st Century 2002 72-year-old Buzz Aldrin punches a moon landing conspiracy theorist in the face American Revolution 1776 Congress renames the nation “United States of America” Arts & Entertainment 1939 Audiences are shown a surprise preview of “Gone with the Wind” Asian History 1976 Mao Zedong dies Crime 1971 Uprising at Attica prison begins Sports 2007 NFL nabs New England Patriots in “Spygate” scandal U.S. Presidents 1893 President Cleveland’s child is born in the White House Vietnam War 1969 Ho Chi Minh laid to rest in Hanoi 1967 Sergeant Duane D. Hackney receives Air Force Cross World War II 1942 Japanese bomb U.S. mainland

Oil surges above $100 a barrel as US and Iran launch new attacks, while gasoline prices also jump NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices shot past $100 a barrel Wednesday as fighting between the U.S. and Iran escalated, threatening to increase costs for consumers and businesses worldwide. https://apnews.com/article/oil-prices-iran-attack-saudi-brent-crude-7538e6386a819bcdc2547d530ec3472e?

Employees at Molson Coors get three free cases of beer each month, in addition to having access to beer and cider on location after a work day. James

How do national parks affect the economy? National park visitor spending contributes to local GDP, jobs, and wages. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-do-national-parks-affect-the-economy/? Analyst Notes: Are e-bikes dangerous? It’s surprisingly hard to know. Injuries and fatalities for e-bikes and e-scooters have increased over the past several years, but does the data exist to help us understand why? https://usafacts.org/articles/analyst-notes/just-how-dangerous-are-e-bikes-its-surprisingly-hard-to-know/? One last fact Milk production in the US has doubled since 1975, but people drink nearly half as much milk as back then. Yet, people are drinking 48.6% less milk now than they did back then. Where’s the other half of the milk going? Yogurt! (And other dairy products!) Today, people eat more than seven times the amount of yogurt than they did in 1975.

Alaska, reflected Photo: Bob Schumacher Thanks to reader Bob Schumacher of Wheaton, Ill., for another dispatch from his trip to Alaska! Bob captured the Johns Hopkins Glacier in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The tidewater glacier stretches roughly a mile across and rises 225–300 feet above the water at its terminus.

24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. KJV 24 So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; RSV Schoolmaster in KJV is an unfortunate translation. The "schoolmaster" was a trusted servant responsible for accompanying his charge to school. Young's literal translation describes the KJV schoolmaster as "child-conductor." This is a better translation. Note that both versions agree that once we come to Christ, we are no longer under the supervision of the child-conductor. Luther understood this. Calvin, on the other hand, likened the law in the Christian's life to a whip with which one lashes a lazy ass.

💥 Trump's summer of sabotage Congressional Republicans are preparing to share the stage with a president who has spent the August recess complicating their efforts to run their races on their own terms. Why it matters: Republican lawmakers fled Washington for the latter part of the summer, eager to localize their races. But President Trump keeps nationalizing the election. In the process, he's staking out positions that run counter to GOP orthodoxy on issues including beef imports and child care subsidies. 🚗 Driving the news: The Trump administration's plan to extend federal child care subsidies to families with a stay-at-home parent is the latest policy flashpoint. 🌵 His call to rename New Mexico is his most recent cultural one. The child care proposal — championed by Vice President Vance — sparked backlash from some conservative lawmakers and pundits who tagged the policy as "socialism" at a time when Republicans have made anti-socialism a central campaign message. And whatever the merits of calling New Mexico "New America," it's likely not what Greg Cunningham, the GOP candidate in NM-03, will focus on when he takes the stage at the convention. Between the lines: Although Trump isn't formally taking attendance at the convention, there will be some notable absences. Sen. Susan Collins won't make it — and isn't making an excuse. Sen. Dan Sullivan will stay home to prepare for a Saturday debate. More than 100 GOP lawmakers are expected to skip the event. 🌎 Zoom out: Trump has repeatedly forced Republicans to grapple with policies that aggravate their constituencies or collide with their own ideological convictions. 🐄 His plan to import up to 300,000 metric tons of beef tariff-free for 90 days inflamed GOP lawmakers in red states. More than a dozen GOP senators publicly criticized the move, warning it would hurt American cattle ranchers. Imposing higher tariffs on Canadian goods threatened to bring a trade war to two must-win border states: Maine and Michigan. ✈️ And his call yesterday to target Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier could have outsized economic implications in Kansas, a red state with an increasingly competitive Senate race. Trump ally Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) was forced to break with Trump over the call to boycott. Bombardier is a key employer in Kansas. 🤖 Republicans are taking an à la carte approach to data centers, which have suddenly become a political liability. Candidates in both parties have been scrambling to distance themselves from the industry. But Trump isn't brooking any nuance on the issue, calling communities that oppose data centers "backwards and poor." He doubled down four days later. 💪 Trump reacted to a surprisingly strong jobs report Friday by threatening to cut off trade with certain countries unless the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates. Congressional Republicans spent months defending the Fed's independence amid the administration's attacks on then-chair Jerome Powell — even leading to a hold-up on the confirmation of Trump's chosen new Fed chair. Trump seems to be wading back into the interest rates fight as inflation and affordability become the GOP's biggest election concerns. Trump is also restarting hostilities with Iran, dashing any GOP hopes that gas prices will drop before November. The bottom line: With less than two months to go until Election Day, Trump's coattails are increasingly looking short or nonexistent — and this week's midterm convention could either reverse or entrench that trend. — Stef W. Kight and Hans Nichols

Hobie, EGW wrote some good books, or had her name attached to them. Ministry of Healing, Education, Counsels on Diet and Foods [a compilation]. Great Controversy is good as an introduction to church history. Depending on how you count them, I've read 50-60+ of her book sin their entirety, made hundreds of note cards. If you want to read theology, try Cranfield's Shorter Commentary on Romans and Luther's commentary on Galatians. In some of her works, EGW apparently didn't know what she was talking about. You can learn similar rubbish from ministries like Amazing Facts. Her emphasis tended toward legalism. In some cases, she was a flaming legalist. Some have said her righteousness by faith writings, preserved in Selected Messages, volume 1, are peerless. Much of the confusion in Adventism has its origins in what Sr. White said. She gave good practical advice on ministry. Problem is that the denomination ignores much of her practical advice.

How to Tell the American Story (Al Drago / The Washington Post / Getty)   View in browser Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch plans to retire from the institution at the end of this year, bringing to a close a tenure marked by unprecedented pressure on the museum complex from a White House keen on controlling how to tell the nation’s history. After a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed the departure to The Atlantic, Bunch addressed Smithsonian employees at a town hall this afternoon, telling them, “I may be going away, but I’m still going to be a pain in the ass to some people.” The crowd of staffers, who spilled out of an auditorium and into an overflow room at the Hirshhorn Museum, clapped and cheered, even as some likely wondered: Why now? In conversations with intimates, Bunch, who became secretary in 2019, has been floating his retirement since at least the beginning of this year. But the increased attention from the White House surely made stepping down an even more delicate decision. Bunch, who is 73, tried to deflect any notion that his departure was Trump-related, telling staffers, “I now realize that I’m old as dirt, and it’s time for the next chapter in my life.” He also suggested that the timing may have been influenced by his wife, Maria Marable-Bunch, who recently retired from the National Museum of the American Indian. “The Smithsonian represents more than a career to me; it’s been an integral part of who I am,” he said. “I think about during the many years here, I met the love of my life, who’s retired and told me I better retire soon.” Bunch emphasized at the meeting and in an email to staff that his next chapter will allow him to “continue to protect the integrity of the Smithsonian and to champion the importance of a history that illuminates and symbolizes the complex story of our nation,” though he did not offer further details. One Smithsonian staffer, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, told us that while “as a secretary, he has to be very polite and decorous,” Bunch can be noisier outside the institution. Still, that will likely come in a measured form, characteristic of Bunch. As the staffer put it: “He’s not a real bomb-thrower, usually.” The person described the secretary as an exceptionally popular leader among staff: “He’s one of the rare people in Washington everyone seems to like. Well, except, you know, certain people, obviously.” Bunch’s exit will leave the Smithsonian, which is largely federally funded, with a vacancy at the top as it faces escalating efforts from the Trump administration to influence its work. Bunch, known to be diplomatic and evenhanded, had largely staved off the White House’s encroachment over a tumultuous 18 months in which the administration issued executive orders and letters criticizing the museums and threatened to withhold funding. In July, President Trump signed an executive order calling for signage to be added to the exterior of the National Museum of American History warning about what the administration claims is an inaccurate and partisan telling of history. Smithsonian leaders have countered that telling the American story fairly and accurately means discussing its complexities too. In a news release, Bunch said: “There is no place like the Smithsonian—it has been one of the great loves of my life, and I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together. I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.” The chair of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, Franklin D. Raines, thanked Bunch for his service and said the institution’s governing body will be “focused on ensuring stability during this time of transition.” He said that the Smithsonian would soon announce an acting secretary and begin a search for Bunch’s successor. “There are some very strong internal candidates,” Kim Sajet, the former director of the National Portrait Gallery, told us today. Before becoming secretary of the entire Smithsonian, Bunch was the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which has been widely praised for its powerful handling of the darkest chapters of America’s past. In Bunch, the Smithsonian had at its helm an advocate for its continued independence. The first historian and the first Black leader of the 21-museum complex, he spent nearly 38 years in roles across the institution. His departure has increased anxieties about the institution’s future. “As the only Secretary of the Smithsonian to come from a background in history, he was well positioned to understand—and to defend—the discipline when history itself is under attack,” a former colleague of Bunch’s, who worked with him for years, texted us after the news. “His eloquent defense of history, grounded in a deeply rooted cultural understanding of the American story, will leave a leadership vacuum and the Smithsonian will be ever more vulnerable,” the colleague, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal from the administration, went on. In a way, Trump and Bunch exemplified a primary tension facing not only the Smithsonian in this moment but the field of American history more generally. Trump’s call for a feel-good, Founding Fathers–forward telling of American history is somewhat at odds with Bunch’s biggest achievements: the dramatic reevaluation of whose story has a place on the National Mall and how the country faces the harder parts of its past. Bunch will leave the institution just as it seeks to hold off a threat against the very work that defines his legacy. One of the most dramatic illustrations of that tension occurred in May 2025, when Trump announced that he was firing Sajet, even though he had no authority to do so. The Board of Regents affirmed Bunch’s authority over hiring and firing, though Sajet ultimately resigned from the National Portrait Gallery in June, saying that the dispute had become a distraction for the institution. Sajet, who now leads the Milwaukee Art Museum, told us she still misses the Smithsonian and has watched with dismay as the pressure that came for her first continues to bear down on her former colleagues. Through the changes, Sajet said that she and Bunch have remained in close touch. “I think it’s one of the loneliest jobs in the world to be in the head of a large institution like that,” she said. Sajet said Bunch’s background as both a historian and a museum director made him well suited to steer the Smithsonian through periods of turmoil—including the racial-justice reckoning after George Floyd’s murder and the pandemic. “I know that you believe that your legacy is building the National Museum of African American History and Culture,” Sajet recalled telling him. “But I’d like to suggest to you that you being the secretary at this particular moment in time is really important.” She said she believes those same qualities carried him through the Smithsonian’s showdowns with the White House, adding that he’s labored to maintain the institution’s unusual relationship with the federal government (all three branches are represented on the Board of Regents). “He’s tried very hard to maintain the respect for our elected officials, and I admire him for it,” Sajet said. Trump’s attacks at times seemed to directly target Bunch’s work. Last summer, the president came after the Smithsonian on social media, writing that it focused too much on “how bad Slavery was.” The two later met over lunch at the White House, a conversation that Bunch described as “the most stressful lunch I’ve ever had in my life.” In a December letter that the administration sent to the Smithsonian, the White House threatened to withhold funding if the museum complex did not comply with an order to send over a trove of documents about its work and comply with its demands to tell an adequately patriotic version of American history. Americans “will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history,” the letter said. This summer, the administration ordered the National Park Service to put up signs that would attempt to discredit the National Museum of American History. Throughout the pressure campaign, many have praised Bunch for sheltering the museums from the worst of it. Shanita Brackett, the current acting director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, told our colleague Clint Smith earlier this year that Bunch has set an example in tough times. “What he’s taught us over the last 14 months is not to be afraid, not to run,” Brackett said. Bunch had become more direct in standing up for the institution in recent months, telling CNN’s Christiane Amanpour this summer that he believes “it’s our job to tell an accurate, complex, and truthful history,” and that “it scares me when people aren’t brave enough to face their history.” Still, Bunch’s legacy goes beyond holding the line between a beloved American institution and an overbearing president. Bunch first joined the institution in 1978, starting at the Air and Space Museum, and he later took on a number of roles at the American History Museum from 1989 to 2000, including associate director of curatorial affairs. After serving as the president of the Chicago Historical Society, he returned in 2005 to the Smithsonian to build the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016. Under his watch, two more museums were authorized by Congress: the American Women’s History Museum and the National Museum of the American Latino. Both have faced political roadblocks; the regents recently voted to open the Latino museum in a prominent building on the National Mall that the Smithsonian already controls in order for it to move forward without having to rely on Congress or the Trump administration to grant it a new site. At the town hall today, Bunch cited the plans for the new museums, the return of pandas to the National Zoo, and the celebrations for the country’s 250th birthday as among his proudest accomplishments. A show he co-curated, likely his final for the Smithsonian, was mounted at the Smithsonian Castle this summer, offering a subtle rejoinder to those who think history is a finished story, meant only for finding glory. The framing of this show for the country’s birthday, according to its introductory text, was Thomas Jefferson’s urging that the newly formed United States be a nation “in pursuit.” Related: First the Kennedy Center, now the Smithsonian. The White House wants to make the Smithsonian a pariah.

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