September 11, 2009
Lost in Translation
I finally finished reading, ‘The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translations’ by Leland Ryken. I now have a better understanding of the different Bible translations available and what we, as readers, have gained and lost in the translation process. One of the more striking points made is the attempt to make Scripture uniform, standard and readable for all people. Translators have ‘flattened’ out the Word of God and many our Bibles now read like the daily newspaper. There is little for the reader to ponder or meditate upon when the text is in short sentences and everything is explained. I’ve used the NIV (1978) extensively for years; however Ryken’s book convinced me I needed to change. Last Sunday I used my new English Standard Version for the first time…oh my goodness. It’s like coming home to the King James Version…minus all the thees and thous.
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Gail;
-----I have used the Revised Standard Version through out my new life. I learned early that it was a veiled, liberal attack on the divinity of Christ. But I also understood the Word was undefeatable because it was a networked message that supported itself. For instance, the RSV’s attempt to deny the virgin birth of Christ by translating Isaiah’s use of the Hebrew “bethulah” as a “young woman” is destroyed by Luke’s testimony that Mary was a virgin. Now we have the RSV not destroying the Word, but illuminating the falsehood of man. I find that to be a very valuable illumination, so I continue to use it for the two lights it casts upon one subject.
-----This is part of the wisdom of God being made known through the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. (Eph 3:10) God’s plan is crucial, and man’s involvement in it is certain. It is not the perfection of man’s efforts, or even the correctness of them that makes the plan work. Paul carefully demonstrated the destructiveness of party spirit and laid the case for abandoning it in the first four chapters of I Corinthians, yet by the end of the first century the early church had walked right into it. The history of the church has ever since been replete with partisan bickering and division to the point that the world has given the rhetorical, “Uhu, right…” to its message. But God’s plan has moved on and provided much fruit for His harvest in spite of man’s blundering with His Word, as Paul stated in Romans 3:4, “Let God be true though every man be false.” God’s wisdom is embedded in His mercy, and His mercy towards the church has necessarily been abundant.
-----So I do not stress over the abuse done the Word by the theological bias written into various translations. In fact, I am thankful that it all gives testimony to the impenetrable nature of His plan, the bounty of His wisdom, and that it evidences His desire to meet with any heart in search of the truth in spite of its ability to see any more clearly than as through a mirror dimly.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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