The Question
“Man, who knew this would be going so well? I thought high school would be scarier, but so far so good. I seem to be fitting in. I have all my friends from middle school and even made friends with some of the older guys on the football team. I can do …” John stopped in mid-thought and just stared. Across the commons he saw her. She was walking to the annex. Sally. John has sort of known Sally for a couple of years. She had been in classes with him in the past, but something about her was different now. He couldn’t get her out of his head.
Without warning, he was suddenly punched in the arm. He knew who it was without looking for Sam couldn’t ever punch very hard, well Samantha, but everyone called her Sam.
“Wake up John, you look completely zoned out.”
John looked at Sam then turned his head back to see Sally, but she had already entered the building. Sam had been John’s best bud for forever. He couldn’t remember when they did not know each other. For most of their lives if you saw one, the other was not far off. But there were times John found her annoying especially lately.
“Why do you always hit me? Hey wait. You and Sally are friends. Right?”
“Sally West?”
“Yes, Sally West!”
Sam looked a little suspicious of the question. Was John interested in Sally? Cautiously she replied, “Yes.”
“Good, I need you to talk to her for me. I need you to find out what she thinks of me. I want to ask her out but not if she doesn’t like me too.”
“Why don’t you talk to her?”
“Are you psycho? I can’t! You have to ask her for me!”
“When am I supposed to do this?”
“NOW! We have like 15 minutes before school starts. Go ask her then come back here and tell me what she said.”
“Why don’t I just meet you at lunch and tell you?” She knew the answer, but she had to make him squirm some.
“Are you kidding, I can’t go all day waiting!”
Sam took a deep breath. “Ok, but you owe me big, and I will collect!”
“Thank you, thank you, get going, thank you. Go!”
John watched with earth-shaking nerves as Sam made her way to the annex. “Good Lord, what have I done?” John’s mind was racing with a mix of nervousness, anxiety, and anticipation but mostly dread. “This could go so bad in so many ways! Where is she? How long does it take to ask some simple questions?”
John’s pacing quickened as he watched the clock on the wall move forward, his life hanging on every tick. Finally, Sam was coming back.
“What took you so long, never mind; did you talk to her? Did you ask her? What did she say?”
“Ok, whoa boy. Stop asking a billion questions and I’ll tell you. Basically, she thinks you’re cool and you two would fit together.”
“Basically? Basically! I don’t want basically. Tell me her exact words!”
“Wow, I’ve never seen you so freaked out! Ok, her exact words were, ‘I think John is kind of cute. I’ve liked him for a long time but didn’t think he was into me. Really, I think we would fit together like milk and cookies.’ I’m not sure why she would think that about you, but there it is.”
“Samantha Rachel Jones! That is way different than your version of what Sally said! Never mind, we have to get to classes. And thanks, I owe you.”
The Point
I know our regular visitors are shaking their heads wondering: “What in the world has happened to Cultivating Faith. A teenage romance?” We do have a point to our little story. The same point John made at the end. Words matter! He needed and wanted to know what Sally actually said. Not a processed, interpreted summary. Her words were the words he was looking for.
Should we want anything less from our translation of the Bible? God has spoken to us in His Word, why would we want other words. If God wanted it phrased in another way, He could have done so. As with John, we don’t want Sam’s “you two would fit together,” we want Sally’s “we would fit together like milk and cookies.” What a picture! Who would want the flat, lifelessness of Sam’s rephrasing?
What richness we lose if everything is explained. John could figure out what “milk and cookies” meant if he didn’t know, just as we can come to understand idioms, analogies, and figures of speech from biblical times. We may need some help. Thank God for preachers, teachers, study Bibles, and commentaries. Just ask any woman how much she enjoys mansplaining. Do we really want “translatorsplaining”?
Recall we have started a group of posts where we will be looking at translation methods and philosophy. The first principle of a good translation philosophy is a Bible should say in English what the original text of the Old and New Testaments said. We don’t want our translators interpreting the meaning of the passage, then fitting the English words to go along with their understanding. We want God’s authoritative, inspired Words as the authors penned them yet in well-written English. This is part of what is called an “Essentially Literal method of Transaction.” This is also known as a word-for-word approach. We will take a deeper look at this method, along with other methods, in future posts.
The Epilogue
Long story short, while John and Sally were too young for a solo date, John arranged a group outing with some friends and invited Sally. They had a fantastic time, but alas they were not quite the “milk and cookies” fit Sally had thought they would be. But don’t fret. Sam was destined to be more than John’s best bud, but that is a tale for another time.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash