1 The little boat was safe in the harbor, the sea was calm, and the weather was beautiful. Unfortunately, our little boat was not tethered to the dock. But what could go wrong; the conditions were perfect. Oh, but life happens. Barely perceptible at first, the tide was moving the boat away from the safety of the dock. Slowly it moved closer to the opening of the harbor and into the shipping lanes. Somehow our little boat made it past the opening without being hit by the larger ships, but then it was caught by the powerful ocean current and whisked away to places unknown.
Our poor little boat, if only it had been tethered to the dock with a strong rope, better yet, with two strong ropes. It would be safe. Ready for the owner’s use. Ready to do what it was designed to do.
Like the boat so is the work of translating the Bible. If you have read from a number of diverse translations, one of the first things you notice is the vastly different directions some go. While some stay close to each other, others go far adrift of the customary way passages are worded. Take Psalms 1:1, in the ESV “who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,” (similar to most translations) but then you get “don’t walk in the ruts of those blind-as-bats,” from the Message. We keep the metaphorical “walk” but where do the concepts of “ruts” or “blind-as-bats” come from? We lose the clear and concrete expression of “counsel” and “the wicked.”
How does this happen? By the translators not being tethered to anything. They see themselves as free to do what they wish with the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew text of the Bible. These translators see themselves as free to rephrase and reimage the language of Scripture to “help” us to understand it better. He will add to the text explanations and remove figures of speech that he assumes will be too difficult for the reader to learn. In order to properly translate the biblical text into another language, the translators need to be tethered by two strong lines.
The first tether which keeps us from going adrift is our doctrine of inspiration: Synergistic Verbal Plenary Theory of Inspiration. 2 Synergistic emphasizes the working of both God and man in the process of creating the written Word. The writers were free to be themselves as they wrote under the moving of the Holy Spirit; they were not simply taking dictation.
The second part of our theory is the Plenary and Verbal. These two terms are related but give different emphasis. Plenary points to all of the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 starts with the phrase “All Scripture is inspired…”. Not a part or a portion but all of it. Nowhere in the Bible is it ever stated or implied a portion of it may be dismissed or is of lesser value. This is the Plenary view: meaning full, complete, or entire.
Jesus also makes the case for the Plenary Verbal theory even clearer in Matthew 5:18 (ESV) “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” In other words, even the smallest letter or stroke of the pen are God’s!
The Verbal Theory says inspiration goes down to the very words used. Even the number of a noun matters. In Galatians 3:16 Paul used the distinction between “seed” and “seeds” from a passage in Genesis to prove his point of Christ alone being that singular seed. The use of the singular was critical to Paul’s point. Jesus went as far as to emphasize the tense of a verb from Exodus to correct the Sadducees about the resurrection in Matthew 22:32 (emphasis added), pointing out the verb is present tense “I am” instead of past; “I was ”.
The second tether comes directly from our doctrine of inspiration. Since all and every word of Scripture is inspired then second tether must be the original words of the text must tether us from drifting. What the translators needs to do is tie themselves to the original words in such a way they seek to translate those words into English as closely as possible to convey the wording of the original. The author wrote what they did, being led by the Holy Spirit, for a reason. What the church needs is not a watered-down version of the Bible. We need what was originally written but in understandable English wording.
This is “understandable” as in good standard English, not understandable as in simplified to the understanding of the lowest common denominator. It is not the translator’s job to explain the text to us but to put the text into English, so we can study and investigate its meaning. The job of the translator is to translate not interpret. Our pastors, Bible study teachers, commentary writers and us—as the Bible reader/studier—are to do the interpretation. How can we interpret it if we don’t know where it differs from the original text?
Thus, both tethers hold us strongly to the text. As each and every word is God’s word then how could we accept a translation which drifts from His wording? Of course, no two languages fit together perfectly word for word. In order to make sense in English, the translator will need to adjust the syntax or word order. Yet, this should be done with great caution so as to not alter the meaning or sense of the original.
The translator also has to find the right English word or words to carry the meaning of the original. There are many times it will take more than one word in English to carry the meaning of one original word and the opposite is also true at times. But with these two tethers of our view of inspiration and the original language text, the translator has a limit on how far he can or should be willing to move from the original text.
While not part of this illustration, all involved in this process—the textual critic, the translator, interpreter, preacher, commentator, Bible study teacher and the reader—must be led by the Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual endeavor, not merely an academic pursuit. The translator needs the Holy Spirit to help him understand the words in their context in order to put them into good standard English. While he should not be putting his interpretation into the English text nor should he be adding explanative information to it, he must understand what the original is saying and meaning to put what the original says into English.
The translator’s goal is to never drift away from the original text of the Word of God. The translator must hold in heart and mind the two tethers of a proper doctrine of Inspiration and to the text of Scripture. This is the service they perform for the body of Christ, giving us a Bible in English that we can trust is truly God’s words. The words He inspired in scripture for us, not words that have drifted away from the safe harbor of the Holy Spirit’s work in inspiring the original writers and preserving the text for us to have through the centuries.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg
Photo form Unsplash
- This illustration is a paraphrase of and an expansion from Wuest, Kenneth S., The Gospels: An expanded Translation. 1956, pp28-29.
- For a larger discussion of this topic see our post on Inspiration especially our post Inspiration: How It Works