This is a section of my term paper written for Philosophical Hermeneutics while working on my Master's of Divinity at Criswell College this past semester. It was written for Dr. Douglas Blount, an excellent professor of Theology and Philosophy who was one of the editors and writers for the Southern Baptist defence of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (an excellent book).
God's Communication Through the Translated Text
By Manley C. Beasley
Can
God's written word be properly understood when translated to dialects
other than its original language? This question may seem to be a
serious problem for the Christian because it denotes a problem that
is common to the modern belief of translation. We are attacked from
every side by those who look to belittle the sufficiency of
scriptures, and one of their weapons is the declared weakness of any
translation to convey the the original text's meaning accurately. The
phrase lost in translation has become so accepted that it's
used as a metaphor for any inability understand what someone is
saying. The argument usually centers around one language's word being
insufficient for translating another language’s word. People make
statements like “the English language doesn't have a word for that
word in the Greek”, presuming that makes the meaning of that Greek
word unknowable or having some special depth that those who don't
know the Greek could ever grasp. The foolishness of this argument is
twofold. First, if the word can't be known for lack of corresponding
English signs, how can the wise translator know that there isn't a
corresponding English sign unless the real meaning of the word is
clear to him? If the meaning isn't clear it seems more plausible that
the skill of the translator is probably the issue. If the meaning is
clear to the translator then it must be assumed that at worst there
isn't a single adequate English word though there assuredly
must be a phrase that would suffice. To define a word is to give
explanation of a word's meaning to those who are ignorant of that
specific word. Once those who are ignorant familiarize themselves
with the definition of the new word it has lost its mystery. When
translating a word to another language it is sometimes necessary to
use multiple words to accurately capture the meaning of the word
being translated. This is similar to defining the word because there
isn't a single word that suffices. This does not mean the word wasn't
understandable in the new language, it only means that there are some
differences between the two languages. Second, if the word denotes a
concept that is not able to be understood because it signifies
something unknowable, we can certainly find a word or phrase that can
capture that transcendence. What must be understood is that language
is never the problem because language only signifies actual meanings.
Even if a brand new idea has come into view, a new word can be made
into the sign for it. When someone says “there are no adequate
words for this concept” they are really saying either they
don't understand the concept themselves, or they think the person
they're speaking to won't understand. If all else fails they can
invent a new sign and provide the definition to those who need to
know. The problems in translation don't come from language but from
the ability of translators. As we've already established, language is
fully able to convey meaning. If a person translating a text has the
knowledge of the languages in question to be able to identify
correspondent signs, they are fully capable of rightly translating
the text. The scripture itself shows us this when we reflect on the
story of the Tower of Babel and the narrative of the Spirit's
outpouring at Pentecost. The Tower of Babel was being built because
of the unity and cooperation men had because they still shared one
language.1
Genesis 11:7-9 tells us what God did.
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that
they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord
dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they
left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel,
because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And
from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
(Gen 11:7-9)
Because
of the immediacy of the miraculous birth of languages, men could not
understand each other. The result was the creation of the tribes and
nations that we see spread all over the world. What is interesting is
that these new languages were created by God Himself. Even though
humanity's ignorance of the different languages caused them to not
understand each other, it doesn't indicate that those new languages
couldn't convey meaning. God's purpose was to disperse them over
the face of all the earth, not take away their ability to
communicate. It wasn't long until people started learning other
languages and communicating again. By then God had accomplished His
purpose and humans were spread out. Acts 2:4-6 shows us that a
multiplicity of languages are capable of conveying identical meaning.
Christ's disciples were praying together and the Holy Spirit was
poured out on them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now
there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation
under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and
they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his
own language.
What
was being said by the disciples was heard in different languages.
These different languages from every nation under heaven
conveyed the identical meaning being communicated by those filled
with the Spirit. The languages spoken by these multinational Jews
were capable of saying the exact same things. This is supported
further by translation done in the original texts of scripture.
Although the New Testament is written in Greek, it consistently
quotes the Old Testament which was written in Hebrew. Whether the
writers of the New Testament translated from the Hebrew themselves or
relied on the Greek Septuagint makes no difference because both
options require the work of translation from the original Hebrew. The
fact that both the Old and New Testaments are the inspired inerrant
scripture proves that the Greek translations perfectly convey the
meaning of the Hebrew texts. The Holy Spirit inspiring these
quotations is just as accurate as the Holy Spirit inspiring the
original text. We can also appeal to the fact that Christ Himself was
not preaching and teaching in Greek but in Aramaic. The Holy Spirit
again inspired the writers of the New Testament to translate His
preaching into Greek. By this we can see that translation really does
have the capability of conveying identical meaning across multiple
languages. This is obviously important to missions and evangelism. If
we are to preach the gospel to all nations we have to be confident
that we can really proclaim the true meaning of the gospel in all of
the languages of those who hear. If translation cannot be relied upon
we could accidentally proclaim a contrary message Paul condemned in
Galations 1:9. Since the gospel will succeed in saving people from
all nations we can be certain that the languages of all people are
capable of proclaiming an unadulterated gospel.
1
Gen 11:6
