“I do not write to you because
you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes
from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the
Christ. Such a man is the antichrist-he denies the Father and the Son. No one
who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father
also.” (1 John 2:21-23)
“Anyone who believes in the Son
of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has
made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has
given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have
the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:9-12)
I have a good friend who is
serving the Lord in a ministry similar to ours but in a different part of the
world. He is presently in the throes of a growing wrangle between concerned denominational
leaders, fellow workers, and Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT–SIL which originally
stood for "Summer Institute of Linguistics"). The concern is
about some of the SIL personnel who seem to be betraying a lack of
commitment to foundational doctrines of soteriology and an indefensible
practice of removing "Father" in reference to God, and
"Son" and "Son of God" in reference to Jesus when
doing audio, visual, and printed translations of the Bible and Bible
portions for Muslims. Not surprisingly, WBT-SIL has material wherein they
approve of what we call "Insider Movements" which refers to the
approach to missions wherein the contextualization of the gospel is taken to
the extent of promoting the conviction (and practice) that a person can believe
in Jesus without actually “converting” from their original religion.
Thus, in the Insider Movement’s thinking a person can literally be a
"Muslim follower of Jesus" who remains a Muslim for all practical
purposes and simultaneously professes saving faith in Jesus Christ. Also,
not surprisingly, it has been discovered by my friend that at least one of the
SIL leaders, has actually stated that he believes there can be salvation outside
of faith in Jesus Christ! So we lament over our partners in the gospel, WBT-SIL,
as my friend has reported,
Unfortunately,
the leadership is not merely tolerating the unwise actions of a few
missionaries, but is actively promoting these things. There have
been no signs of reconsidering what they are doing, dismissing the
concerns and protests of people both within their organization as well as
outside of it. Added to this is the fact that this plays right into the
Muslim accusation that Christians have changed the text of the Bible - where
Muslims had no proof for their false claim, WBT-SIL (and others) are now
providing them with that “proof." The worst thing is that Muslims
are being given a message that cannot save them even if they believe it! [from a personal e-mail]
With regard to the
dynamic-equivalent approach to Bible translation there is a fine line between
the work of translation and the work of interpretation. Greg
Beale, my New Testament Interpretation professor from seminary used to say that
all translation involves some degree of interpretation. I guess that’s unavoidable.
But if every work of translation will necessarily betray some interpretation on
the part of the translation team, what then should be the goal in producing a
final translation? Should it not be to admit this reality and produce a
translation that 1.) is as literal as possible to the original text and 2.)
alerts the reader through footnotes to the translation team’s interpretive
choices where necessary due to a lack of exact terminology for rendering the
original meanings?
Another way to ask this question
is, “What is the role of the translator?” Every religious or academic community
must deal at some point with the issues of translation. Many people do not
realize that Greek philosophy had a large impact on Islam when a massive translation
movement in Bagdad produced Arabic translations of many Greek philosophical
classics. “From about the middle of the eighth century to the end of the tenth,
almost all non-literary and non-historical secular Greek books that were
available throughout the Eastern Byzantine Empire and the Near East were
translated into Arabic.”[i]
For my Islamic Philosophy course this term my professor has me re-reading The
Republic of Plato as background for understanding the philosophical
writings of early Muslim philosophers. He insisted that I get Allan Bloom’s
edition because of his unsurpassed interpretive essay which is included. Writing
in 1968 Allan Bloom in the preface to this second edition of The Republic
writes on the intention of his own translation of Plato and the true goal in
the translation of any ancient text.
This is intended
to be a literal translation…such a translation is intended to be useful to the
serious student, the one who wishes and is able to arrive at his own
understanding of the work. He must be emancipated from the tyranny of the translator,
given the means of transcending the limitations of the translator’s
interpretation, enabled to discover the subtleties of the elusive original. The
only way to provide the reader with this independence is by slavish, even if
sometimes cumbersome, literalness – insofar as possible always using the same
English equivalent for the same Greek word. The translator should conceive of
himself as a medium between a master whose depths he has not plumbed and an
audience of potential students of that master who may be much better endowed
than is the translator. His greatest vice is to believe he has adequately
grasped the teaching of his author. It is least of all his function to
render the work palatable to those who do not wish, or are unable, to expend the
effort requisite the study of difficult texts. Nor should he try to make an
ancient mode of thought sound ‘contemporary.’ Such translations become less
useful as more attention is paid to the text. At the very least, one can say
that a literal translation is a necessary supplement to more felicitous
renditions which deviate widely from their original.”[ii]
[italics mine]
I could not agree more! And if
this wise description pertains to the careful role and respectful approach of
the translator of pagan philosophers how much more should it pertain to
translators of God’s sacred revelation of his word? Are not believers and
congregations in every culture around the world called upon to be “serious
students” of the Bible? Are not the sacred texts of Scripture the very
revelation of the “Master whose depths” will continue to be “plumbed” by
the church which constitutes “an audience of potential students of that master
who may be much better endowed than is the translator?" Whether we are talking
about “gender-neutral” translations geared toward Feminist or Postmodern
readers in the West or the WBT-SIL translators and others (like the producers
of the ‘al-Kitaab al-Shariif’ Arabic version) who are sympathetic to the Insider Movement approach
to Muslims, in each case, the translation team has forgotten its role as “medium”
in the process of ministry and betrays a weak ecclesiology. It should not
surprise us to discover, therefore, that typically, the proponents of highly
dynamic translations of the Bibles and the Insider Movement approach also
tend to promote the rapid exponential spread of “Church-planting Movements” (CPM’s)
which depend heavily upon a loose definition of a local church as “one or two
gathered together in Jesus’ name.” But Ephesians 4:11-16 describes the ministry
of a local church under a defined leadership with manifold offices.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and
teachers, 12 to equip the
saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be
children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in
love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into
Christ, 16 from whom the
whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,
when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds
itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
The foundational ministry and
teaching of the Apostles and their Master, Jesus Christ, are forever preserved
for us in the testimony of Scripture. A strong ecclesiology respects the role
of those holding the office of shepherds and teachers as “serious students” of
the Scriptures. They are those who carry on the apostolic devotion to prayer
and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4) for the purpose of equipping “the
saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ...” When
encountering new cultures and opposing belief systems holding alternative truth
claims, the church and its leadership does not depend upon “human cunning” or “craftiness”
when delivering the message of the gospel. “Rather, speaking the truth in love,”
the church respectfully (respecting both to the Word and the Gospel message as
it stands and showing genuine respect to the new receptor culture) conveys the
Scriptures as literally as possible and teaches its meaning and application to
new leaders, as serious students of the Scriptures, so that they too are able
to equip their new saints "for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, until [they also] all attain to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” and, “may no longer be
children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine,” and that they too “might grow up in every way
into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and
held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
It seems some Bible translators have forgotten their
place. They have come to believe that they know best and can decide what each culture
is ready to hear and not hear with regard to the Biblical testimony. They have
left the noble task of simple accurate translation and have cunningly entered
the realm of Bible interpretation by craftily injecting their own interpretive angle
into the text of their translations on behalf of cultures to which they typically
do not belong. In so doing they are tampering with foundational Bible doctrines,
obscuring true gospel soteriology, and aiding the endeavor to ignite church-planting movements in
resistant cultures by utilizing a truncated apostolic witness, and bypassing the ministry
of shepherds and teachers, the serious students of Scripture, which ultimately
leads to the establishment and exponential multiplication of gatherings which are
not truly local expressions of the Body of Christ, forever propagating the great potential of
syncretizing Christianity with Islam and other pagan religions. Let us “be
emancipated from the tyranny” of such translators!
Great post jtswift! CPM's use of Matthew 18 shows a willingness to twist Scripture as well, using a verse that has little, actually nothing, to do with the size of a church gathering to justify their movement.
ReplyDeleteYour points on the role of translators are spot on, and the quote from Bloom should be emailed to every WBT/SIL staffer.
Yes, i was immediately struck by the relevance of Bloom's preface comments to the current issues in Bible Translation. I knew these classes would be turn out to be good for something!
ReplyDeleteAlf Shukr (a thousand thanks)! I just had a meeting earlier today with some WBT-SIL officials. It is unfortunate that they continue to promote and defend the removal of "Father," "Son," and "Son of God," from the text of the Bible in order for Muslims to "understand" the deeper meaning that is conveyed by "Father" and "Son." Bloom shows greater understanding of translation than the "experts" in WBT-SIL (btw, "experts" is the term they use when referring to their ability in linguistics and translation).
ReplyDelete