Version-itis
Nevertheless, hear to the word of YHWH, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt Jeremiah 44:26
Word of the LORD – We have a serious problem. We don’t hear God’s words. We read them. That means that we must rely on a translator or a translation committee. We aren’t in the same position as those who heard the prophets. They communicated what God said by speaking the words in the same language that the people spoke. We are far removed from that oral communication. We don’t share the same time, place, culture or language – and the result is a lot of confusion. For us, “hearing” God’s Word is much more difficult.
If you read the prophets, including Moses, you will quickly realize that most of the instructions from God were communicated orally. They were only written down after they were spoken. Even when God Himself inscribed the Ten Words at Sinai, Moses delivered them to the people orally. There was considerably less possibility for error. When the prophets like Jeremiah say, “hear the word of YHWH,” they use the Hebrew verb shama. Shama means more than hear. It also means obey, understand, be obedient, declare, perceive, regard and yield to. In other words, there is no distinction between the oral reception and practical application. In Hebrew, you don’t hear something unless it changes your behavior. You have to know what He says and then do it!
So, what are we to do? YHWH doesn’t speak to us. We have to rely on someone’s translation of the words He spoke. We have to convert the dabar-YHWH (word-of-YWHW) into our language and then respond to it. But since we don’t hear what God says in our native tongue, we are stuck with the enormous problem of translation. It all comes down to this: What translation can be trusted to deliver the same meaning as the words God spoke?
The simple answer is: None. Unfortunately, every translation carries the presupposition of the translators no matter how careful they are to be as accurate as possible. Why? Because every translation must move the original culture, context, idioms and understanding from one way of looking at the world to another. Just the fact that shama means “hearing” and “obeying” tells you that our translation “hear” is already inadequate. And as you know, there are dozens of other examples where translation leaves us with inadequate interpretation. The perennial question, “What translation is the best for me?” is an impossible question to answer. The only way you will ever really appreciate, understand, hear and obey God’s Word is to take up the quest of digging deeper. You must start to think like those who heard the words. You must immerse yourself in the culture of His chosen people. And you must constantly be on the lookout for abnormalities in your translated texts where the bias of the translator shows itself – especially when the translator doesn’t tell you about his views.
Here are some principles that will help. Every time you really want to know what the text says, you need to do some work like this (from Henry Virkler, Hermeneutics):
- consider the historical-cultural and contextual milieu of the author, i.e. how the author thought in the time and place where the author lived
- develop a lexical-syntactical analysis (the definitions of words and connections between words)
- take account of the theological aspects of the translation
- look at the literary form of the text (prose, poetry, narration, exhortation, etc.)
- compare your work with other interpretations
- ask yourself what this meant to the original audience that heard it
Now, when you read the dabar-YHWH in translation, you can begin to glimpse the translator’s paradigm. You must know this or be subject to the hidden assumptions of the translator. QUESTION everything that doesn’t sound like something the first hearers would have understood. ASK how the translators came up with their interpretation. WORK at it.
Then you can write Today’s Word for yourself and choose a version that helps you get at the real meaning of the text.
Topical Index: Translation, dabar, hermeneutics, interpretation
