All Greek to you?

All scripture is inspired by God… 2 Timothy 3:16

Not long ago I was involved in a discussion about Bible translations.

When I was a teenage Christian over fifty years ago there was, to all intents and purposes, only one English Bible. It was called the Authorised Version (AV) or, more correctly, the King James Version. Certainly, other translations existed, but they were little known and not much used in services. The “AV” was the real Bible, and while you might consult one of the others occasionally, it held pride of place.

Then, in the later decades of the twentieth century there was an explosion of translations in up-to-date English; this shocked and worried some Christians, while others were happy to welcome it. Today, the AV is used, if at all, largely for ceremonial occasions, rarely for regular worship or Bible study (though I think in America there remain large numbers of die-hard AV loyalists). My guess would be that, especially  among evangelical Christians in Britain, the most popular version is the New International Version (NIV), first published in 1979 and updated periodically since.

No wonder worshippers get confused about this plethora of versions – there seems so much to try and understand and for most Christians it just isn’t part of their everyday lives; they have all sorts of other things to focus on, and can’t be expected to think too much about what is, after all, a pretty technical matter.

As our group talked it occurred to me that it might be useful to devote a blog to some of the questions and issues involved – so if such technical matters aren’t your thing by all means do click off right now and save yourself valuable time. As it’s rather different from the kind of thing I usually write, please bear with the technical parts, and also be prepared for something rather longer than usual, as I don’t want to come back for a second episode.

Let me focus briefly on just some of the key issues.

First, Bible translation is necessary.

Forgive me for stating the obvious. But as a start we need to recognise that the Bible is written in two of the languages of the ancient world, Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament), with a dash of Aramaic as well. This means that if we can’t read these languages we simply can’t read the Bible at all. Translations are a necessity, not a luxury.

Second, language, like anything else, dates with the passing of time, so periodic new translations and updatings are also not just helpful but essential. Both the Old and the New Testaments were written in language that ordinary people could understand, so this should be reflected in the versions we use.

Third, the science of translation, whether of secular languages or of the biblical ones, is immensely complex – which is why it throws up plenty of scope for disagreement.

Here’s a down-to-earth example. Suppose you are in a French restaurant and the waiter brings you your food. As he puts the plates on your table he smiles and says “Bon appetit, madame, monsieur”. Suppose you were asked to translate “bon appetit” into English. You may not know much French, but probably you would be able to work out, well, “bon” means “good” and “appetit” means “appetite”, so… no problem, the waiter is saying “Good appetite”. What could be simpler? Sorted.

But you would be wrong. “Good appetite” may be technically a correct translation of those two French words, but it just isn’t something we say in English, so to translate it in that way would be ridiculous.

Which raises the question: So what would constitute a good translation? It probably depends on the kind of eating-place you are in. If it’s fairly up-market, “Enjoy your meal” might be as good as you can get, though none of those three words figures in the French phrase. If you’re in your local greasy spoon caff, “Grub’s up” or “Get stuck in” would probably be better, if not quite as elegant.

I personally can’t really think of any alternatives. But the point is clear: the idea of finding a strict word-for-word equivalent is a lost cause; languages just don’t work like that, so some kind of alternative has to be found.

This can easily be illustrated from the Bible. I was reading recently in Romans 6, where Paul is pressing home the fact that we “are not under the law but under grace” since we have trusted in Jesus. But something worries him: people are suggesting that this means we are therefore at liberty to carry on sinning because it just brings forth more of God’s grace; it’s as if we’re doing him a favour by highlighting what a gracious God he is. Can this be right? he asks, and immediately stamps hard on such a notion: “By no means!” in verses 2 and 15.

But how accurate a translation is “By no means!” or, come to that, “Certainly not!” or “Never!” (Or even, perhaps, “You cannot be serious!”)

If we look at Paul’s Greek text we find that he used just two words: in English letters they consist of a strong negative, me – a “subjective negative particle”, my lexicon tells me (just in case you wanted to know), followed by a verb which has to do with being or becoming, genoito. But to translate “Not be!” or “Never happen!” would obviously be ridiculous. “By no means!” captures the meaning well enough, but it certainly isn’t a word-for-word translation. (You might be interested to know that the AV translators, way back in the 1600s, seem to have given up trying to find anything remotely literal and went for “God forbid!”, though Paul doesn’t bring God into it at all.) In fact, “May it not be so!” is as close to literal as you could get, but it’s pretty awkward and flat, which really doesn’t reflect Paul’s mood in this part of Romans. 

So… Let nobody imagine that Bible translation is a simple matter of taking a group of words, picking up a Greek lexicon and fishing out literal equivalents. Nothing could be further from the truth. (In fact, me genoito!)

Fourth, it’s impossible to completely disentangle translation and interpretation.

In other words, every time somebody attempts to translate a passage of scripture, they cannot help but put a particular slant on it. They may not intend to, but it’s bound to happen, and that’s where fellow-Christians can get critical and even judgmental, accusing them of foisting an inaccurate sense on the words.

A much debated example is the word hilasterion in Romans 3:25, translated in the AV as “propitiation”. Paul is talking about the idea of “atonement” – how the death of Jesus on the cross made God and mankind “at one”. This is something all Christians agree on, of course, but different shades of meaning are possible: was Jesus being punished by God? or did he somehow take the place of the “mercy seat” in the Old Testament temple? or is the cross to be understood in more general terms as “a sacrifice of atonement”?    

Just glancing at those possibilities gives an idea of the many bewildering nuances that attach to hilasterion! There’s a whole set of English words – propitiation, sacrifice, expiation, atonement – which many fluent English speakers struggle to understand, without having to wrestle with the Greek as well, thank you very much! The sadness is when Christians divide into opposing camps, virtually suggesting that you’re not a sound, biblical Christian if you don’t agree with their particular angle.

Enough! Many other issues arise, such as the question of inclusive language: should “man” always be translated “man”, even when it’s obvious that it means “humankind”, including women as well as men, not male as opposed to female? Or what help might you offer to the translators of John 1:29, where John the Baptist refers to Jesus as “the lamb of God”, given that the language they were translating into simply had no word for “lamb” and the people, living in arctic conditions, simply had no conception of what a lamb was? What were they to do! What would you suggest?

Just one final thought…. I wonder if anyone reading this blog might feel inclined to set themself the task of studying New Testament Greek? That may sound totally impossible; but why not, as a serious hobby?

The Greek of the New Testament is generally referred to as “late” or “Hellenistic” Greek, deriving as it does from the period when Greek had taken over from Latin in the Mediterranean world as the everyday language of ordinary people, far easier to pick up than the polished, classical Greek of the earlier poets, playwrights and philosophers. Especially if you have a bit of an aptitude for languages, you may be surprised how easy it is.

How you go about it – well, that’s not for me to say. You could just go solo by buying a basic grammar and working your way through it, or, better of course, you might know somebody, perhaps a local minister who is just longing to polish up their own knowledge by offering a bit of semi-professional guidance. You might even be able to enrol on some kind of official course.

All I will say is that such time and effort will not be wasted. Even a rudimentary knowledge of Greek will open your eyes in ways you would never have imagined, and you will never see the Bible in the same way again!  

Just suggesting…  

Lord God, thank you that in Jesus your Son you have sent us your living Word; thank you too that in scripture you have also given us your written Word. Please help me to love, obey and honour both. Amen.