I recently finished reading “Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution” by R.F. Kuang. Among the themes that this novel explores are language and translation. In this fictional Oxford, the most revered scholars are those who study translation at a tower-shaped building called Babel. Many of these scholars are not British, but come from other countries and one of their debates is whether the act of translation is also an act of betrayal of the original language and culture.
As one who was exposed to three other foreign languages before the age of 7, and having served as an interpreter, I love exploring issues of language and translation and I’m well aware of many of the pitfalls and problems that arise with interpreting one culture and language into another. Some things do get lost in translation. Some words and phrases don’t have an exact translation into another language. At my best as an interpreter, I would do more explaining and describing than literal word-for-word translation. Different languages have different structures, different ways of putting ideas together, and different word order in a sentence.
One of the most famous translators of the Bible is St. Jerome, who lives in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. He translated many of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts into Latin; a Bible often referred to as the Vulgate. While this was a great feat, it was not without translation problems that continue to persist today. For example, when King James of England commissioned what became the King James Version of the Bible, the translators started from the Vulgate instead of from the original texts. A meme recently made the rounds on social media illustrating what happens when you translate from a translation:
One of Jerome’s translations that I personally find funny is that he put unicorns where contemporary English translators put bulls and oxen. (See Deuteronomy 33:17 in the King James Version.)
One place where I think Jerome could have done better (it’s always easy to critique translation) is with the Greek word “metanoia.” The first part, “meta,” means “after” or “beyond.” “Noia” relates to mind or thought. So, “metanoia” literally means “beyond thought,” or referring to what comes after thinking. To me, this sounds like imagination. What’s beyond our normal thinking? Thinking outside the box, being creative, imagining.
Instead, Jerome translated “metanoia” to a Latin word that was also associated with penance; in English, “repent.” Now, I have preached many an Ash Wednesday sermon on how the word “repent” means to change your thinking and to turn back towards God. I preached other times, too, on imagination and being creative, but I had never tied that in to Ash Wednesday. What if, instead of Jesus saying “Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand,” Jesus said, “Imagine! The kingdom of God is at hand.” It gives different connotations and feelings. Instead of focusing on the feeling of messing up, I feel freer to imagine what God’s kingdom on earth might look like and how I could help make that a reality. Instead of looking inward, it redirects me outward. Instead of feeling like a threat, it feels like an invitation.
On Ash Wednesday, there are a couple different blessings you may hear when your forehead is marked with ashes. One is, “Repent and believe the good news.” Imagine if it were, “Imagine, and believe the good news,”; that frees up a whole different part of my brain and makes my creative wheels turn. The standard blessing that I used as a pastor is, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Last year at the hospital, I was involved in so many deaths that I did not need a reminder of my mortality and I learned a different blessing: “In life and in death, you belong to God.” That makes me feel safe and secure; no matter what happens, I belong to God.
There are many ways in which we need to change how we’re living and thinking. We mess up. We’re all human. We’re all broken. Instead of worrying about retribution or punishment, consider a different translation. Consider what God’s kingdom on earth might look like and how you could help make that reality.
Imagine! The kingdom of God has come near!