This pairs well with something I’ve been thinking of lately. The Bible, in revealing the infinite to us, pushes the bounds of human language to the limits. John says that Jesus did so many things that the world could not contain the number of books that could be written.
Yes. _All_ things are being gathered up into Christ and reconciled to God. Not just people. Not just cultures or nations. Also language. Just as sanctification transforms a person and pushes his limits, so it should transform a language and push its limits too.
This is a wonderful thought. Language is a veiling which reveals persons, and the better developed a language, or the better it is used, persons are all the more clearly communicated to one another. And of course, the three divine persons in perfect communion comprise the heart of reality itself!
It has considerable implications for Bible translation as well. I think Western Bible translation has been on a negative trajectory for a while; a cycle of dumbing down rather than following the upward call. I touch on this obliquely in the section on under-intellectualizing the word, here: https://www.truemagic.nz/p/looking-at-the-beam-and-seeing-by?utm_source=publication-search
Very few, and fewer with any kind of cachet. Until churches start teaching exegesis this way, no one has any incentive to change their translation philosophy.
This pairs well with something I’ve been thinking of lately. The Bible, in revealing the infinite to us, pushes the bounds of human language to the limits. John says that Jesus did so many things that the world could not contain the number of books that could be written.
Yes. _All_ things are being gathered up into Christ and reconciled to God. Not just people. Not just cultures or nations. Also language. Just as sanctification transforms a person and pushes his limits, so it should transform a language and push its limits too.
This is a wonderful thought. Language is a veiling which reveals persons, and the better developed a language, or the better it is used, persons are all the more clearly communicated to one another. And of course, the three divine persons in perfect communion comprise the heart of reality itself!
It has considerable implications for Bible translation as well. I think Western Bible translation has been on a negative trajectory for a while; a cycle of dumbing down rather than following the upward call. I touch on this obliquely in the section on under-intellectualizing the word, here: https://www.truemagic.nz/p/looking-at-the-beam-and-seeing-by?utm_source=publication-search
Oh the irony in pointing out there was no thorn here to begin with and how it revealed 1,000 more thorns.
How many of these would you say are out there in translation work being done?
Very few, and fewer with any kind of cachet. Until churches start teaching exegesis this way, no one has any incentive to change their translation philosophy.