A Doctrine of Translation

Well, folks, I have to finish grading my Greek 101 test. You know, some of that "specialized knowledge" that Van mistakenly thinks of as Gnosticism, which then allows my students to actually translate the Bible. They were excited to be able to translate in their homework the other day John 14:6. It will take 42 class hours for them to finish this class, and at least 100 more of study, and this is only Greek 101. So then, next semester will be the same, then they will have 2nd year Greek with more of the same. (Unlike in some Bible colleges, all of our students are required to take Greek, men and women both.) Thus, each student who graduates here having done well in Greek will have put around 600 hours of study into the efforyt.

To make "A's" all the way through, as I predict several of my students will, is an incredible accomplishment. If the one young lady I see as gifted does that, then goes on to take tens of thousands of hours to learn an Indian language, and many years to translate the Bible into a language in India that has never had the Bible, that will be incredible and awesome! It will be worthy of our highest praise. Why someone would call that "Gnostic" (an evil religion), or denigrate that, or think that such an accomplishment is possible without these efforts, is a total mystery to me.

 

You say "miraculously" and then "This is God's providence." I fully believe that it is God's providence, but I have never seen a miracle happen in my translation work. I have seen God's guidance many times, but I don't call that miraculous.

A miracle takes place in a moment of time. It is an event. God's providence is a process, taking time as God works everything out for good (Rom. 8:28).

 

You know what, here is just p. 2 of the "Gnostic," specialized knowledge, test for Greek 101 I just gave. (Tough to get the format right here on the BB.) See how you do.

II. Define the following linguistic and grammatical terms (3 pts. each).


16. aspect:______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________


17. koine (one word):____________________________


18. phoneme:___________________________________________________________


________________________________________________________________________


19. prefix:______________________________________________________________


20. morpheme:_________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

III. Complete the singular definite article paradigm (2 pts. each).

masc

fem

neut

nom sg

gen sg

dat sg

acc sg



IV. Decline the present active indicative of εἰμι (3 pts. each).

30. I am __________________ 33. We are __________________


31. You are __________________ 34. You (plu.) are __________________


32. He/she/it is __________________ 35. They are __________________


VI. Decline the future active indicative of λυω (3 pts. each).

36. I will loose. __________________ 39. We will loose. __________________


37. You (sing.) will loose. __________________ 40. You (plu.) will loose. _________________


38. He/she/it will loose. ___________________ 41. They will loose. _________________

 

All of the miracles in the Bible were instantaneous events. By that standard, I never saw a miracle in my translation work. The Lifeline Japanese NT took thousands of hours of continuous effort (with the Holy Spirit's help, of course).

 

I just finished grading the test of another young man who may be gifted by God to be a Bible translator. Or this incredible young man may be a skilled exegete some day, or a Greek teacher. He got a perfect grade on this first test, and he's already been asking me if there is a quiz on Wed. (there is). But for any of these tasks God may give him, he needs to work hard, putting in thousands of hours of preparation.

To call this young man "Gnostic" (unbelievers who denied the deity of Christ and thought Satan was equal to God) simply because he is willing to put in the 1000s of hours to become what God wants him to is a terrible and unjust insult.