Are creoles & dialects worthy of God's Word?

Which languages are worthy of having a Bible translation? I got a copy of a provocative letter addressing this question today. I liked it so much, I decided to share it here. The author is Jack Popjes, a former Bible translator to the Canela, a small Brazilian tribe.

While the nations gathered in Beijing to battle it out in the Olympic sports arenas, a different battle but also with ancient traditions rages in Jamaica. In "Translation Tiff," the September issue of Christianity Today magazine reports on the controversy surrounding the ongoing translation of the Bible into Jamaican Creole, or patois, the language spoken fluently by the vast majority of the population. While English is the official language of Jamaica, most children grow up speaking patois and learn English in school.

Letters to the newspaper editors and callers of radio phone-in programs present the usual objections to translating the Bible into patois. The common language is not good enough to express the concepts of the Bible. Patois speakers just need to learn English better. Uneducated people reading the Bible in patois will be confused because they cannot interpret passages correctly within their context.

It seems that for centuries, whenever the Bible was translated, the new translation was criticized. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin around 400 AD. It was criticized because he translated it not into the classical Latin used by orators and poets, but into the common, everyday Latin spoken by people on the street and in their homes. Jerome's translation was called the Vulgate, because it was vulgar, not in the sense of being indecent, but of being common.

Probably every translation since then has been criticised. Even the partial Bible which my wife and I translated--with the help of gifted and trained Canela associates--was criticised. Imagine that!

Whenever I showed the Canela Bible to Portuguese speaking Brazilian pastors, they automatically assumed that the translation in Canela was not as clear, as accurate, or as good as the Bible they used in preaching to their Portuguese speaking congregations.

I didn't argue with them, but I knew from sitting in their church services that they read the archaic 400 year-old Portuguese Ferreira de Almeida version, then took over half the sermon time to explain to the congregation what the passage meant. I didn't tell them that no one needed to explain what the Bible in Canela says, it speaks clearly right off the page.

Wherever in the world the Bible is translated into minority languages, criticism will probably be leveled at it. When the Bible was translated into Plautdietsch, or Low German, also called Pennsylvania Dutch, it was criticized for not being a language worthy to hold God's Word. Plautdietch was not seen as a "real" language, just bad German. Not true, of course. It is a perfectly legitimate language spoken by hundreds of thousands of Amish and Mennonite people as their native language.

Yet, even today, the church leaders in some Amish groups still insist on reading the Bible in church services only in German, even though most of the hearers don't understand German. The rest of the service, including the preaching and praying, is done in Plautdietsch, but not the Scripture reading.

In being criticized, the translators of the Bible into Jamaican patois, as well as the translation teams working in nearly 2,000 other minority languages around the world, are in good company. John Wycliffe was criticized strongly for translating the Bible into English, the first major translation since Jerome's Vulgate a thousand years before. A contemporary historian and fellow clergyman, Henry Knighton spoke for the clergy of his day when he criticised the first translation into English under the following points:

--Christ gave the Scriptures to the clergy and doctors of the Church so that they could use it to meet the needs of lay people and other weaker (uneducated) persons.
--John Wycliffe has now translated it into common English which has laid the Bible more open to literate laymen and women, than it had formerly been to the most learned of the clergy.
--The jewel of the Church, hitherto the principal gift of the clergy and the divines, has now been cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine, and is now made ever more common to laypeople.

Henry Knighton used the wrong metaphor. The Word of God is not a jewel to be preserved in a glass case and admired by the chosen few. Jesus called it seed meant to be scattered generously everywhere. People with prepared minds and hearts will hear God's Word and act on it, and receive His blessing.

The Creator made men and women in His own image and, therefore, with the capacity to hear Him and communicate with Him. When receptive people receive the Word of God in the language they understand best, their lives are changed, they deepen their understanding of God, and grow in love for Him.

*****

For a fascinating, well-written account of how we got the English Bible, check out this website.

Did you know the first Bible printed in America was not printed in English? It was printed in the Algonquin Indian language. If you're interested and have $795,000 lying around, you can buy a copy of the so-called 1663 Eliot Indian Bible.

The Goodyear, Arizona-based Bible Museum Inc. (and associated website GreatSite.com) also offers a Tyndale Bible, a Geneva Bible, facsimiles of ancient Bibles and more.