22 Dec
2009
Posted in: Bible Translations, Featured Highlights
By    3 Comments

Should we expect pastors to translate?

Rich Rhodes at Better Bibles Blog has submitted some excellent questions, the genesis being, “Why do we make pastors translate?” Whether a pastor, translator, or neither but still submitted to the leadership of elders in a community, have a look at Rich’s post and think of your response.

We all play a role in the body. We have different strengths, gifts, talents. But relying on the work of others? That’s typically more difficult to deal with. Those called to be the pastors (I call them elders, but I’m referring here to those more popularly understood as the teachers/preachers on Sunday mornings) should pastor. They should not be expected to or asked to handle Greek and Hebrew translation. Nor should they be overly concerned with exegesis. Rich mentioned a situation with a passage where to

figure that out I had to do a lot of fairly sophisticated exegesis, of a kind that linguists and Greek professors do, but is well out of the range of your average pastor.

Much of the time, I do not want my elders to talk about “the Greek.” I mean no disrespect when I say it’s hard to remember a time when the pastor was right. “The Greek says…” and I end up shaking my head and giving a little sigh.

But I should not be expecting them to make that journey. I do not want them to go back and study Greek. I want the Greek and Hebrew to be handled by those gifted and called by the Lord to do so. They are the ones that should be handling the translation work, and they are the ones that should take that work very, very seriously. They need to hand off translations to the pastors so the pastors can communicate to and guide the people.

As Rich wrote

Yet the kind of translations that are out there hang pastors like Paul out to dry. They often know that there’s a problem, but they don’t have the tools to deal with it. That’s why they consult different translations, hoping that somehow the “real” meaning will emerge as some kind of compromise among them.

No, it’s a problem of wrong priorities in Bible translation. If our translations require our pastors to do the exegesis that the translator should have done, who is God going to hold responsible for the lack of understanding of His Word and the lack of growth among His people?

Hint: It won’t be the pastors.

But that’s just my quick look at it. This is an issue I’ve pondered for a while and have more thoughts. However, I would love to see yours.

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  • Jason_Cormier

    I think your spot on, as someone slowly working on a church plant, I can appreciate this post a lot. I have been told many times that in order to preach and teach better I “need” to go back and learn Greek and Hebrew in order to teach people the Word better. I have never understood that, if it was translated into English correctly, I should not have to do those things. Hope that makes sense like it did in my head. Peace Eddie…

  • http://schleitheim.com martyrologist

    I understand. You, as a leader and teacher, should concentrate on the leading and teaching. There is no benefit to communicating the ins and outs, complexities and possibilities, of the Greek text behind, say, John 6. If the translation team has done their part, then you can do your part and just communicate the text and why it is significant and relevant to your community.

  • Jason_Cormier

    Exactly, I really do not understand why more people do not think like this.