Why Good Missionaries Produce Bad Translations
Imagine spending the bulk of your life in another country learning the language, befriending the local people, assimilating to the culture, teaching the Scriptures, then translating portions of the Bible. Now imagine a year after your death, those copies of the Bible you meticulously produced are sitting in the corner of a room collecting dust; then imagine the next generation haphazardly throwing them into trash piles to rot with dirty rags and banana peels. Of the 7000 languages currently being spoken in the world, only 1300 of those have completed New Testaments, and of those 1300, only a fraction communicate clearly and are consistently used.
One of the top reasons this happens (and it happens all the time) is translators overlook the importance that purpose plays in communication.
Here’s a scenario that illustrates this:
You’re walking your dog on the sidewalk one morning when you see a front door fling open and a man yell back to his wife as he picks up his briefcase: “Don’t forget; It’s Monday!”
What does he mean?
Come on. Why can’t you figure it out?
It’s a simple contraction and a day of the week.
Being able to correctly understand the purpose of his comment has nothing to do with the definition of the words, but the purpose of them. Is he making a simple statement of fact that it’s Monday because his wife has a bad memory? A sarcastic implication that he hates his job? A reminder to put the trash on the curb soon because it’s garbage day? An expression of excitement that it’s pizza night for dinner? The wife knows his purpose because she knows their routines and schedule and her husband’s body language and voice intonation, not because she has the definitions of the words memorized.
“The human memory resembles a bank of remembered situations much more than it resembles a dictionary.” –Jill G., Translation Consultant
Consider how confusing it would be to read Matthew if you didn’t understand the purpose of genealogies; or you couldn’t differentiate between background text, future prophecy, fulfilled prophecy, hyperbole, narrative, instruction, warnings and condemnations; or If you thought future events were occurring now and parables were to be taken literally. The Bible would be impossible to understand. Tragically, this problem with purpose plays out all over the world as good Christians with good intentions think that to be fluent in a language is the only prerequisite to translating the Scriptures.
Across cultures, the biggest question in someone’s life is oftentimes, “What’s my purpose here?” The Bible has the clear, soul-satisfying answer to this, but for people to be able to understand their purpose and how that fits into God’s purpose, they first have to be able to figure out, What’s the purpose of this sentence?
Let us all, as the body of Christ, be fully committed to communicating clearly in our cross-cultural ministry endeavors. May we seek His wisdom, avoid tempting shortcuts, and strive for excellence not simply defined by the clarity of a given word, but by thoughtful, intentional, and focused investment into the lives of those we hope to reach.