Deeply Confused HuffPo Writer…

Last updated on: December 30, 2014 at 9:28 pm by Mark Shea

Deeply Confused HuffPo Writer… 2014-12-30T21:28:04-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

illustrates the fact that you should always take off 50 IQ points whenever the MSM deals with religion. To wit:

With several new English-language Bible translations that have been published in recent years — including ones that use gender-neutral and conversational language — it might be said that Americans are tired of reading the King James-style Bible of yore. But a survey of Bible readers released Friday says that Americans largely prefer literal translations of the books’ original Greek and Hebrew texts as opposed to ones that try to convey the intent of the original words.

Where to begin? Where to begin? Does the author even know what “literal” means? I *think* what he means is something like “word-for-word” rather than “paraphrase”. It’s the “as opposed to” that really communicates illiteracy though, since it is a highly dubious proposition that rendering “Son of Man” as “Human Person” really communicates what the intent of the author. Quite obviously, what it is doing is communicating what a Corrector wishes he meant. Likewise, gender neutralizing Scripture can have all sorts of deleterious effects, particularly with the Psalms, which the Church has always read as prophetically referring to Christ.

However, at a more human level, I think what the renderers of Scripture into “common speech” are missing is that these are liturgical documents and that they are deliberately written to elevate the mind and heart with, if you will, artificial speech. Don’t be put off by the word “artificial” which is rooted in the highly artistic word “artifice”.

In short, as Orwell pointed out long ago, only a fool thinks that ordinary people would feel better and find it “easier to relate” to Scripture when a translator takes a well-known verse from Ecclesiastes 9:11:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to all of them.

… and then re-writes the passage with its life blood drained away and replaced by the embalming fluid of modern English:

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

To be sure, “common English” Bible translators aren’t typically that tin-eared (though gender neutralizers can be pretty bloody awful sometimes). But they do suffer from a ruthless set of assumptions that “ordinary people” (meaning “people they imagine to be less intelligent than they are”) are clamoring for a dumbed-down Bible with all that fancy talk taken out of it.

The problem is: we aren’t. Nor were the Biblical authors interested in pandering to, if you will pardon the pun, Philistines. They wrote poetry, for cryin’ out loud! Half the Bible is filled with poetry. And not just any poetry, but some of the most exalted and beautiful poetry in the world. Running it through the meat grinder of “common English” translation is like imagining you have “improved” Hamlet and made it more “accessible” by having the Gloomy Dane say, “Should I kill myself or not? Tough call! Should I put up with all the crap life throws at me or just stab myself? Man, I wish God hadn’t made suicide a no no. And I might do it if I wasn’t so scared of what might happen after I kack myself.”

In short, the biblical authors wrote to lift our minds to God and the *way* they wrote was as important as *what* they wrote. And us schmoos in the pews *like* that it’s elevated and artificial for much the same reason we like celebrating a Mass in a beautiful sanctuary and not in a bare concrete room.

Dorothy Day once remarked to some Lefty who longed for the day that Churches could be stripped bare and the gorgeousness sold off “for the poor” that Churches were the only place the poor could go to experience beauty–for free!
Biblical language is much the same. Our whole culture has aggressively stripped the beauty and poetry out of all speech. Poetry is exclusively the province of dilettantes when it used to be the common bread and butter of ordinary normal people. The last thing we need is to dumb down Scripture because some condescending scholar thinks he is patting Homer Simpson on the head.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 6, 2011

Come to the Deep in History Conference, October 21-23!

Next Post

October 6, 2011 Hey Seattle! Come help out at 40 Days for Life This Saturday

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz