.jpeg)
Bryan: Seminary students often must learn Greek and Hebrew, but is this a requirement for missionaries? It is a necessity to learn another language when translating the Bible, but are Greek and Hebrew also required? Ewan says, "I'd love to hear more about the place of knowing original languages—the Greek and Hebrew—in Bible translation. I've heard Brooks say you don't need to know them because of all the resources available in English. But then I've heard Chad say all pastors should know them fluently. What are the upsides and downsides of knowing the Greek and Hebrew fluently, and what are the dangers of knowing only an introductory level?" Brooks Buser shares his thoughts.
Brooks: Ewan, this is a really good question. I wish it was a straightforward answer. Sometime maybe Chad and I can get on a podcast together and talk about this.
I want to affirm at the outset that I think anybody who learns Greek and Hebrew and is heading into Bible translation has bettered themselves for the task. Always want to affirm that, always want to encourage that. The question and the nub of the issue is really going to come down to how well do they know Greek and Hebrew. Most of the time when I'm giving a talk on Bible translation, particularly at seminaries, I'm going to advocate that those who want to go directly from Greek and Hebrew should be able to do their devotions in it. If they don't do their morning devotions in Greek and Hebrew, then they probably need to do what the rest of the translators do in the world—use the helps. Use the incredible list of helps. Never in the history of the world, especially in the English-speaking world, have so many good translation helps been assembled to help translators that don't know Greek and Hebrew to a high level.
Yes, it's tremendously helpful, but at what cost? And I think the cost primarily comes down to how long will they be in school before they get to learn that next language. We're always going to look at translation through the eyes of not the English translator. If you're translating a new version of the Bible into English, you already know that language and so you don't have to hop that critical barrier. But if you're translating it into a new language, one of the axioms, one of the almost ironclad rules in Bible translation is your best translators are your best speakers of the language. That does not mean that they're your best exegetes. They're your best understanders of the local dialect, the local language, the vernacular. They speak that well. Those are your good translators.
Let me give you two examples from history. Number one is Judson. Judson knew his Greek and Hebrew, but man, he knew Burmese really well. His translation is still in use today, 190 years later. Tyndale—excellent example of a guy who knew Greek and Hebrew, but he knew the local dialect of English that would most resonate with the people. And that's why they say today that nearly 70% of our Bibles are Tyndalian. They come from his turn of phrase, his understanding of that particular area of grammar, how that would come through most clearly.
And then let me give you two examples that are not so good. William Carey also knew Greek and Hebrew: self-taught all the way from 12 to 18, could speak and could read and write the original languages as far as we know, and could particularly read and understand them well. He would do six Bible translations in India and they would not stand the test of time, primarily because he didn't know the local languages that well. He would not be able to speak in those languages well, but he would translate it. So he was getting the accuracy side correct, but the naturalness, the way that it sounded to the locals, was really kind of stilted and wooden, and so it didn't come across very well.
Another guy that many people don't know is Benjamin Schultz. He was a German translator. He learned the language of Urdu and he translated one of the early versions of the Urdu Bible into their tongue, and it didn't last very long because Schultz didn't learn the correct dialect and he didn't learn it very well. Henry Martyn would come along a few years later and he would rectify what Benjamin Schultz didn't do so well. And again, it points to that maxim: your best translators are your best speakers of the language.
I'm always, when I come down to a Bible translation discussion, going to land on the side of the guys who know the language best. The Greek and Hebrew—again, we have so many helps. Does it help to know it? Absolutely. Is it beneficial? Absolutely. But at what cost? I would love nothing more than to send PhDs to the field in Greek and Hebrew that will learn languages and produce Bible translations. But number one, we're only going to get a handful of those guys to actually go to the field. And number two, we're not going to get them till their 40s or their 50s.
There is a cost in more knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. And that cost is the longer you stay home and you don't learn that language, the more your brain is going to have a harder time learning it when you get there for the first time. The US military will say that the average person—and there are abnormalities, there are guys who are above average—but about 32 to 35, your ability to learn another language starts to tail off. We have to be really careful when we talk about, okay, to what level do we want to get our guys at? And the only people I believe who can speak accurately to that question is their local church leadership. How well do they know their Bibles? How well are they equipped to handle the resources that are there so that they can see those Bible translations produced in a foreign tongue?
Absolutely want to see them with Greek and Hebrew, but I don't want to see them with Greek and Hebrew at great cost to the time frame of them getting into that original language. And I always want to put pressure on how well do they speak? How well do they speak? How well do they speak? Their exegetical skills, just by virtue of them coming from the West, I'm going to have a lot of confidence in that.
The other thing that I would just mention is that we have to be really careful if we're going to say that only those who know Greek and Hebrew, only those who are masters of Greek and Hebrew, can produce viable Bible translations. One, I would point to Wycliffe Bible Translators, the largest Bible translation organization in the world—they didn't mandate till 2014 that their translators would learn the original languages. What does that say about all the translators that came before? And number two, I would point to Dave Brunn's book, One Bible, Many Versions. This is a book that's endorsed by D.A. Carson. And Brunn will make the point that all Bible translations in English to a degree are not literal Bible translations. They're meaning-based. They're going to make calls on the terms. You've got to read the book. It's fascinating how he will pull out chapter and verse literally and show every one of these translations translates a particular phrase in Greek and Hebrew in a different way based on how they interpreted the meaning.
Your best translators are going to have to make decisions. And the best way to make those decisions is to look at what did other translators do, how did they handle this problem — that means you're going to the helps, that means you're making use of that incredible library that's at your disposal. I'm going to have a lot of confidence in that guy if he knows how to use those resources.
So those would be some things that I would think through and process through if I'm in this. Again, I'm going to want to push this decision to the local church. Do they want their member getting to a particular level? If that's the case, then by all means, we want them at a particular level. And I again readily admit I took some Greek and Hebrew classes on my way to the field. Could I do my devotions in it? No, I couldn't. So like most translators today, I used a source translation that was a modified literal. I used my Greek and Hebrew to help me on the way. And by God's grace, we were able to see that translation completed.
And so many will stand in that line. It's just one of those things where you've always got to go, at what cost are we going to see this individual sent to the field? Are we going to lose them as far as a speaker of the language? I certainly don't want to be advocating for that, because I think in the end if you produce this stellar translation that is accurate to the tee in the Greek and the Hebrew and nobody reads it, what's the point? And so those would be my thoughts on it. Again, want to come back advocating for Greek and Hebrew, think it's excellent, want to be careful on how much we press it and how high they should be.
Bryan: To learn more about the importance of language fluency, visit our library of resources at missionary.com. If considering a seminary degree, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is dedicated to training godly men who will faithfully minister. If you have a question you would like to hear answered on Ask Missionary, drop a comment on this episode, get in touch with us on social media, or send us an email through missionary.com and your question may be featured on this show. And don't forget to subscribe to the show to get notified when the next episode airs next week. Thanks for listening.