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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, February 16, 2002

EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Bible can speak our language

By the Rev. Sharon Inake
Special to The Advertiser

One of the most exciting days I've ever spent was working on a draft of the pidgin Bible.

On my way to the Waipahu Burger King meeting site, I listened to Lee Cataluna's hilarious pidgin routine.

Although I am not a "deep Creole" speaker, I am a local girl who grew up with pidgin. I also grew up in the church. I had heard Psalm 23, the Shepherd Psalm, most of my life, but the first time I heard it in pidgin, I teared.

Someone said, "English speaks to my head, pidgin speaks to my heart."

With the Wycliffe Bible translators, I wrestled with translating the 2,000-year-old everyday Greek of the New Testament to our local kine pidgin.

Pidgin itself has different levels and different versions.

I'd gone to seminary to learn hermeneutics, the science and art of interpreting the Bible. One challenge is trying to understand what the original languages meant because words have multiple meanings. Thus, every translation is by necessity an interpretation. The next task is translating the text into another language. The two poles of translation are literal and dynamic equivalence.

Literal translation is not necessarily the best, because there are not always matching words in every language for certain ideas. Even if a perfect word in the receiver language is found, it may not be understandable to the reader.

On the other hand, using language too loosely in dynamic equivalence can lose the purity of the original text.

Translators began using "inclusive language" to express the intent of the biblical writers to include both sexes. In English, we use "he" to specifically mean a male person or to generally mean both female and male. For centuries women have had to interpret their own language to be and feel included. What do you mean, feel included? Well, try changing all the scriptural "brothers" to only "sisters," even though you mean both sexes. How does that make you feel?

Language is powerful. Words both express and shape our thoughts, our attitudes, our identity. How we translate and interpret sacred text underpins our faith understanding.

We have many translations in order to make scripture as understandable as possible to as many people as possible in light of current language use, cultural understandings, and new scholarship insights.

Almost any scholarly version has its place. The New Revised Standard Version is an authorized version tracing its pedigree to the original authorized English Bible, the King James Version (1611). The New International Version is best-selling. The Amplified Version gives many equivalent words, the Good News Bible is very simple, the New Living Translation is popular for newbies.

I like the New Century Version for listening.

In "The Message," Eugene Peterson uses his own words and paraphrases Scripture in an exciting way.

The most useful version is what's understandable to you.

The Rev. Sharon Inake is associate minister for adult education at Central Union Church.