The Nature of Language

In an internet conversation which I was following several weeks ago about a particular passage in the Letter to the Romans, a pastor began a comment with, “We must look at the Greek at the beginning of chapter 2.”  His comment was immediately answered by another that asked, “Why must we look at the Greek?  We know what it says.”

This exchange started me thinking about the nature of language and the challenges of translation.  In an essential way, the function of language is to limit.  When I say that I am looking at a chair, I have immediately limited the hearer’s understanding of what the object of my gaze could be.  It is not a lamp; it is not a ham sandwich; it is not a surfboard. It is a piece of furniture with a seat, legs, and back, upon which someone can sit.

What's in the Bible? - Part Three

In part two of this series, I focused on the first four books of the New Testament, the gospel accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.  It is now time to turn attention to the remainder of the New Testament.  Following the four Gospels is The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, often referred to simply as Acts.  As I mentioned previously, Acts is a companion volume to the Gospel according to Luke.  Beginning with the ascension of Jesus, it continues with an account of events leading to the formation of the early church.  Pivotal to the story is the conversion of Saul, persecutor of early Christians, into the believer Paul, fervent preacher of the word.  Acts provides details of Paul’s three missionary journeys into Asia Minor and beyond, ending with his imprisonment in Rome.

One of my favorite passages in Acts occurs in Chapter 16.  The narrator tells how Paul chose Timothy to join him in the work, describing their travels.  Verses 7 through 10 read, “When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.  During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’  When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.”

What's in the Bible? - Part one

The Christian Bible is considered to be one of the best-selling books of all time.  Though accurate figures are impossible to compile, there is no doubt that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of volumes are sold each year.  One translation alone, the New International Version, has seen more than 400 million copies in print worldwide since its introduction in the 1970s.

Despite its ubiquity in the culture, however, Americans in general, and American Christians in particular, are not especially well-informed about the contents of the Bible.  The Pew Forum, which is noted for its polling and statistics-gathering on matters religious, completed a survey in 2010 about religious knowledge among U.S. residents.  Seven questions in the survey focused specifically on very basic Bible knowledge.  For the total number of all respondents completing the survey, the average correct out of seven was 4.1; for Christians, the average was only a tenth of a point higher, at 4.2.  Best overall group score was achieved by Mormons at 5.7, followed by White Evangelical Protestants at 5.1.  Lowest scores came from Hispanic Catholics at 2.4 and Unaffiliated-Nothing in Particular at 3.2.