Translation Issues

We got a copy of the Gospel of John that two of the hardcore missionaries from the ‘50s—Martha and Barbara—put together while they were here. It’s in another dialect, but it’s awesome because it’s close to Lopit, so we can try it out on people. We’re actually working on memorizing John 3:16 right now. One of the pastors here saw it typed out on our practice sheet for the first time and was just amazed that he was reading the Word of God in Lopit. What a powerful thing.
It’s awesome to think that someday we’ll be able to start translating not just John, but the rest of the Bible into Lopit. Wow. But just as we’ve been working on John 3:16, I’ve realized a lot of things about translation that I never considered before.
Take, for example, the idea of Jesus because God’s son and the idea of us being children of God. We have in our Western culture a built-in picture of this relationship as it is with God—our earthly fathers often serve as examples because our cultures were rooted in biblical principles. I mean, even if our country has strayed far from those principles in some way, the effects are still there. (Thank you, Puritans.) But the Lopit don’t have that. There’s no parallel. No hooks on which to hang this idea. So even when we get the words translated, we have to first translate the idea to these people. They know next to nothing about loving fathers or this imagery of Christ as the bridgegroom for the church.
Try explaining prayer to someone who knows only animism. Heck, try explaining it to just about anyone, it’s already hard enough.
Now try everlasting life. But somehow distinguish it from ancestors and the living dead that they know from their culture.
Now give “love” a try. They don’t even have a word for it in their language. We ask our language helpers and they’re just mystified by the idea, searching the whole of their vocabularies and senses that would convey this idea. Again, no hooks. Not even words. No “forgiveness.” Or “family.”
There’s just so much, so much I never realized you have to deal with when you take the Gospel to an unreached people.
Wow.