The following reflection was submitted to Tyndale University for Elementary New Testament Greek, Winter 2024.
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As I have studied and translated New Testament Greek over the last eight months, I have realised that translation is hardly a straightforward process. There are moments of marvelous recognition and understanding, and hours of confusion and doubt. Rarely is a sentence as simple as John 1:1. In a sentence such as this, the English translation easily lines up with the Greek.
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος
In (the) beginning was the Word
However, translating into English is not always as simple as substituting the Greek words with the equivalent English words. More often, a sentence is a complex network of various nouns, verbs, participles, and prepositions, all of which must be unscrambled and understood before being reconstructed into English. Many attempts to translate word-for-word result in sprawling, ungainly sentences. Most of my desires to convey the full emphasis of the Greek end in frustration at the lack of appropriate words in the English language.
One example of this wondrous and frustrating work is John 3:8. In the ESV translation, Jesus tells Nicodemus that, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The Greek word which the ESV translates as “wind” and “Spirit” is a single word in Greek, πνευμα. Πνευμα can mean either “spirit” or “wind.” The word translated here as “sound” is the Greek word φωνή which can mean either “sound” or “voice.”
The wind [or Spirit] blows where it wishes and you hear its sound [or voice], but you do not know from where it is coming or where it is going; it is this way with everyone who is born from the Spirit [or wind].
Knowing this brings a marvelous dimension to the passage—in the Greek text. However, since English does not have one word that means both “spirit” and “wind,” the translator must decide which word to use. When does Jesus mean πνευμα “spirit” and when does he mean πνευμα “wind”? Does he mean φωνή “sound” or φωνή “voice”? We cannot see the twinkle in his eyes or the smile tugging at his lips to queue when he is punning and when he is being literal. Instead, we must decide which translation to use for, unlike Greek, English does not have one word that means both “spirit” and “wind” or both “sound” and “voice.”
This struggle is given greater weight by the knowledge that the text I am translating is no ordinary text, but the Word of God. I would not be half so concerned about complete accuracy if I was translating Plato, or some other Greek author whose text I did not believe was divinely inspired. Sometimes I am concerned that I may be translating a text incorrectly—or perhaps not as correctly as possible. In experiencing this distress, I am surely only the latest in a long tradition of translators who have struggled with the same feelings, stretching back through the Reformation and beyond to Jerome, who translated the Greek text into Latin. Understanding the gravity of translation is important, but it should not be inhibiting. God knows the limitations of human beings and I trust he took human weakness into account when he caused his Word to be written down. Seen in this light, translating the Bible is a step of faith, believing that God’s Word will not diminish because my human hands have touched it, and trusting that he will continue to sanctify me as I translate his Word from its original language into my native English.
Remembered Lore 