Reverse Translation. A Different Way of Understanding Scripture

I have many times referred to the desire among conservative Christians to find complete reliability in their interaction with Holy Scripture.  Through the medium of preaching, the ‘clear teaching’ of God can be shared among the faithful as they gather for worship in churches around the world. There is, however, only one actual place where God’s teaching seems to be totally transparent and clear. That is inside the mind of the authoritative preacher. Within the preacher’s brain, all the difficulties in the text seem to be resolved and tidied up.  Outside the preacher’s head, there is another world.  This is the place where conscientious students of Scripture struggle with the challenge of detailed examination of the Bible.  In this world there are many difficulties and problems to be wrestled with and clear answers are not always to be found.  I am not now going to say more on the numerous problems that arise when a preacher claims perfect consistency and reliability for the Bible.   My purpose in this blog piece is to introduce a fresh concept which I have just encountered. This concept can, I believe, help us to have a realistic and more profound appreciation of Holy Scripture. The idea I want to share is what I call reverse translation.  In simple terms we are attempting to read  the Bible as far as we can by understanding the thought forms and words of those who authored Scripture.  Through this exercise we may find we have greater awareness of some of the critical issues around the study of Scripture.  We can also find through it a sense of hope and a strengthening for our faith, as we get a little closer to those who wrote the Bible.

I want, first, to emphasise a preoccupation of mine about the importance of words and their correct interpretation in any serious study of the Bible.  It is sometimes important to spend a fair amount of time on a key word to extract its full meaning.  Those of us who have knowledge of a foreign language know how difficult it can be to find the exact equivalent in English for a foreign word.  This also may be true when we speak the same language as the other person.  Their cultural background may be different from our own and they can use words in a different way from us.  The same problem exists in a pronounced way when we try to understand texts that were written two thousand or more years ago. I am not going to claim that every Christian needs to learn Greek and Hebrew. But I would suggest that all those who teach from a pulpit need to have some awareness of these languages and the way they function.  Quite often the pronouncement that Scripture is clear and straightforward is not what any of the commentaries are claiming.  A little humility needs to be exercised as well as self-knowledge if Scripture is not to be used a means of self-aggrandisement.  Another trap that some preachers fall into is to weaponize Scripture.  What is delivered from the pulpit is not an exposition of God’s will, but a parade of their human prejudice, wrapped up in carefully chosen words taken from Scripture.  The words are frequently wrenched from their context and because of this they lose much of their original meaning.

In common with many theological students of my generation, I had to have a reasonable grounding in New Testament Greek. I did also take some instruction in Hebrew but gave that up before the end of my undergraduate studies. I make no claims of expertise here, but I am aware of the many problems that face us if we always claim to have a totally reliable translation of an Old or New Testament passage. The more one is exposed to these original languages, the greater is a reluctance to use words like infallible to describe Scripture. I remember a day in my Hebrew class when the teacher admitted that the translation of one particular Hebrew word was a matter of guesswork. Somewhere in the distant past, the understanding of the meaning of this word, even among Jewish scholars, had been lost.

The problems of engaging with ancient texts is not a way of saying that we must learn these languages for ourselves. What we can do is to be aware that there are many scriptural words in English which have a quite different feel when we engage in a reverse translation.  While most English translations of biblical words and ideas may be fairly accurate, this does not mean that we should be unaware or uninterested in the wider context or framework of understanding that was in operation for the original writer.  It is sometimes helpful to consult a variety of English translations.  This will help us to see that the work of translation is sometimes a matter of conveying the sense of an entire passage rather than just the meaning of individual words. To focus on individual words in Scripture can, however, be helpful.  As I have said in earlier blogs, Hebrew words often contain a range of meanings rather than a single English equivalent. The simplest best-known example of this is in the word commonly used greeting word in modern Hebrew – Shalom. The word can convey a whole range of positive experiences that we wish for the one whom we are greeting. It contains the idea of peace, prosperity, reconciliation and wholeness. Even from this single example, it is clear that the Hebrew language treats words in a somewhat different way to English. Words are used not so much as a way of defining meaning, but rather as a way of clustering together and evoking meanings.

In the small ecumenical study group that I belong to, we have decided, at my suggestion, to look at the Lord’s Prayer and try to do a reverse translation to the version given in the Aramaic New Testament, known as the Peshitta. This version will be very close to the actual words that Jesus himself used. Aramaic was his likely first language and was used by him for teaching. Nobody is expecting to become knowledgeable in this language but the wrestling with individual words and using the insights of commentators and what they can tell us about their meaning, will help us to hear something new in the prayer.  In short, reverse translation may be a means of obtaining a new appreciation of the way that familiar words can be appropriated and understood in a completely fresh manner.

What might this exercise in glimpsing the words and meanings of an ancient biblical worldview achieve?  Looking at the Aramaic words which, like Hebrew, evoke meaning and experience, will make us all, hopefully, a little more reluctant to claim that we have the meaning of any text completely sorted.  Allowing ourselves to be exposed to the thinking and feeling of a completely different culture is itself a lesson in a new and fresh way of humbly apprehending truth. We have already suggested that English does not have a single word to translate shalom. Similarly, the Lord’s Prayer, when encountered through the words used by the Aramaic New Testament is going to have a different feeling about it. To repeat, words in Hebrew evoke meaning. It is therefore wrong to suggest that in this exercise of reverse translation we will arrive at the kinds of defined meanings that would justify the adjectives infallible or inerrant. Reverse translation takes us further away from such ideas.   Theories of Scripture being without error have an 18th century flavour.  They certainly have little to do with the thought world of the Bible.

I was speaking to someone who said that he had been recently released from what he described as the fundamentalist horror of his upbringing. He realised now that truth was not something that was handed to him from an authoritative controlling preacher but was result of personal discovery and growth. He knew that, now he had abandoned the same reliable but narrow teaching of his conservative evangelical background, his understandings would be untidy.  Although his past beliefs had offered him safety, they came with the intolerable additional burden of constant fear.  Somehow uncertainty was a price worth paying for the complete release from this fear that had haunted him since childhood. In short, he recognised that the God, now revealing himself to him as compassion and love, was not the same one who had terrified him most of his life.  I encouraged him in the thought that while we cannot expect to have all the answers in this lifetime, there are always enough hints of truth and goodness around us to guide us into a place of shalom in all of its manifestations.

Surviving Church has now been going for almost 10 years and I am contemplating soon laying down my pen, so to speak and to focus on other things. The world of church politics is not a place where I feel comfortable and I have probably said most of what I can usefully say about abuse, safeguarding, church bullying and narcissism among church leaders. Even if the number of posts I put up here becomes fewer, I will still be available for email correspondence with those who wish to engage with me on the issues which have preoccupied me for almost 30 years. One of the welcome by-products of writing this blog has been the communication with a variety of strangers. They have shared experience and queries and I have tried to answer these to the best of my ability. I am very happy to continue such communication as long as it is required.

About Stephen Parsons

Stephen is a retired Anglican priest living at present in Cumbria. He has taken a special interest in the issues around health and healing in the Church but also when the Church is a place of harm and abuse. He has published books on both these issues and is at present particularly interested in understanding how power works at every level in the Church. He is always interested in making contact with others who are concerned with these issues.

39 thoughts on “Reverse Translation. A Different Way of Understanding Scripture

  1. A fascinating blog, Stephen. A few years ago I had lunch with a priest who had ministered in the Middle East and had a good grasp of Semitic languages ancient and modern. He gave me an intriguing take on the Prologue of John which I love and thrill to when it is read at Christmas, yet I was assured that behind the majestic English English prose lies a variety of implications partly implied by deliberate and significant puns.

  2. Really sad to hear that you are winding the blog up but totally understand why. Surviving Church has had a real impcat on the church and you should be proud of what you have achieved.
    I got an SAR back today and two of the comments that I had made were contained in it with a decision about whether action would be taken. To allow people to have a platform which the church feels the need to monitor is such a worthwhile thing and I know many of the regular contributors will feel a loss.

      1. Subject Access Request, in which a person can request an organisation disclose all information they have on that person. SARs can be very enlightening.

        1. Thank you for the translation. I find the modern plethora of anagrams and initials very confusing at times – the same anagram can be used in several different contexts, with very different meanings in each.

          To me ‘SAR’ means ‘South African Railways’. Would Rev. Awdry like to comment?

          1. It can be very confusing, I’m often caught out. BLM can be Black Lives Matter or Bureau of Land Management; PCC can be Police and Crime Commissioner or Parochial Church Council; and so on. And new acronyms are constantly being invented, I often have to ask for an explanation. TI, for example rather than being a shortened form of TIA (transient ischaemic attack) now means ‘training incumbent’.

  3. I shall be very sorry to see a reduction or end to the production of this excellent blog. The quality of input and facilitation of thought and discussion has been second to none. That said I’m a firm believer in most things we do having a life cycle. Beginnings, middles and ends was a firm biblical principle in the early church and often lead to new starts and growth in other areas.

    When you work in senior leadership, the level of unpleasantness, aggression and downright unchristian behaviour can be really off putting. And of course it’s far worse in the Church.

    No one person can sustain this level of attrition for ever, not without respite, sabbatical or repositioning.

    But however it goes for you Stephen, I’d like to put on record my heartfelt thanks for the work you are doing here. In my opinion, it is very important.

    Best regards, Steve

  4. Gosh! Ten years since telling me in that car park in Carlisle that you were going to start a blog, and would I support it! The talk you gave was the first time I’d met anyone who admitted that church could be an abusive place. Sadly, in some ways, nothing much has changed.

  5. I have really appreciated this blog over the last couple of years. I haven’t been able to find much else like it in the UK, which is a genuine shame because it’s been helpful for me to process my experiences and allowed me a platform to write something to be put in the public domain.

  6. Stephen, is ‘reverse translation’ simply another way of saying, ‘look at the text in the original language’? Or do I need to resume my place at the back of the class?

    Being dyslexic, I really struggle with different alphabets like those of Hebrew or Greek. I didn’t do well at Greek and did no Hebrew. I got some idea of the many possibilities open to translators, however, when the first edition of the New English Bible came out in the USA. I was startled to read, in Joshua 15:18, that Caleb’s daughter Achsah ‘broke wind and said to him, “give me a present”’! Other translations have ‘alighted from’ or ‘dismounted from’ her donkey. Apparently the Hebrew can be translated either way, but the translators in this instance didn’t choose the option which made more obvious sense. I presume this rendering has been corrected in more recent editions of the NEB!

    1. Reverse translation is what you say, Janet, but it tries to go further into what the words in the original mean. Simply knowing that Word in John I.I is logos in Greek is not what we are doing. It is listening to al the echoes of the word logos in terms of context, culture and theology. This is hard work for a preacher but is very worthwhile and raises us above the limitations of a single language and culture. I think it was Wittgenstein who said something about the limit of my language is the limit of my world. My aim in preaching was always to open people up to seeing further and wider than they already did.

      1. Thanks, Stephen. I think I get it. Good commentaries usually do at least a certain amount of that. William Barclay, in particular, did so in a very accessible style – though I appreciate that scholarship has moved on a good deal since his day.

        More recently, I’ve found Paula Gooder’s books on Phoebe and Lydia, with their extensive but easily understandable notes, extremely helpful. It’s amazing what can be learned from e.g. the simple expression ‘seller of purple’ – it opens up a whole new world.

  7. Thank you for this. This has been a wonderful blog, so I am hoping that it is not wound up completely. A number of the best Anglican blogs have disappeared: Church Mouse, Alan Wilson’s Blog, Cranmer (which could admittedly be ‘difficult’), etc. They have not been replaced, and I suspect that this has something to do with the general retreat of Anglicanism from the public consciousness and the ‘dying of the light’.

    Although the scope of the blog has meant that you have had to circle around many of the same issues, I do feel that there is still much to say about them. We see this, for example, in the egregious additional delays to the Makin Report. What does that say about the credibility of the Church? We also see it in the way in which the Church is often furtively and opportunistically abdicating its responsibilities in much of the country, usually animated by the (largely false) claim that there is no money. The Church’s equivocations on that basic pastoral score are as revealing of its ethics as anything. There are not only many shades of abuse, but of pusillanimity, evasion, opportunism, dishonesty, exploitation and indifference. There are so many permutations, the blog could almost go on for ever.

    However, I appreciate that running a blog must not only be time-consuming but often physically and emotionally exhausting. The blogger is taking a chance with every post. This may sometimes work, and (as we have seen recently) it may also result in rebarbative and/or vehement reactions, which may not always be predictable. Managing those reactions and dealing with half-wits like me (who plead for the censorship or revision of comments submitted) must also be draining. The blogger has not only to be a thinker, but also a diplomat, counsellor and (to some extent) a politician. That must sap the will to blog.

    What I must also stress is how kind and indulgent you have been to those of us who do provide comments. In this way, you have continued your priestly ministry (how lucky were the people of Lechlade to have had you!). If you do go, you will be very much missed. Very best wishes.

  8. Thank you for this idea. It echoes a thought of my own, that in order to understand the Bible better you really need to know something, at least, of its contemporary culture or risk missing some significant points. There’s a lot of meaningful detail which is ‘lost in translation’ – the Isrealite shepherd leading his sheep, rather than driving them in the English manner is a good example, the ‘many mansions I have prepared for you’ another.

    One thing which continually puzzles me, particularly having been brought up in the ‘clear, simple meaning’ tradition is this matter of ‘alternative renderings’ or ‘guestimated words. I mostly use an NIV, and the contrast between passages in the body of the text and possible alternative renderings in a footnote are sometimes so staggeringly different that I’m left wondering how they can be interpretted from the same text. Psalm 16 v 3 is a very good example, and additionally one in which the NIV marginal version actually makes more sense in English. So why did they opt for the one they did?

    Discussing this theme with a friend of mine, a professional linguist, he raised a valid point – in which language should we take the ‘clear, simple or obvious meaning’? English, with all its limitations, or the original? And therein lies the problem.

    The only Greek I know runs a chip shop, and I probably know more Yiddish than Hebrew. So I have to employ a lot of trust that other people are doing their jobs properly, and also with some integrity. Its too easy to pick selective verses to support a particular hobby horse, and not everyone has the integrity to say clearly that they’re offering their personal opinion.

    I’m sorry to see you’re winding the site down; must admit I get far more from reading your thoughts than many other ‘Christian’ web sites. All things, alas must pass. “To everything there is a season, and a time under heaven.”

  9. Thank you Froghole and others for your kind comments. I shall not be disappearing completely but I am giving myself permission to take a breather between posts and not feel obliged always to have some idea or topic on the go even when on holiday. I am giving a paper at the International Cultic Conference in June and I have a small writing project to work on. I have got to the time of life when it is more difficult to have lots of things to do at the same time. I expect some of my contributors will ask to use the SC platform for their own stuff and if it is topical the viewing numbers can rocket. So please keep visiting the blog as there may be something of interest. Incidentally the piece on troubles at Soul Survivor, which I tried to make emollient, achieved 7000 viewings.

    1. … and his family want him back! But thank you all for supporting Stephen over the years.

      1. As someone whose entire knowledge of Stephen has been through this blog over perhaps the last 6? of those 10 years, by far the most important thing I would want to say is that he and his family ‘deserve each other back’ at any point entirely of their own choosing, and I wish Stephen all the very best in finding the right balance in whatever suits him and his family best in the future.

        Having said that, as a Church of England whistleblower and survivor of church-related abuse, in common with others I know in similar circumstances, I am grateful, and will always be grateful, for the ‘space and service’ Stephen has created/provided/enabled. I have learnt much, both from those contributors I naturally tend to agree with and from others.

        Returning to Stephen himself I remember one very particular safeguarding situation which I had detailed personal experience of that Stephen freely admitted he had no personal knowledge or experience of. Nevertheless he was still able to speak deep truths into that situation and make profound and pertinent observations, based on a great understanding of human nature and about 8 years experience of running this blog, at that time.

        Bon voyage.

  10. I’ve found this blog very helpful in the last couple of years. Thank you for it and the community around it.
    I was wondering if a “from the archive” feature or a few index articles would be useful, e.g. would those early posts on Trinity Brentwood be helpful again.

  11. Being in demand is often thought a good thing. On the other hand being on call 24-7 isn’t much fun at all, particularly when people are kicking off.

    In an ideal world, and if it were my blog, I’d outsource the moderation to someone with discretion and energy, or do it only periodically, with strict limits agreed with my better half.

    Health needs activity, particularly valued endeavour. But overwork brings ill health. It’s a delicate titration for most of us. I’ve not necessarily found it easier to get the balance right as I’ve got older.

    Strength to you all.

  12. The poem about all the things people say to victims, plus all the additions posters made.. I’d like to see that again.

  13. Very grateful to Stephen for his thoughtful and informative blogs. A welcome voice of reason.

    And I find the idea of reverse translation a most exciting project. Anything which can provide insight to scripture is greatly to be welcomed and take us away from platitudes is good

  14. I have found the writings of Kenneth E Bailey, a biblical scholar and linguist, who spent 60 years living and working in the Middle East really enlightening.

    In particular his book “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes – cultural studies in the gospels” is both assessable and learned.

    It has also provided me with devotional material.

    He shows in many places how very early translations of the NT Greek into other Semitic languages can lead to a breadth and depth of understanding.

    However Ken Bailey deals not only with the understanding of words alone but with the juxtaposition of blocks of text (rhetorical analysis).

    It seems to me that he shows us that Jesus was among other things a master poet.

    Poetry and metaphorical stories cannot be understood save by using all our intellectual, emotional and artistic faculties and thereby change us.

    Although I have only latterly come to this blog, nevertheless, thank you Stephen for all your work in the past 10 years but especially ending with this post!

  15. Having left England two years ago and no longer in the Anglo-sphere I have not kept up to date with your blog Stephen but returned briefly to see how things were going. I used to check in not infrequently so often with sadness at some of the contributors’ history but glad that your blog was a helpful family for many.
    Being conservative myself (I prefer the word Orthodox), I was sorry about the poor experience you and others had of some conservative Churchmanship that you had the misfortune of stumbling into. My background has been utterly different. Apropos of your current post I have found some of the most rigorous work on Biblical text has come from that quarter but let’s not argue about that.
    Perhaps I can conclude with a family story from my last Church. A father walked in one day to find his daughter busy at a jigsaw. Trying to be helpful he said, “I wonder what it is”, to which she replied, “It’s Cinderella, Dad”. He said, “Well, let’s see” trying to help but she impatiently waved him aside repeating “It’s Cinderella” because she knew what the picture was. Later, pondering on their interaction, he came up with the thought that actually you don’t always have to have all the pieces of a jigsaw in place to get an idea of the big picture and started on his book (now published by IVP) titled, “A Jigsaw Guide to Making sense of the World”. His name is Alex McLellan and it can be found here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13799972-a-jigsaw-guide-to-making-sense-of-the-world . I have found his illustration helpful.
    In the Church the “Big Picture” awaits our resurrection but provided we don’t throw away the bits we don’t understand we can still gain an inkling, in Lewis’s words, of that final scene.
    Every Blessing to you and those of this family of contributors.

  16. At 5 years in, I’m a relative newbie here compared with English Athena. I’ve savoured the interactions, as well as the insights. I feel you learn so much about people as well as yourself, particularly when things get a bit narky.

    The way in which a message is delivered, including the graciousness and consistency over time of the author is a far more reliable guide, for me at least, than the manifest content of what they said. Probably that would be heresy for some.

    We get our share of trolls and bigots at times, but generally I screen it out, whereas I’m hanging on the words and waiting keenly in anticipation of others’ ideas.

    There’s plenty of work still to be done in uncovering and laying bare church abuses. I think good progress has been made but often it doesn’t seem like it.

    There’s the cut and thrust of the immediate argument, but behind this often deeper layers. For example, with the Soul Survivor situation I detect a rising grief reaction experienced at different stages for various individuals. Some are in denial, some are angry. Like any similar potential breach or loss, there’s a cocktail of emotions driving what is being said. Knowing this gives me a little more patience for those with whom I disagree, at least I hope so.

    I regard this place as a learning opportunity. If it weren’t, I guess I’d soon lose interest.

    Thanks again all.

  17. Stephen,

    Kenneth and I should like to thank you very much indeed for your blogs; particularly in your writing the first one about Kenneth and then inviting me to write others. We have no idea of your readership but it helped us knowing that his case was, at last, out in the public forum. We also felt encouraged by those readers who wrote supportive comments. Thank you all for that.

    Not just us benefiting but knowing about other people and the feeling of camaraderie in hearing their stories and supporting them in turn. It is sad to know we shall never hear from them again and know the conclusion of their stories. Nevertheless we are all enormously grateful to you for having given us the opportunity to be part of this community.

    Kenneth and I have only known about you for two years but it was at a time of great need when we were desperate for support. Those two years have been significant and we have learnt a lot from the variety of subjects in the blogs.

    We all understand the enormous amount of creative energy you have given to this (even, we understand, when on holiday!) for so long and now hope you have a good rest; then enjoy your new found freedom in this gift of time. Thank you for offering to be available for emails if needed. That is a most understanding offer.

    Finally and even more importantly, a massive thank you to you Frances for so generously sharing your husband. That is not to be undervalued in any way.

    Have fun both of you and many many thanks.

  18. Dear Stephen, thank you for all you are and all you have done for us. Many blessings for you and Frances.

  19. As a latecomer and relative outsider to this forum, I would nevertheless like to add my tribute of thanks to you, Stephen, for your labour in the cause of truth. It’s sad to watch the decline of the C of E, and sad that work like yours seems not to have arrested it. All good wishes for the future.

  20. Thank you, Stephen,

    You have fearlessly taken on an extremely difficult subject, thank you.

    The hidden world of fundamentalist victims is a great tragedy, it is still a foreign landscape to many.
    Thank you for shining a light in the darkness, it has released some captives, including (I hope) me.

    But for those who still are trapped in the vice of fundamentalism we pray.

    I owe a great deal to Stephen and it is my hope that others will find the help that I have.

    I have arrived at a place where the air is alive with hope.

    ‘Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
    for the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
    and for each unharmful gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
    we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing’

    Chimes of freedom

    Bob Dylan

    1. Chris, I’m so pleased that you’re now in a place ‘where the air is alive with hope’. A lovely image!

  21. From across the Pond in PECUSA, an occasional visitor to your blog and I thank you for it. Right now going through the pain of departure of a beloved clergyperson. No he has not been perfect, but none of us are. (Sometimes we forget the scoundrels Jesus called to follow him, and I sure am a mixed blessing myself.)
    I’m finding the Church writ large to be no salve in this pain of separation anxiety, loss as that of a family member, and acknowledgement that this “clergy transition” is not “an exciting time” for everyone (quotes from our diocesan website).
    Again I am not saying there hasn’t been pain in our pastoral relationship; there has, but he leads with forgiveness, grouchy old thing he can be sometimes, and it’s been a growing and healing ministry for me, probably for others in the congregation too.
    Nowheres to turn but to my own spiritual resources, in worship at church and at home, in Bible study, in prayer. That is fine, but I wish there were more outreach in terms almost of a process of support, from the Diocese and Church writ large.
    What do I expect though; they roll on and sometimes roll over laypersons, don’t they?
    Well enough of that, thank you for your insights and for providing this forum for discussion of hurtful stuff in church, mind you that is all the news media ever cover about Church and there is never any forgiveness and moving on is there, kind of opposite to my situation described above.
    Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
    The Lord is Risen indeed!
    Alleluia!

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