Religion and the use of words

On my educational journey, I studied both Hebrew and Greek. I was a lot better at Greek than Hebrew. I am happy that I studied both. They are two very different languages. Greek and Hebrew are not just different languages, they are conceptually different. English, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin and French are different languages, but they have common elements. They are a part of a language family. Hebrew is not a part of that family. Hebrew has been compared to a series of pictures that beg for interpretation.

I grew up in a church under the leadership of pastors that were not graduate school seminary trained. I do not know what their language training might have been. I do remember clearly that they all spoke of literal translations and interpretations of the Bible. They clung fiercely to their King James version of the Bible as though it was the clear, final and infallible message from the mouth of God. They declared that the King James translation was God’s ultimate verbally accurate translation straight through the pen of an original writer.

As I studied the Bible languages, reality set in. The reality can be shown with each identified supplier of what is now called “holy writings” contained in the Bible. I will illustrate the dilemma of language with the use of the two greatest credited givers of holy material. I begin with Moses.

According to tradition, Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. Moses became the greatest lawgiver found in our Old Testament. He is credited with being the giver of the “Ten Commandments.” The official keepers of the holy writ of the Old Testament honor Moses as the giver of the first five books. They are commonly referenced as the “Five Books of Moses.” In reality Moses left no written records and the words ascribed to Moses went through many generations of oral transmission. Moses’ first language was undoubtedly Egyptian. Egyptian was also probably the language of the descendants of Israel who spent many years in Egypt as a slave people. When Israel and his sons earlier went to Egypt to escape famine, their language was Aramaic, which they brought with them from their roots in Mesopotamia. The language of the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings remains with mystery and speculation.

Under the leadership first of Moses, then Joshua, and much later, the powerful King David, the heirs of Israel left Egypt, conquered Palestine and established a dominant nation of Israelites. Under David and his son Solomon, the Israelite nation established a priestly class, who completely rewrote and reinterpreted the Mosaic traditions.

The Mosaic tradition has passed through other major periods of revision.

In the transmission of religious traditions, words are vital. The path of the words of Moses to the latest English translations is very long. Beware of people who assert that the will of God was transmitted directly to Moses and passed on to us in pure form.

The words of Jesus suffer similar dilemmas. Jesus’ first language was Aramaic, a member of the same family of languages as Hebrew. Without formal education, Jesus probably knew some Hebrew. However his knowledge of Greek was minimal if at all. Every day he spoke and talked to his neighbors in Aramaic. He taught in Aramaic. He left no written records. His teachings were first transmitted by oral tradition. Decades passed before his teachings found their way into written form in Greek. Oral tradition in Aramaic in a rural setting to written Greek in the metropolis of Jerusalem is a huge jump. What happened to the words of Jesus in that jump remains a challenge to modern scholars.

The New Testament has gone through many centuries of translations. The translations keep getting better as translators become more skilled in their craft. Some scholars have made honest attempts to go beyond translations from ancient Greek documents to the use of words that more accurately portray the messages and teachings of Jesus and other writers of New Testament material. Most such attempts offer excellent insights into the possible meanings of the teachings of Jesus and writers of Bible material. However, every attempt inevitably falls short.

I have tried better to understand the ancient roots of my faith in a modern world. I am impressed with how dependent we are on words, spoken and written. Central to my best understanding is that WORDS DO NOT HAVE MEANINGS. THEY ONLY HAVE USES. Their primary use is to communicate messages within cultures and inevitably to succeeding cultures. Words fall short in their task. We have and will continue to have misunderstandings within our communities and cultures. We will continue to struggle in our attempts to do a better job of communicating. Words are indispensable tool. They are both our best friend and our most troublesome challenge.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.