The Medium of the Bible
What Is a Medium?
A medium is a material that an artist uses to connect with another person. It communicates the expression of the artist to others. In the art world, there are many kinds of media. An artist may use clay, paint, charcoal, marble, –the list is endless. When an artist goes to communicate something to the viewer, he chooses a medium to express his concept.
When we hear the word media, it is usually referring to the channels of information in a society. They change all the time as new are added and some become obsolete. Some current media are: newspapers, magazines, TV, and internet.
God’s Choice
When God communicated to us, he chose a medium also. God communicates with us primarily through the Bible and the medium of the Bible is language. He speaks to us through creation and through an inner witness, and He has spoken through dreams and visions and donkeys and bushes! I’m sure He knows how limited the communication is using nature and our conscience, and how easily misunderstood and susceptible to invention other methods are. I’m sure that’s why He gave us the Word, the Bible, the Scriptures. His primary means is not through numbers, it’s not through hand signals, it’s not through visions or an audible voice, it’s through written language.
Therefore, if we want to understand what God is communicating with us, we need to learn language. It’s unfortunate bad if you are good at math and didn’t do well in English, if you want to understand what God is communicating, you have to learn about language. Yes, I’m talking about parts of speech, subject-verb agreement, plurals and possessives, and verb tenses–all those things that almost gave you a C in school. Those are going to be indispensable when studying the Bible. It’s how God chose to communicate with us.
The Trouble with Language
One trouble with language is that there are so many of them. Not to mention dialects. Now everyone knows the Bible was not written in English, and most of us that’s all we know. So we already have a bit of a barrier.
Thankfully we don’t have the problem of those in history who had no Bible in their own language. Men translated Scripture into Greek and Latin, then later Luther and Wycliffe and others expanded Scripture into German, English, and other common languages. There are dozens of versions of the Bible available to us in English, we can even view several at a time side by side on our computers. The wonderful effort continues around the world toproduce a Bible translation for EVERY language in existence.
Another trouble with language is that it is always changing. Every year new words are added to the dictionary. Words gain or lose meanings. That’s why we have a hard time grasping Beowulf even though it’s written in English–English has changed a lot since then! Even grandparents have trouble grasping their grandkids!
We are fortunate again that new translations and updated versions of translations have been constantly developed. Many of the newer translations have the benefit of having manuscripts as resources which weren’t available years ago.
Our Choice
We have to make good choices in the translations we use so we are well-grounded in the truth. The primary text that you use when you read and study should be a solid reputable Bible translation. We also have to be aware of potential problems with translations because others may not have made good choices. We don’t have control over what that preacher on the radio is using or what a speaker in our own church chooses to preach out of. We don’t know what translation our neighbor might have read and is drawing their theology from.
Among the good translations, there are some that stick very close to the original language, a very literal approach, and others that allow the wording to change to accommodate the flow from one language to the other.
For example, when the Apostle John wrote what we know as John 3:16, the first word he wrote has Greek letters that look to us like: o, v, t, w, squiggly s. That word means “so.” When it is translated literally word for word, the whole verse would say: “so for loved the God the world that the His son of Him the only begotten He gave that all the believing ones on Him not may perish but may have life eternal.” That is the absolute literal translation–but how long could you read a text like that? It doesn’t flow like we are used to for the English language to flow.
So here is one of the problems that translators have when putting the Bible into another language: How much to deviate from the actual original language and change it into a readable sentence, without changing the actual meaning of what was written. Some translations stay very literal and the flow is a little stilted. Some have more flow and others are more a combination of both.
However, some versions go so far with these changes that they really are not translations at all, but only paraphrases, or even just commentaries! A paraphrase should only be used as an addition, to compare and enhance the primary text you use. Don’t give these paraphrases the authority of Scripture that they don’t deserve because they are not actual translations.
The Takeaway
If you want to understand the Bible:
1. learn all you can about language, the medium God chose to communicate with us
2. use a good solid reputable translation, not a paraphrase, for your primary source
when you read and study
What translations do you like and why? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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