Something I have learned from studying the Bible through #ChurchInterpreter eyes:

Human religious systems like to erect barriers
- You can only take communion if you're a member,
- You have to use this one #BibleTranslation, even if you don't understand it,
- You have to dress like this,
- You have to know all this complicated language.

God's Kingdom breaks barriers
- Think you can't come to me? Hold on, I'll come to your house,
- I'll make sure you can hear the invite to repent and join my kingdom in the language your heart speaks,
- I'll clothe you with my righteousness and I'll give people who follow me the job of clothing people too,
- I'll explain my kingdom in language you understand: farming, fishing, business, politics, fathers & sons, building a house. And if you don't have the necessary background in the bigger story, I'll use the story and the altars you do know and show you how I was always there anyway.

Which is our #preaching more like? Which are our #churches more like?

What every theology Prof should know about translation (from a professional #churchinterpreter trained in translation and doing research in #multilingualChurch)

A deliberately public and hashtagged thread 🧵

1) Translators make lots of choices but they aren't about literal vs free or formal vs dynamic #equivalence.

Even a single word can have multiple possible translations. Now multiply that to the sentence level.

No translator will always adopt the same strategies as grammar, purpose and audience design don't work like that.

It might be tempting but all this means that we really should avoid talking about #translations as being "literal" or "dynamically equivalent" etc.

2) The "right" translation to use therefore depends on why and with whom you want to use it.

3) Accuracy is way more complicated than people think!

Accurate to what? The word order? The effect? The semantics? The associations?

Judged by whom?