An Example of  a Translation Challenge

© 1999 by Bill Martin

There are many kinds of challenges when it comes to translating a story from one language to another language. The challenge I would like to examine here is the type of challenge that Bible translators sometimes experience as a result of differing assumptions and world view.

The Lindrou translation team translated the following Bible passage from Mark 12:18-27 (NIV) into the Lindrou language:

18    Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
19    "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.
20    Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children.
21    The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third.
22    In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too.
23    At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
24    Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
25    When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
26    Now about the dead rising-- have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
27    He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"

The translators thought the story would be fairly well understood, since, in the traditional Lindrou culture a levirate marriage may also be practiced in certain situations. Cases were known in Lindrou society where an older brother died without having any children, and a younger brother was expected to take the older brother's widow as his wife.

After the translation was drafted, the translation team tested the draft for understandability in the village. When the passage was read there was an interesting reaction especially among the older people. One older man said, "That same thing can sometimes happen among us Lindrou people. Jesus described the situation very well - the spirits from the dead realm kill us too and God is powerless to do anything about it." When the translation team asked the man to further clarify what he meant, he explained:

"When the woman's first husband died, the next oldest brother probably didn't wait long enough before taking the woman as his wife. The first brother's ghost [a term used for a recently dead evil spirit] got jealous and killed his brother for taking the wife that was recently his. Then the third-born brother also prematurely took the woman to be his wife. The ghosts of the older brothers killed him too. And so the same thing happened on down through all seven brothers. The ghosts of the other brothers killed the younger brothers out of jealousy. We know it's a case of jealousy killing, because in such cases, when all the brothers have gone to the dead realm in a situation like that, they will finally kill the woman too. [at this point the man asked the team to read the story again and then after hearing it again he continued his explanation] ...Now Jesus also says that they didn't know the holy book or about God's power - Jesus admits that God has power over people who are still alive [the man assumed that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were still alive when Jesus spoke], but that God doesn't have power over those evil ghosts of the dead realm. Isn't that what Jesus means when he says, 'God is not the God of the dead (realm), but of the living.'? It's like that among us Lindrou people too. We don't know the holy book and the Christian God doesn't have the power to protect us from the evil ghosts of the dead realm."

When the translation team heard the man's explanation of the translated passage they realized that something was seriously wrong. What the man (and many of the older generation) understood was obviously far different than the meaning that was originally intended in the Scripture passage. The translation somehow had failed to communicate the real meaning of the original message. Jesus was actually asserting (to the Sadducees who doubted the possibility of resurrection) that God's power and presence has nevertheless continued to be active in the lives of the living as well as those who have "died" (like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), and that God is still their God exercising his divine power over them (see the parallel passage in Luke 20:38). Moreover, Jesus was also claiming that the realities of the afterlife are different from what his adversaries the Sadducees had perceived them to be.

This example illustrates the difficulty that sometimes occurs when translating a text that was originally written from a different cultural and world view perspective than that of the people for whom the translation is intended. Needless to say, the translation was subsequently revised and a footnote added clarifying some of the implied information and assumptions that the original hearers of the Scripture passage understood.

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