Trial By Translation
When words fail us.
At the last count, there are 16 different translations of the Bible, in book form, in my “Library” at home. Of course, Online there are countless – or so it seems! Facebook groups, and Bible Study platforms, pitch their favourite versions. Regular readers here know that I set the NASB as my starting point of reference and then scope the horizon for viable alternatives. As I said in the last post featuring my Choral Evensong sermon, I let my spirit be led by Holy Spirit to get an intuition into the appropriate translation for the purposes of that which I wish to communicate.
Sometimes, no one gets it spot on.
A case in point concerns the systemic use of the English word Temptation, even if it is not so apparent that this is the appropriate choice. The most common Greek word in English phonetic spelling is PEIRASMOS – πειρασμός - an experiment to prove something, a trial. I recently picked up a copy of a Rowan Williams’ book from the year 2000 titled Christ On Trial (My copy is a reprint by Zondervan, 2002) in which the former Archbishop of Canterbury studies the accounts of the Trial of Jesus in the four Gospels as we have them.
Having played with common phrases around the word trial, and asked the question, “What do all these usages have in common?” Williams makes this observation: “The simplest answer is that a trial is an attempt to find out the truth.”1 I think this is a most helpful key for when we read that pesky word temptation. How, we must wonder, was it possible for Jesus, the Christ, The Son of God to be subject to temptation? At least, in the way we have been brainwashed into understanding its meaning. “The temptations are a record of discovery,” Williams asserts, “and the way they are related makes it plain that their fundamental point is to do with who Jesus is” 2 (my emphasis).
How did we get led into this temptation?
Williams gives a pointed summary as an answer to my question. It was the Church that made the – in my view – disastrous decision to accent the wrong word. Every time! Williams writes:
It was Christianity that developed language about temptation in the sense in which we now use the word – the inclination to rebel against God, the law or goodness, understood as a test of integrity, an experience through which something is brought to light about ourselves. Classical Greek has no one word for what we mean by ‘temptation,’ but, prompted by the vocabulary of the Gospels and the theology of experience as a probing of our truthfulness by God, the Early Church refined the meaning of the straightforward Greek vocabulary of testing until it came to refer fundamentally [sic!] to the inner struggles of the moral and spiritual self. Pierasmos and similar words in Greek had once meant testing in the widest sense. By the fifth Christian century, they referred primarily to aspects of the soul’s dialogue with itself. ‘Temptations’ could be catalogued and analysed, and various strategies defined for avoiding them. (Op Cit, p. xii)
I have one or two immediate observations on Williams’ interpretation here. Firstly, he is absolutely right, and what he is revealing, without saying so, is the destructive influence of philosophy (especially, the works of Plato) on the interpretation of the Gospel, and, secondly, the pernicious influence of St Augustine’s assertion of ‘Original Sin,’ when he would have helped us all - especially in the West – if he had focused on the first part of Genesis – the Original Blessing – and so saved us 2000 years of self-obsessed sin management.
But this crushing lie of separation and innate ‘sinfulness’ was useful to the (now, Roman) Church, as it had become motivated by power and wealth, rather than poverty (“humility”) and wellbeing (shalom). They had got into bed with Constantine and the tempting [sic] idea of a State Church-and-Religion – with all the protections, privileges, power and potential that such status afforded them.
The Church had left the dingy catacombs and caves in which they had taken shelter from the storms of persecution - but sustained their innocent faith in the salvation obtained by Christ on the Cross - for the beautiful basilicas of prestige and recognition, and a spurious “salvation,” guaranteed by the Crown of Constantine. The Crown of Thorns was left trampled into the dust, in the stampede to obtain the Crown of Gold and royal patronage.
The Church Compromised – even to our own day – a Church, a part of which wants Donald Trump as President of the USA – again!
Go figure.
Israel had long ago tried that road – leading to multiple destructions, until the final humiliation at the hands of – appositely – the Romans. The Arc of History is truly extraordinary. And we never seem to learn. As The Mirror translation of Luke’s Gospel proposes: And Jesus, fully infused and prompted by Holy Spirit, intentionally turns back, away from the river Jordan into the wilderness and embarks on a forty-day fast in order to victoriously face the same diabolic scrutiny that snared humanity in Adam and Eve, and later dramatically displayed in Israel’s detour in the wilderness of their unbelief. (Luke 4:1)
Fortunately, God has always kept “7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal,” and we are seeing evidence within, and without the institutionalised religious organisations, disguised as denominations, that pose as the Church. However, God’s “Deep Church” has never vanished from the world and, indeed, is apparent everywhere life is lived, and in “Traditional” as well as “Emergent” Church identities. Those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, watch and listen to the whispering wind of the Great Spirit!
Next time we will look further at the impact – and the proof of God’s overwhelming love for us – of the meaning of “Trial” in our lives. We will also consider how the God who remembers not our transgressions – preferring to remove them as far from us as East is from West, and who pardons all our iniquities - uses trial and not ‘temptation,’ or ‘punishment,’ to educate (“discipline”) us and by so doing, draw out all that is of Christ in us, our hope of glory. For his “delight is in the Truth of our innermost being [our True Self in Christ in us] and in that hidden place, he will teach us [draw out from within us] wisdom.” (Psalm 51:6)
1. Op Cit p. ix
2. P. xii
Go well, Wayfarers.
EXTRA! EXTRA! Here I will share a desert thought from the collection by Mercy Aiken who works with the Network of Evangelicals For The Middle East and who co-wrote Yet in The Dark Streets Shining – A Palestinian Story of Hope & Resilience in Bethlehem with Bishara Awad.
Come, come whoever you are
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving
Ours is not a caravan of despair
Even if you have broken your vow
one thousand times….
Come, yet again, come. ~Rumi