My Tryst with Bible Translation

The Bible is God’s Word given in
human words at specific times in history.
- Gordon D. Fee & Mark L. Strauss

I retired from Foreign Service in 2002 after serving the Government of India for 35 years. It’s a long and tortuous journey from my nomadic village Pherzawl in south-west Manipur to a glittering diplomatic society where one has to hobnob with heads of states and governments and celebrities in the world stage as demanded by the nature of our assignment. It’s a huge responsibility as well as a great fun providing endless opportunities to learn, from various encounters with diverse culture and civilisation across the globe.

A diplomat’s job is to promote and serve in the best interest of the country he/she represents and of world peace and development. In all these processes, one fundamental ingredient of a diplomat’s job is effective communication which necessarily involves translation in all varied forms of engagement, verbal as well as non-verbal. In fact, every form of life goes through the process of translation which we sometimes called transformation. The food we eat is immediately translated into various chemical forms to sustain our life. The paper we use has to go through many stages of translation before it becomes a paper. It is an endless process of life.

The kind of translation I am seized with in this article is the mother of all translations: translation of God’s word into human tongue. Translation normally involves transfer of a message in one language (source language-SL) as close and equivalent as possible to another language (receptor/target language RL/TL). In case of the Bible, the original message is held to have come from God. But God is not known to use either a human language or spoken a particular dialect. God has no human language. In the book of Genesis, we found that God used a commanding Word to create the heavens and the earth and everything in it. We are not told what medium God had employed when He revealed the Creation and the events that followed which ultimately formed the early chapters of the book of Genesis.

In 2007 an American physician-geneticist Francis S. Collins wrote a bestselling book called ‘The Language of God’ for which he proposed the name ‘BioLogos’ as a new term for theistic evolution. Bios is a Greek word for ‘life’. Logos is a Greek word for ‘word’. In Christian theology, “Word” is actually a creative agent for all that exists (John 1: 1-3), in addition to being an ordering principle (‘Let there be’ Gen 1). Ultimately, it begins with Jesus Christ and ends in Christ Jesus. At Pentecost, God, the Holy Spirit came like the sound of a violent storm and spread like ‘tongues of fire’, an expression the world never knew it before. They all began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them and they were ‘utterly amazed’ to know each other as if spoken in their native language.

The first five books of the Bible known as the Torah was believed to have been written in Hebrew by Moses, born c.1526 BC from a Levite couple Amram (father) and Jochebed (mother) and grew up in the Egyptian royal house as the adopted son of Queen Hatshepsut, the only surviving child of Thutmose I. We were not told how Moses received and recorded many accounts of which he was not an eye-witness but believed that it was all Divine revelations and we have no means to prove otherwise. None of the original document either in Hebrew or Greek is available. Whatever we have and considered as the most real and authentic are all translated copies. How much has been lost in translation from the original text is not only a matter of conjecture but is also subject to linguistic limitations and adjustments through evolution which is inescapable.

The Word of God contained in the Scripture is a message conveyed to humankind through a medium and the receptor received it and translated it in a language and reduced it to writing by employing scripts developed by human community in the course of their existence. The so-called Hebrew community in the Middle East were one such community through whom God revealed His messages and some of the preserved recorded messages compiled in ancient Hebrew formed the Old Testament and those recorded and transcribed in Koine Greek formed the New Testament part of the Bible.

As whatever written information contained in the Bible came through translation routes, the important roles translation and translators play in preserving and maintaining the purity and authenticity of its contents cannot be overstated. This naturally raises question about the reliability or otherwise of a translated version of a particular Bible which can threaten the infallibility of the Bible itself. Apart from theologically motivated departures reflecting denominational and sectarian considerations and regional beliefs and cultural peculiarities, sheer lack of cultural and linguistic wealth could result in a departure from the presumed but accepted as authentic version of the Bible. One such version in English, right or wrong, is the ageing King James Version of 1611. But there are no means to compare any given translated version with the original writings as none of the manuscripts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek are available any more. All available texts used for translation were copy-texts. And the ancient Hebrew and Greek used to record the writings in the Bible are no longer a living language for daily use.

Christianity came to us following the British occupation of our lands. By the time Linguistic Survey of India was conducted in 1900s under the guidance of G.A.Grierson, the Chin-Kuki-Zo ethnic groups had as many as more than 40 dialect groups of which Lushai speaking group were the largest and most unified under the banner of the Sailo chiefs. With the arrival of the first two missionaries-Rev. F.W.Savidge and Rev. J.H.Lorrains in Aizawl on January 11, 1894, they immediately prepared Mizo alphabet by adopting a modified form of Roman Script and embarked upon Bible translation in August 1896 which resulted in the publication of the first New Testament in 1924 in Lushai and the Holy Bible in 1959 based primarily on the pattern of KJV in style and syntax. As most of all translations in other Zo dialects followed the Lushai Bible to the comma, it’s influence has been tremendous-both good and bad. It has become a new norm for preachers and even secular speakers to copy the newly adopted crooked and twisted style which J.F.Laldailoa, a linguist savvy and litterateur, considered as an assault on the Lushai (Mizo) language. To vilify the perpetrators of this linguistic mayhem, he came up with his BIBLE THLIRNA in 1958, a running critical commentary on the missionaries and their local cohorts which greatly impacted subsequent writings and translations in the Zo world. It took more than 45 years for the Mizo Bible Translation Committee to produce a readable modern version in 2005 which reads like a Mizo rendering free from the KJV shadow.

I may not be wrong in saying that all the subsequent Bible translations amongst the Zo descent literally followed the Lushai (Mizo) Bible. Hmar translation of the Bible whether by Dr. Thanglung, Dr. Rochunga Pudaite and by subsequent translation committees also not only shamelessly copied the same but also rode rough shod over any element of correct grammatical rules. Wrong translation and inappropriate use of words dot almost every page of BSI-sponsored Hmar Bible which in turn leads to misleading sermons. It is painful to hear many a time uninformed souls reciting Bible verses as eloquent as a priest chanting familiar incantations but do not understand the meaning or import of what they learned by rote. They deserve a Bible they understand. Especially those who have no alternative but their mother tongue. As for me, I turn to English which has more versions than I can hold.

I confess that I virtually stopped reading Bible in Hmar after I have my own copy of the English Bible in college. I got annoyed every time I read the Hmar Bible for its shoddy translation, ambiguity and poor language. Those were the days any critical observation on the Bible was considered blasphemy inviting nervous condemnation from the holy and the not so holy ones who immediately consigned you to hell as if one had violated the injunction of the book of Revelation 22:18-19 in John’s dream episode. My first article entitled EI BIBLE HI (About Our Bible) in the early 70s, the first ever such piece in Hmar, was therefore received with righteous consternation. A few clergymen condemned my boldness in a rejoinder but I kept quiet fearing to expose their vaunted ignorance on the subject. The subject matter concerned was some faulty translation that occurred in Hebrew 12:1 especially concerning the meaning of familiar race metaphor ‘cloud of witnesses’.

My effort was not in vain. When the next revised edition of the BSI sponsored Hmar Bible came out, they incorporated all my suggestions. Since then, I was dreaming that I would one day independently and singularly translate and publish the Bible in Hmar. That dream came true after my retirement from Foreign Service in March 2002. I immediately plunged into the toughest and most challenging task I have ever taken in my life, working 12-16 hours daily under the oppressive Delhi heat and air with ceiling fan only over my head. The New Testament with Psalm & Proverbs came out in 2004 and the complete Bible in 2007 and the Revised Version in 2015. Though its trade name is BAIBUL (HMAR), it is popularly known as DELHI VERSION (Delhi Version is perhaps the only Bible version on earth in which all the lines of every Psalm are set in equal syllable. For example, every line in Psalm 23 has seven syllables whereas Psalm 24 has eight syllables). Whenever I sometimes tried to look back those toiling times and feel it again, they are no longer existed in my memory but passed away like a pleasant dream leaving no trace of any scar or tiresomeness except the sweet memories of the sustaining grace of God. The most important thing I have learnt is that anyone including myself can be a useful instrument if placed in the hand of God.

Any person who has tried his hand in translation will appreciate its intricacies and its dangerous and tragic implications. One example often quoted was the wrong interpretation or translation of a Japanese word ‘mokusatsu’ which Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki used in July, 1945 during World War II. The Allied Forces in their Postdam Declaration demanded for unconditional surrender of the Japanese government and Premier Kantaro Suzuki in response used the word ‘mokusatsu’ which the Western world interpreted as outright ‘rejection’. ‘Mokusatsu’ is a Japanese noun and its literal meaning is “kill” with “silence” and is used as a verb marker idiomatically to mean “ignore”, “take no notice of” or “treat with silent contempt” but can be translated as “let me withhold comments for now” and not “let’s ignore it”. This translator error led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed more than 70,000 and 100,000 respectively and the surrender of Japan. Likewise, any wrong translation of the Word of God can lead to dangerous consequences.

I completely agree with Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, author of an article ‘We Really Do Need Another Bible Translation’ carried in Christianity Today (October 22, 2001) in which he said, “Translation is a difficult and, in some ways, impossible task. Translations always compromise and interpret” and “every translation imperfectly represents the original, because languages and cultures differ in ways that translation by itself cannot overcome. Translations interpose a fallible human interpretation between us and the infallible Word...The purpose of the Bible is not to make Jesus like us, but to make us like Christ”. He also admitted the limitation of translation when he said “For us moderns to understand the Bible, we have to learn a lot about the world of the Bible and the world in the Bible; otherwise it just doesn’t make sense”.

It took me more than 50 years of preparation before I dared to embark on ‘the impossible task’ of Bible translation during which I physically visited all the Bible world in the Middle East and even wrote Thuthlung Ram (Land of the Covenant) covering the history of “People of the Book”- Judaism, Christianity and Islam- which many in Mizoram once called it “The Second Bible” as the book helped in dissuading many believers from leaving the church and joining Judaism. I had to attain linguistic proficiency in Hmar, Mizo and English for which I invested lots of time and energy, read as many books as possible, wrote and published more than 30 books, 150 songs, 1000 essays and articles, two novels and a dozen short stories, translated many hymns and songs including the Nobel winning Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali as far back as 1973. Besides, I have read and studied whatever appropriate writings on translation by experts and translators I could lay my hands on; and also by proxy, I had already translated the New Testament while editing, restructuring and remodelling Dr. Rochunga Pudaite’s translation of the New Testament in 1991 in modern Hmar which, though not used for its sweeping difference, has become the progenitor of the DELHI VERSION.

Translating the Bible is a humbling experience. After going through every word and every comma of the Bible for more than thirty times in English and Hmar, embroiling many a time with a word or a sentence for days together and carefully typing out every word with two fingers, I have come to realise how less I know of the Bible and how important it is to regularly revise and update it to meet the need of every new generation. When I finished translation and revision of the Bible, my heart told me in God’s language that I need to do another translation in simpler language for the use of younger generation. On this matter, the English speaking world is extremely lucky to have many versions that could cater to the need of all sections of the society. A good translation is a translation you can read and understand like your mother tongue and that lands Bethlehem and Calvary to your doorstep. Now, whatever Bible quotations I come across when reading books and articles, I have developed a habit of crosschecking with Delhi Version as that is the version I understand the best.

(February 12, 2018; Delhi)

Note: This article is written for Eimi Christian Fellowship, Hyderabad for its upcoming souvenir magazine and no part of the article is to be lifted or used prior to the publication of the said magazine and without the written permission of the author.

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