forgive and forget
"What term would you use when you're saying you didn't remember something?"
"What term would you use when someone did you wrong and you don't get back at them?"
We were trying to sort out a translation hiccup, but no matter how many questions were posed, the answer was the same. "We use the same word."
Forgive and forget.
In English the two often are heard together, "forgive and forget," but what if you only had one word for both concepts? That's the issue we were dealing with at the workshop in January.
The Sunday school book covered 22 stories from Genesis. Each lesson included a story, memory verse, some questions and activities, a suggested group game, and a main idea.
The lesson in question was about Joseph in prison. The main idea was, "God never forgets us even when people do."
Now, think about if you only have one word to represent forgive and forget. Read that main idea again. It could say, "God never forgives us even when people do."
The idea of forgiveness and forgetting being linked is great in some contexts, but in others it can completely skew the meaning. That's the case for many key terms in the Bible. The reason they are called key terms is that they have a huge impact on the overall meaning and thus the understanding of the text.
The other person checking the translations and I talked in depth about how to solve this clarity issue. We asked a lot of questions in the checking sessions. Two of the language teams were able to find another term to use through those questions, one language wasn't able to.
To make things more difficult, the LWC (language of wider communication) we were using also uses one word to represent both forgive and forget and didn't offer any help for translation or help in the communication process!
What do you do in that situation?
Translation isn't easy. There are many bumps along the way. It is so easy for the meaning to get misinterpreted in one of the stages of translation. That is one reason why there are so many levels of checking that take place. But even then, it's easy to miss something.
The lesson I taught at the beginning of the workshop on drafting principles had a list of eight steps for the participants to follow when translating. The first step? Pray!
Prayer is essential in translation work.
"What term would you use when someone did you wrong and you don't get back at them?"
We were trying to sort out a translation hiccup, but no matter how many questions were posed, the answer was the same. "We use the same word."
Forgive and forget.
In English the two often are heard together, "forgive and forget," but what if you only had one word for both concepts? That's the issue we were dealing with at the workshop in January.
The Sunday school book covered 22 stories from Genesis. Each lesson included a story, memory verse, some questions and activities, a suggested group game, and a main idea.
 |
| Lesson 11 -- God tests Abraham -- in one of the languages from the workshop |
The lesson in question was about Joseph in prison. The main idea was, "God never forgets us even when people do."
Now, think about if you only have one word to represent forgive and forget. Read that main idea again. It could say, "God never forgives us even when people do."
The idea of forgiveness and forgetting being linked is great in some contexts, but in others it can completely skew the meaning. That's the case for many key terms in the Bible. The reason they are called key terms is that they have a huge impact on the overall meaning and thus the understanding of the text.
The other person checking the translations and I talked in depth about how to solve this clarity issue. We asked a lot of questions in the checking sessions. Two of the language teams were able to find another term to use through those questions, one language wasn't able to.
 |
| Working with a language team to check some lessons they had translated. |
To make things more difficult, the LWC (language of wider communication) we were using also uses one word to represent both forgive and forget and didn't offer any help for translation or help in the communication process!
What do you do in that situation?
Translation isn't easy. There are many bumps along the way. It is so easy for the meaning to get misinterpreted in one of the stages of translation. That is one reason why there are so many levels of checking that take place. But even then, it's easy to miss something.
The lesson I taught at the beginning of the workshop on drafting principles had a list of eight steps for the participants to follow when translating. The first step? Pray!
Prayer is essential in translation work.
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