Let’s Hurry this Along, God!
August 27, 2019 3:31 pm 6 Comments
I love to fly. I’ve flown around the world numerous times, from east to west and west to east. I’ve flown across the U.S. several times, and to almost every state including Hawaii and Alaska.
With so much experience flying why can’t I fly the airplane? Let me sit in the cockpit and you’ll see how smart I am.
“Hmmm, so many dials and knobs here. I don’t know what all these thingumajigs mean. Oh, good you have it all on a computer. What a great idea. All the answers are right here. Yes, it’s perfectly clear now. Well, I do understand most of what it’s talking about. Now just one more question, could my ten buddies come in and help me? Sam, I’d like you to keep watch of that dial over there. Jose, I’ll put you in charge of this other round one. Judy, your job is to keep your eye on this meter over here. And Sarah you watch that light up there, okay? If we work together, we can get this airplane off the ground in record time. 
“I must admit I’m not exactly sure what this bar is for but never mind, I’m sure it will all become clear as I fly. And the pedals don’t look exactly like in my car. Does anybody know how you get gas in this airplane? And how come there are two seats up here? I thought I was the pilot; I don’t need a co-pilot.
“Now let’s go over the routine one more time, okay? Keep that computer handy. Let’s pray and be on our way. I know others have flown an airplane, but no one has ever done it as quickly as we will.”
How many of you would come aboard if you overheard such a conversation?
The whole thing is preposterous, isn’t it?
Of course, you’ve got to have 250 hours of flying time, go to instrument school, spend hours and hours with a teacher pilot sitting beside you in the airplane, pass practical exams and written exams, and the list goes on. Someone said that if you have all the money you need and can be in flight school full time you might possibly get a private license in 6 months. But normally it takes 3-4 years. The requirements and time increase as you go for a commercial license or desire to fly for the Navy. If you earn a flight instructor certificate then you could gain the required 1500 hours within a year or two, making the total time to go from zero to airline pilot about three to four years. Everything I have researched about flying tells me that you must be dedicated and study hard in order to advance through certificates and ratings.
With that in mind, I can’t help but wonder how we can expect someone to do an accurate Bible translation without adequate training and time.
I have a hard time getting on board THAT airplane.
Just this week I wrote a newsletter, the kind of thing I periodically mail out to friends. It’s usually just a page or two long, but it goes through several edits before I hand it in to Smales Printery. Often what I turn in looks nothing like my first scribblings. Don’t you love spell check?
Wycliffe Bible Translators has a 23-step checklist to go through before submitting the newsletter for approval. It covers basic things like being sure you don’t forget the date (which I often forgot) all the way up to ‘Tasteful stating of needs; no pressure; financial needs are not mentioned too frequently.’
All my blogs, such as this one, are written after much discussion, extensive research, editing, and rewriting. Then they go through several checks by different people before I post them. Does it make sense to you that a blog would go through more edits than a Bible translation? A blog is only a blog, but God’s Word is infallible. Why isn’t it treated more carefully?
The Nabak translation went through vigorous edits. I translated each line back into English for the benefit of the consultant. Each proposition, each verse was checked by a Greek expert. They checked to see:
- Had anything been left out?
- Had my own pet theology crept in?
- Had we missed something in the Biblical culture or the Nabak culture that skewed the meaning?
- Had we written what the Bible really said?
- Had we put the emphasis (connected the dots) correctly?
- And then there was the proofreading to make sure we had not misspelled a word, that the correct punctuation was used, that we were consistent with key terms.
I figure that the Nabak New Testament went through 13 complete read-throughs before it had official approval for publishing in one complete volume. Of course, individual books and many portions of scripture had been printed before as we completed the translation of each one and each of those had gone through countless edits before becoming part of the whole. Did you know that “Good News for Modern Man” was proofread 8 times?
I’m talking about professional work here, not just “get this through the assembly line” as fast as possible. 
I have a friend in Florida who leads a ladies Bible study every Friday morning. On the average she spends 16 hours that week in preparation for that 45-minute presentation. She only covers 15 or 20 verses in a session but she studies long and hard on the passage, so she has something valuable to share with the ladies. “No heresy will come out of my mouth,” she says. She is treating the Word of God as the gem that it is—not “let’s hurry on and get this translated faster than anyone else.”
It cheapens the Word of God when the emphasis is speed rather than faithfulness and professionalism.
My oldest grandson, Isaac, just finished going to school for 12 years of elementary and high school, 4 years of college and 2 years of graduate school. He knows the value of ‘study to become approved by God’. He has put in the hours and has prepared himself for long-term ministry in India.
Nicholas Batzig says, “There is a need for mature, thoughtful, wise, educated and skillful ministers in churches that are committed to the prayers, the pure preaching of the word of God, the right administration of the sacraments and church discipline.”[1]
Doesn’t it give you a lift when the pastor says, “Let’s stand in respect as we read the Scripture this morning?” And doesn’t it cheapen Scripture when it’s read with hesitancy, ahh, uuhh, words mispronounced or read in a monotone voice? We should always approach God’s holy Word with deep reverence, not casually or like a sports event—the faster translated the more we can brag.
Take the classes, pass the exams, study hard, spend the hours necessary with the teacher pilot and only then fly the airplane.
[1] http://feedingonchrist.com/a-professional-ministry/
Photo 1 by MILKOVÍ on Unsplash
6 Comments
Well thought out and well written. Thanks, Grace. I pray your words will make a difference.
I have decided to put this series of blog into a booklet, so watch for that in February.
I glean so much from your increible wisdom! Thank you, so much, for your fortitude!
Thanks Connie. Keep watching for more in this series.
Interesting our very similar take on the parallel to flying an airplane and Bible translation.
I went to college with the president of WA, graduating just a year or two after him, I as a mechanic. He also as something aviation related. He is a pilot and owns his own small plane. I had also worked for WA in construction and hosted one of his daughters at one Time for a short visit she did to Cameroon. In addition to all that I spent a year doing SIL translation training. So I recognized the madness when I heard MAST being talked about at a banquet. I thought about it a good long while but finally I wrote to him drawing the very same parallels to pilot training (and even having some buddies to come along to help fly only in my example we had some of those that had airline frequent flyer miles experience) I think I said if we asked to borrow his airplane – we didn’t need him to fly, we just needed gas money: how would that be? Something like that.
I never received an acknowledgement or reply. I can only hope he “heard” what I had to say…yet the madness goes on unrepentant.
Timothy. Great minds think alike. 🙂 I used the airplane pilot analogy because I knew that Bruce Smith was a pilot. What a highly specialized, long training process that focuses so much on safety. I think your job as a mechanic is more difficult though. Thanks for expanding on my analogy.