"Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence,
but a false witness speaks deceitfully."
-- Proverbs 12:17
The 218th General Assembly decided to begin the process of revising the Heidelberg Catechism. The Theological Issues and Institutions Committee presented the overture from the Presbytery of Newark, asking the Assembly “to correct translation problems in five responses of the Heidelberg Catechism as found in The Book of Confessions and to add the original Scripture texts of the German Heidelberg Catechism.”
Translation problems. Sounds simple enough. But, of course, not everyone is happy about this desire to revise the Heidelberg Catechism. There are claims by some that this call to revise this catechism is purely a political move spearheaded by those seeking the full inclusion of GLBT church members. This is because one of the translation problems involves the answer to Question 87, which (in the current translation) includes the phrase "homosexual perversion". However, that phrase (as well as the phrase "Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake:") is nowhere to be found in either the Latin or German texts of the Heidelberg Catechism. As it turns out, the gentlemen who did the English translation of the text in 1962 later admitted that they had inserted these words.
Apparently, I'm not the only one thinking about this issue.
Whether you agree with the text as it stands now or not is - in my opinion - immaterial. Mistranslation is mistranslation. When you translate something, you don't add materials that you want to see included. Otherwise, it is a false witness. And I don't know about you, but my mama raised me different than that...
but a false witness speaks deceitfully."
-- Proverbs 12:17
The 218th General Assembly decided to begin the process of revising the Heidelberg Catechism. The Theological Issues and Institutions Committee presented the overture from the Presbytery of Newark, asking the Assembly “to correct translation problems in five responses of the Heidelberg Catechism as found in The Book of Confessions and to add the original Scripture texts of the German Heidelberg Catechism.”
Translation problems. Sounds simple enough. But, of course, not everyone is happy about this desire to revise the Heidelberg Catechism. There are claims by some that this call to revise this catechism is purely a political move spearheaded by those seeking the full inclusion of GLBT church members. This is because one of the translation problems involves the answer to Question 87, which (in the current translation) includes the phrase "homosexual perversion". However, that phrase (as well as the phrase "Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake:") is nowhere to be found in either the Latin or German texts of the Heidelberg Catechism. As it turns out, the gentlemen who did the English translation of the text in 1962 later admitted that they had inserted these words.
Apparently, I'm not the only one thinking about this issue.
Whether you agree with the text as it stands now or not is - in my opinion - immaterial. Mistranslation is mistranslation. When you translate something, you don't add materials that you want to see included. Otherwise, it is a false witness. And I don't know about you, but my mama raised me different than that...
2 comments:
Amen sister...
thanks for shwoing the other side. I would agree that it is all about mistranslation. In fact, I'm pretty sure my seminary profs would have failed me for just adding words into a greek or hebrew translation! Nice work...
DP
If it's about translation - in spite of two previous efforts that were narrowly focused on the section addressing the controversial issue du jour - when should we expect to see review committees drawn up for 2nd Helvetic and Barmen?
Post a Comment