Conversing with the Authors of the New Testament on Their Terms

 I started on translating 2 Corinthians 3 again this morning. It's not the first time I've done 2 Corinthians, but I'll admit, I have some kind of a block about this letter more than any other work in the New Testament that even I don't really understand. 

     There's something just very different for me in engaging with the text in Greek and then writing down a translation. I've done it now so many times I've lost track. I've gotten through the whole New Testament several times over the last thirty odd years or so, but it's not the written translation that works for me. That can change every time I do it because of the semantic drift between ancient Greek and English, and every new piece of data I acquire on the culture, philosophy, and society of that time period. 

     Truth is, with my own brand of neurodivergence, I can read an English translation too fast and just lose everything I just read as my focus goes all over the place and I space it. ADHD can be a pain. But doing it in the Greek forces me to lock in, every time, even passages I've been over a hundred times. Words I already know the meaning of I look up again anyway if they stand out that particular time so that I can understand the full semantic meaning and not just the simple lexical definition given. As I am forced to slow down and do this, the English translation itself doesn't matter as much as the concept of what the author was saying that forms in my head. I start to pick up the rhythms of speech, the tone, the sarcasm, and just the way the authors spoke. So much starts getting communicated in that moment that just doesn't happen with an English translation. I start to hear how it was said in my head as much as what was said. And that is the point where the real understanding starts taking place. What I write down on the page is almost inconsequential after that, and really only serves to keep me on task so that I don't start spacing again. 

     I've filled notebooks with such translations. I've gone through Romans so many times I've lost track, but every book in the New Testament, some portions of the Septuagint, Early Church Fathers, and Epictetus are represented. Every translation is different, even if only slightly so, and most were never meant to be published for the public. But it is through this process that I came to know the voices of the N.T. authors very well, and I came to "hear" where certain verses or passages were or were not written by the author in question. 

     I'm not the best translator, to be honest. I'm not even close. The best translators have to not only understand the source language, but be able to express the meaning in the target language in a meaningful, accurate, and engaging way that the reader can understand. I'm not always there on that last point. I go back to my own translations and cringe sometimes. Not because they don't reflect what it means, but because they don't sound right in English. But I think it is this experience which I have had while spending time working through and translating the text which is the reason why I advocate for others to engage with the text in its own language and on its own terms. It's the closest thing you're ever going to experience in this life to having a conversation with these original authors themselves.