Friday, December 13, 2002

•••Language ABOUT God and FROM God I've been combing through the LCMS Commission on Worship web pages, studying their proposed changes in translation of the Nicene Creed for the upcomming release of a revised hymnal. It is no small matter to consider changing the English wording of such an ancient creed as this, one which caused the first major split in all of Christendom over the presence or absence of a single letter in the word homoiousious. Precision matters in theology, and in translation. I'm glad to see it matters to the Commission on Worship, too. They aren't proposing such changes lightly. I believe that. Yet as I was studying their statement of "Language Guidelines & Principles for Translation" pages, I found the logic in Section V. rather seriously flawed. It is this section which doubtless drives the decision and argumentation of the Committee to alter the English to read, "Who for us humans and for our salvation ... became man" rather than the established "Who for us men and for our salvation ... became man." The Greek word used in the Nicene Creed is the same Greek translated in 1 Timothy 2:5, for example. Forms of the word "anthropos." So anyhow, in trying to collect and organize my thoughts in response to the Commission on Worship's invitation for feedback, I've been working on another little essay. I think even my feminist friends would have to agree with my basic thesis -- namely, the logic of the Language Guidelines and Principles for Translation is seriously flawed in Section V.   1:47:06 PM   googleit 130     itemlink->