Distracted by Divers Discourses

 (Seeking Simplicity)   (Tyndale’s Treatise)

I recently spent all day in our school library. Incredible. Surrounded in books. Inspirational. Perhaps a little daunting. So much to read. So many narratives to prioritize. So much learning. So many ideas, opinions, facts, truths, and stories. So many books and authors who have put into print what was in their imagination. Dreams. Hopes. Heroes. Works of love, life, and learning. All this work produced, published, printed. I sat there - as host of our network gathering of Chaplains and Youth Workers - I was distracted by all these thoughts and more. It is a very chaotic, deeply complex, wonderful, but often very challenging world. The complexity of navigating the enormity of understanding made me gasp. 

How can an average person today reckon with what is important, what is life giving, what is truth?

I sat surrounded with books. I was immersed in my cerebrations, a celebration of seminal significances.   I ruminated about all that script, imagined writing it all, imagined needing to hand write it all, remembered Gutenberg, and remembered the printing of the bible and its dissemination to the masses and the pioneering of mass printing for other major publications and future literature as well. The printing press played a key role in the advancement of the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Age of Enlightenment. Making knowledge contained in books and literature readily available and affordable for the general population for the first time. This contemplation, in turn, lead me deeper in my thoughts.

Bible Translator in Israel

I had recently also been drawn to taking another look at William Tyndale because of his standing up to a system that was threatened by their loss of control. In 1535, after several years as a ‘wanted man’ Tyndale was arrested, and jailed. In 1536, he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. Tyndale’s crime was the translating of the bible into common English for the common people. Tyndale recognized the abuses that came from a corrupt system, and uneducated clergy who knew little about the Word of God, and even less about the Latin verses that they recited each week. His mission was to provide people access to the truths of the bible for themselves. His famous tenet resounded and framed his mission:

 “I will cause a boy who drives a plough to know more of the scriptures than the pope”. 

Tyndale was convinced that the Bible alone should determine the practices and doctrines of the church and that all believers should be able to read the Bible in their own language. Because of the influence of printing and a demand for Scriptures in the vernacular, William Tyndale worked on a bible translated directly from the Greek into everyday (accessible) English. Perhaps Tyndale’s greatest achievement was the ability to create a balance between the needs of scholarship, simplicity of expression, and literary gracefulness, all in a uniform dialect. The effect was the development of an English style of Bible translation, that was to serve as the model for future English versions for hundreds of years.

When Tyndale first translated his New Testament, the English language was thought of as weak and unfit for Holy Writ. Tyndale’s work proved that it was however rich, dramatic, and colourful; that it was fit to communicate God’s Word, and worthy of furtherance. It has been expressed that our English language and accompanying literature would not have become the powerful medium it is to this day without Tyndale’s legacy. Tyndale had a burning passion to see the common person read God’s unadulterated, de-barnacled Word and he did something about it. At the time of his death, 18,000 copies of his New Testament had been printed. The common English-speaking person had access to reading the scripture. Further to this, in fulfilling his mission, Tyndale opened for the translation of the bible into the divers and diverse languages of the world. To date The United Bible Societies and Wycliffe Bible Translators report that the Bible, has been translated (in whole or part) in more than 3,324 languages (including an increasing number of sign languages), including complete Old or New Testaments in 2,189 languages, and the complete text of the Bible (Protestant canon) in 804 languages. Wycliffe Bible Translators also estimate that there are currently around 2,584 languages which have active Bible translation projects (with or without some portion already published). As Tyndale’s mentor Erasmus projected: 

"Christ desires his mysteries to be published abroad as widely as possible. I would that [the Gospels and the epistles of Paul] were translated into all languages, of all Christian people, and that they might be read and known." 

This is simply happening.

Tyndale not only gave access for readership. He also gave access to revolutionary ideals through particular words and how he translated them. The choice of words can also be theologically loaded. There were 5 words of note that catalyzed his influence and the reaction that lead to his martyrdom. Tyndale’s translation was carefully phrased to state the perspective of what he could gain from the original Greek and Hebrew to bring meaning in the common English of his day. In several notable cases, Tyndale deliberately chose to render words that had a long legacy among the religious institutions with new terms that Catholics found offensive. For example, he used “congregation” instead of “church,” “elder” instead of “priest,” “repentance” instead of “do penance,” and “love” instead of “charity.” Tyndale’s English translations of these words were  more accurate translations of the Greek terms, but they differed from the familiar Vulgate upon which much Christian theology had been based. These terms are loaded: “do penance” had sacramental implications rejected by many protestant reformers—whereas “repentance” more closely reflected an act that could be done by an individual before God without the need of the church. These changes were offensive to the religious hierarchy and were heavily criticized by many.

 It was because his translation not only armed people with an opportunity to read scripture, but it also gave value to semantics of principles given through the use of these individual words that the population had access to truth. As I reviewed this article, I considered what word might encapsulate the themes I have been giving illumination to. “Access” was my working concept.

 

In the School Library

 The library that began all these musings gives access for our students to a whole range of topics. Gutenberg gave people access to a printed form of the scripture (in Latin). Tyndale gave access for everyday people to be able to read the scripture in their own language; and to understand deep theological and spiritual concepts by semantic relevance and with academic integrity. The power of effective translation and exegesis to give people access to stories and truths often gets overlooked. It’s either not given the prominence it demands, or worse it’s an afterthought. The truth is translation is far more important. In the Global Economy of today’s interconnected world, effective translation is an asset. It doesn’t matter which industry you’re in, whether it’s ministry, politics, e-commerce, iGaming, finance, science, sport, multimedia, or relationships talking the language of your customers or connections effectively is essential. Like Tyndale some of the crafting of translating ideals in words needs to be way simpler than what we often do. If you turn to read pieces translated or written by Tyndale, (either in his prose writings or his Bible translations) you enter a different (more easily accessed) world populated with short words and sentences that evoke images of real life. In this world you find light, not illumination; eat, not ingest; grow, not cultivate; burn, not incinerate.

I think all of this has relevance to me as a writer… for each of us as writers.

What I simply want to say is ………

That my main point is: If you want to say something so your audience can access it (understand it), keep it simple.

When you say something, say it simply.

My work as a school Chaplain has taught me that. 

In our world today, with all its complexities, absurdities, arguments, debates, disharmonious divisiveness, and discombobulations that distract us from some of the simple truth, we need to embrace again the simple pleasure and peace gained by some unostentatious communication and living.  

So sometimes (often) - in our writing- using a simpler phrase or word is even more effective to get your message across. This resonates for how we live our lives too (that’s a message for another article, but it is worth introducing here).

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” (The Message translation Philippians 4:8-9).

When I am distracted by divers discourses, I am challenged to come back to the basics of life lived well.

As Corn Flakes expressed back in my childhood:

“The simple things in life are often the best”.