Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;

(Dedicated to the Charis team going to Russia, my prayers are with you)

Luke 9:44-45: “Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men.  But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying”

Most of your modern translations will render the phrase “Let these sayings sink down into your ears” as “Listen carefully.”   I quoted from KJV above as the translators of the KJV merely translated this from the Greek word- for-word.  As a result these words are so un-English that it is almost comical.

This is a classic illustration of the difference between 20th – 21st Century translations and earlier translations.   Today we use what is known as “dynamic” translation, which is attempting to give the sense of the original rather than a word-for-word translation.  When the Greek translator translated the original words of  Jesus, which were originally spoken in either Aramaic or  Hebrew (I believe Hebrew),  he was employing a traditional method of translation, ie., word for word.  Almost 1600 years later, the translators commissioned by King James, still using the word for word method, translated the same expression from Greek into English; and thus it was that a beautiful Hebrew idiom was perpetuated in our English translations.

One of the most common questions I am asked is “which is the best translation” I usually hem and haw.   They are all good translations, but you just have to realize each translation is slighted.  If there was only one way to translate a passage, then why have so many translations?   The fact is that in a translation one can draw many meanings from a word.  Years ago Nikita Khrushehev, the then Prime Minister of the Soviet Union who was not noted for his tact, was introduced to a very attractive female delegate at the United Nations.  It was noted by those who spoke Russian that the prime minister said something like “Va va voom!!!”  However his translator translated the expression as “You are a very charming woman.”   This is the danger is our translations, everyone who translates can consciously or unconsciously add their own little agenda.  It is for this reason that the Jewish people will teach their children from the age of 3 to study Hebrew so they can read the Word of God in the original language and let God reveal Himself to that individual through his pure Word and not through someone’s idea of what a particular word or phrase may mean in their own spoken language.  We Christians just can’t imagine such discipline in our own children or ourselves, when we have so many English translations and all we have to do is just pick the one that we feel suits our needs.

Some of you are familiar with my Uncle Otto animal stories, I don’t usually share them as someone at my age needs to grow out of such immature things but it is relaxing to write them and in response to this devotional I will share one of them with you to show how individual interpretations can, at times, draw you away from what God may be saying to you personally.

So in answer to the question of a preferred translation, as a Hebrew student, mine is the King James Version.  I choose this because it uses the word-for-word translation rather than the dynamic translation and thus a passage like the above retains the beauty of the Hebrew idioms, of which there are many.

This expression “sink down into your ears” was used only once in the Old Testament, Exodus 7:14.  Moses was commanded by God to record an important promise “I will thoroughly erase every trace of the people of Amalek” and “sink it in the ears” of Joshua.

Why only Joshua?  Because it was Joshua who would later fight against the Amaleks throughout his lifetime and generations to follow.  This promise was a warning as much as a promise. There would be many more battles, Joshua would be severely tested but he must not give up for God promised eventual victory. Hence throughout the ages up to the time of Jesus the phrase: “sink down into your ears” became associated with a warning of future battles ahead but ultimate victory from God.

Is it any coincidence that Luke 9:44 would use this same expression, spoken in a day when the majority of Jews living in the Land of Israel knew the Hebrew Scriptures almost by heart? It was no accident that Jesus used these words.  The disciples were too fearful to acknowledge what Jesus was saying because they knew in their hearts what that idiomatic expression meant.  For what the disciples heard in their hearts in the idiom “let these words sink down into your ears”  was, “There will be many battles ahead, but don’t fear, God promises ultimate victory.”

To all Yamon Ki Yesepar, may these words sink into your ears.

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