I sometimes have issues with the way that certain verses are translated in certain translations in the Bible. Now I am not suggesting that I know more than translators know. I have a rudimentary knowledge of ancient Greek and even less of Hebrew. But if I opened a mathematics textbook and I see that they have added 2 plus 2 and gotten 5, I can say that it is wrong even though the authors know a thousand times more math than I do. So, I feel free to criticize the translation of a certain verse if I can show that it was not well done.
Before we get to an example that will involve reading in context, I want to explain that there are different theories of translation. I will oversimply it for you here. The two basic theories are called “formal equivalence” and “dynamic equivalence”, at least the last time I checked. (The names and theories may have been altered, but that will not change what I am arguing here.)
The idea behind formal equivalence is something like we might be tempted to call word-for-word translation. Of course, there is no such thing as word-for-word translation since different languages have different words, grammar, syntax, etc. Nevertheless, the translator tries to keep to the words of the biblical text as close to the original as he or she can.
The idea behind dynamic equivalence is that the translation gives us the meaning of the original since the attempt at word-for-word translation can often lead English readers with the wrong impression regarding the meaning of a particular passage. For example, after Jesus healed the woman with the blood flow, he told her, “Your faith has saved you.” (KJV) That is a literal translation. But that might lead us to the conclusion that this woman was just “saved”. A dynamic translation would say, “Your faith has made you whole” or “Your faith has healed you”. That is clearer to us than the word “saved” though in the Greek, it is the same word, “sozo”, which refers most often to eternal salvation. In this case, the dynamic equivalent method seems to be superior to the formal equivalent method, but I don’t think that that is generally the case. Dynamic equivalence is actually more likely to mislead the reader than formal equivalence.
With that said, we are ready to look at an example of poor translation by the method of dynamic equivalence. I will use two translations – the New American Standard, which uses formal equivalence, and the New Living Translation which uses dynamic equivalence. The verse in question is 1 Corinthians 12:8a. The subject is spiritual gifts, or supernatural manifestations of the Spirit of God.
New American Standard:
“For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.”
New Living Translation:
“To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice.”
Notice that the NASB simply says “the word of wisdom” and the NLT says that this gift is the “ability to give wise advice”. The NLT is clearly an interpretation. The Greek says, “logos sophias”. Logos is the word for word or utterance, and Sophia is a word for wisdom. We can see that “word of wisdom” is roughly the same as “logos sophias”. It is quite literal.
So, what is a “logos sophias” in this context? It could mean the giving of wise advice. That is one good option. It is the one that the NLT translators chose. But what if it means something else?
Let’s focus on the word, “sophias” or “wisdom”. The NLT translators have interpreted it as “wise advice”. Now I think that giving wise advice is a wonderful thing, but I do not think it is a spiritual gift. I think it is something else. How can we know whether or not “sophias” should be translated as “wise advice”?
Context.
If we look at the context of the whole Bible, we will immediately notice that wisdom can mean “practical advice”. Just read the book of Proverbs. It is full of advice and wise sayings. It’s a very practical book.
Then again, we also know that wisdom is the proper way of looking at the world according to the revelation that God has given us.
So, the context of the whole Bible might not help us here. Instead, we must look at how Paul used the word “sophias” in the rest of 1 Corinthians. After all, it is highly unlikely that he would use such an important word in different ways, especially in the same letter. The context that is critical here is the context is how this author he uses words in this letter he has written to the Corinthians.
Earlier in this letter, Paul spoke of two very different sources of wisdom. One was the wisdom of the world, which is wrong. The other is the wisdom of God, which we need to learn and follow. But in neither case does Paul use the word to indicate “practical advice”. Rather he was talking about two very different ways to view the world.
The wisdom of the world caused the Corinthians to see the world the way the ancient Greeks and Romans did. There world was full of factions, divided between those who followed different philosophical teachers. Hence, the Corinthians were arguing over who they should follow – Paul, Apollos or Peter. They also denied the resurrection of the dead. The reason they did this was because in their philosophy (wisdom), the body was the prison of the soul and the soul needed to be released from its prison never to return.
But that is not the wisdom of God. God’s wisdom is based on Jesus Christ and him crucified – and resurrected. Paul urges the Corinthians to turn away from the wisdom of the world and accept God’s wisdom who is Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 NLT
When I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God]—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.
Notice that I have used the NLT for this passage. Wisdom, from God, is a revealing of His purpose and plan. In this passage, it specifically refers to God’s plan to reconcile humanity to Himself by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us.
This leads me to conclude that when Paul speaks the wisdom of God, he is talking about a revelation of the purpose and plan of God. The word of wisdom, then, is not the giving of practical advice, but God revealing what He is planning to do in the life of an individual, a church or even a nation.
When King Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah had a word of God’s wisdom for him. Hezekiah was told to put his house in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah then prayed and plead his case to God. God then extended his life for 15 more years.
Hezekiah knew that this was not practical advice that Isaiah was giving him, but God was telling him that under the circumstances he was going to die. Hezekiah did not set his house in order; he changed the situation through prayer.
I think that I have shown definitively that the NASB translation is much better than the NLT. And I have also demonstrated that a dynamic translation, being interpretive, can lead us in the wrong direction due to the opinion of the translators. They obviously believed that the verse in question means “giving wise advice”.
The NASB translation could lead to any of several interpretations. With the NASB, you could come to the conclusion, as many have, that “logos sophias” means “giving wise advice”. But any good translation should allow for interpretations other than the one that the translators determine must be correct. The job of a translator is to translate the text freely and faithfully, not to determine the complete meaning for us and translate it accordingly.
But I must return to our main theme of interpreting by context. In my first post on the subject, I showed how the immediate context is the most important. In the second, I showed that the context of the whole Bible is important as well, especially when it comes to application.
Now we can see that how the human author uses certain words also helps us determine what a word means, particularly in the same book. Get into the habit of reading context, the surrounding context and the context of the book of the Bible you are reading as well.
God bless.
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