I’ve tried to stay out of the literary translation debate that has engulfed blogdom for the past week, mostly because I have little to contribute, not being conversant in Greek or Hebrew and reliant on English translations as my primary source. I am amenable to the idea of a translation that accurately conveys the modes and rhythms of the original texts, but am not sure how to reconcile that to modern English.
I am on somewhat more sure footing in the discussion of oral traditions, having researched this area a bit during college in the context of exploring program music compositions that attempt to use musical devices to convey literary and oral semantics, both in small phrases and overall thematic and structural forms.
It is with interest then that I read the latest from Doug at Metacatholic, a “literary translation of a non-literary text“, in which he examines traditional translations of Mark 1:19-22 vis-a-vis oral features that he finds in the original Greek. After making “a few observations aimed fundamentally at capturing a sense of vivid oral narrative”, Doug’s translation is shocking (in a good way) in its directness. More than any of the normal translations, I can hear Mark telling the story to a gathered audience with language that is oral, not literary:
“He went on a little further, and saw James, Zebedee’s son, together with his brother John – they were in the boat fixing the nets – and straightaway he called them. They left their father Zebedee behind in the boat with the day workers, and went off following Jesus.
They go on to Capernaum. Then it’s the Sabbath day and straightaway Jesus goes into the synagogue and begins to teach. Everyone was astonished by his teaching because he taught like someone with authority, not like the commentators at all.”
The conversion of an oral tradition to written text necessarily smooths over the natural roughness of our speech patterns. It is a rare author or scribe who can maintain the same directness in written language as spoken words; perhaps easier in poetry and verse than in narrative examples.
We all experience this when we hear a pastor, teacher, coworker, etc. make a presentation that has obviously been written out beforehand. We don’t use the same language in writing that we do in speaking. The grammar is more polished. The phrases are longer and tend to use more conjunctions to join thoughts. In effect, we “speak” to a book, not people, and more often than not, lose the attention of our audience because people listen differently with their ears than they do with their eyes.
In contrast, good speeches follow a structured outline, but instead of being written out in excruciating detail, the main thoughts are filled out through the sheer experience of public speaking and familiarity with the main points of the message. You may write a brilliant essay, but until you can give a brilliant speech on that topic, you’ve not proven that you’ve mastered the material.
Hence why so many thesis defenses are by oral examination. And why so many of our most treasured devotionals (e.g. Oswald Chambers) and writings (e.g. C.S. Lewis) had their origins in public lectures or radio broadcasts.
Doug’s translation brings Mark’s narrative back to oral life, spoken like a pastor at the pulpit who is summarizing the background structural features of a narrative (“Then they go on to Capernaum…”) as he progresses to the key thoughts of a sermon. Whether the entirety of the gospel would benefit from this approach is unknown, but it’s fascinating to see the literary veneer lifted from the text in this example. Bravo!
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And why so many of our most treasured devotionals (e.g. Oswald Chambers) and writings (e.g. C.S. Lewis) had their origins in public lectures or radio broadcasts.
On Oswald Chambers, it’s interesting that his public lectures come to us in a written devotional book; and that we get that through the largely unacknowledged efforts of Gertrude Hobbs (aka Biddy Chambers), his widow. She was a stenographer, who wrote down much of what he preached, compiled it into My Utmost for His Highest in 1935, and writes its forward only signing her name as B. C. but never writing about what she’d done.
The most recent versioning of O. C.’s sermons and B. C.’s book is My Utmost for His Highest: An Updated Edition in Today’s Language edited some years ago (1992?) by James Reimann. There’s also an Audio version out this year on CD. It’s not the Scottish Preacher O. C. speaking from and around the KJV but it’s Tennesse American “Contemporary Christian” singer Michael Card reading or “narrating” O. C.’s words with NKJV text from time to time.
That’s quite a circle around to the Oral Tradition you’re writing about.
See this post for an amusing oops by Reimann… thank you also for the background on Ms. Hobbs.