We return to the matter of context in our lives. Context relates to the wholeness in one’s life, especially as it relates to the culture he or she lives in, and the special context for the individual in the choices the person makes in subtracting or adding this or that factor from general culture. Context becomes a personal thing. A person will not be well understood without some knowledge of the context, known to self and interested others. Perhaps this may be illustrated in the experience of Eugene Nida, whose death was reported this morning (8/30/2011) in the news. I became interested in Nida more than fifty years ago, as I became more and more knowledgeable of the increasing circulation of the Bible in the World. In the 1970s I engaged Howard Law from the University of Minnesota to be the Academic Dean of the College I served. Law had worked first hand with Nida, and passed on some of his perceptions of the man to me. Nida, who earned a Ph.D. degree at the University of Michigan, did become eminent in the translation of the Bible into other than the well-known world languages – more than any other linguist at the time.
The newspaper reported that Nida began his monumental work with the American Bible Society in 1943, and in the ensuing decades oversaw the effort to provide Scripture for every active language. Some tribes were thus provided the first literature in their languages. To achieve his purpose, to make Scripture meaningful, because interpretation of the best manuscripts is believed vital, he had to adapt to the culture, the context in which the people lived. He called it functional equivalence, which gave the meaning in the tribal understanding, not in the words of the manuscripts. For example, to love the Lord with all your heart, became love the Lord with all your liver, for some African tribes. Liver is higher on the chart of integrity analogies than heart for those tribes. For the Inuits of Baffin Bay in the far north, a people with six distinct seasons, the hot and cold of Scripture needed refinement. Sheep, a highly honored factor in the analogies of Scripture, would not work in African tribes that interpret sheep as pests. For the Zulus, Nida refigured the Psalms to fit their chants of 12 beats. The stories of Nida’s work continue in that vein. He even applied the cultural principle in an English version, the Good News Bible. At times the application was unacceptable, to Nida’s own admission, as when the Nigerian translation, from The Lord’s Prayer: lead us not into temptation was [first] rendered: Do not catch us when we sin. That was a mistake, and needed to be redone. There was some controversy, of course, but the over-all impact has been acknowledged as spiritually uplifting for those who received it. The next step for tribes would be to seek pastors for clarity.
It is in this concept of inevitable context, especially related to cultural influence that includes: parental influence; language uses in the era; influences of various kinds including heredity; and other factors. These often put us somewhere in a jungle from which we need rescue so to be understood, directed and emerging – acceptable to God and faithful to the gospel. Context is central to our knowledge and understanding to wisdom. Committed to that understanding, we prepare ourselves for change or amendment. We must make adjustments to overcome the excuses of, that’s just the way I am, or this is the real me. We learn what we are to become by grasping God’s meaning for what he has offered in Scripture. Many persons have recited various excuses for the way they are. God means to change us. We need to perceive what we have become, both affirmatively and negatively. The pattern was likely imposed partly through a number of influences of which we have only passing relationship. Some features were chosen for me by God. But, I am responsible for self, and I work on my own responsibility. I am open to ideas and conducts that will give honor, before a holy God, so that: This becomes the person who is the real me. The process takes some doing, and sometimes cuts across my tendencies, even the physical codes of my ancestors. My DNA does not tell me what will happen. It does tell me the tendencies, some of which must be resisted. As a Christian I am made different than I would have been on my own. This is a large matter that many persons never grasp. They will not then live in the model of Christ. The code of God’s children must be given of God external to their birth contexts or inclinations. In discussions issues are not well addressed in secular contexts only. That assures common misunderstanding. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020