Disability Studies and Bible translation

werner [at] forschungsinstitut.net

 

Abstract

This essay is a short introduction to Disability Studies and Bible translation. What is on the first glance not obvious, becomes much clearer when the linguistic and social impact of historic Bible translations is in focus. Not just political correctness but also an Inclusivist rethinking of the church is needed to overcome existing hermeneutics of Ableism or Disableism.

 

Disability Studies (DS) originates from social studies in the 1960s concurrent with both the gay and feminist liberation movements and Latin American liberation theology. Since then, there has been an increasing awareness of DS in theology, but not so much in missiology (intercultural theology in Germany) or in the Science of Bible translation. Research on, by, and with people with physical or mental impairment is yet to be introduced in these disciplines. Within Disability Studies, the history, the needs (e.g., care, assistance), and the social framework of adults with physical or mental impairment have been investigated. Less so in missiology or Intercultural Theology, where neither Christian parents nor other Christian care providers for children, or those groups that focus on Christian care have been in focus.

In the light of expensive long-term (Bible) translation training, preparation in intercultural-linguistics, costly member care and administrative structures, as well as the high cost of medical or physical aid both on the field and at home, there is an obvious lack of research on DS in missiology. Out of an inclusivist approach, such a need opens up the potential for sending organizations. For one it will help

gathering information about the needs of their staff with physical or mental impairment, as well as
evaluating concerns regarding disability within people groups on the field, in respect of at least ten percent of an ethnicity’s population (12.8% in US, 2017 census; 10% in Germany, 2016 census).
DS emerged out of the social prejudices against people with disabilities (i.e., ableism or disableism), in the form of

discrimination,
isolation, and
the exclusion of disabled persons.
It was implemented by veterans of war with a disability, and those persons with physical or mental impairment, who

had to live in special-care facilities isolated from a normal environment,
were unable to study at universities, or
to manage the needs of daily life (e.g., shopping, cooking, dealing with officials), due to the sheer fact of the inaccessibility of the public realm to them.
In addition, one would add the refusal by officials to listen to the needs of parents of children with impairment, especially regarding education or assisted care at home instead of in special-care homes. Whereas in the US, the outcry against the discrimination against the disabled was regarding the (in)accessibility and (lack of) education, in the UK and Germany, the focus was on seeking/the need for independent assisted daily life. Radical insider movements such as the “cripple movement” (Krüppelbewegung in Germany) were recognized on not just the national, but also the international level (Fandrey 1990). In 2006, the UN chartered the “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.” The US, the UK, and Germany ratified the convention in 2009; by March 2018 there were 175 ratifications globally (Online see https://www.un.org/).

The terms “participation” and “integration” became keywords of the early days, later replaced by the multifaceted term “inclusion,” expressing an Inclusivist environment on all levels of life such as accessibility, assisted independent living, language, social acceptance, and perception. Historically, terminology of popular Bible translations (e.g., King James Version, Luther Bible) was very influential. Later, when by language shift some terminology was used in colloquial language as terms of abuse, the translation tradition did not adapt to modern Inclusivist language, but became exclusive. Examples such as “cripple,” “idiot,” “invalid,” “lame,” “monster,” etc., have nowadays become ostracized from acceptable usage. However, out of pity or sym- instead of empathy, exclusivist terminology is sometimes still used (un)consciously in Bible translation. For example, the 2017 revision of the Luther Bible still uses einen Lahmen, “a lame [person],” instead of “a paralyzed person” (Matt 4: 24), following the “Lutheran tradition” as a code for revision. One reason for this is the lack of disabled Bible translators, exegetes, and theological hermeneutists, bearing in mind the adage, “Nothing about us, without us.” This parallels the development of gender Inclusivist or Feminist language in the 1980s that resulted in revision in the Luther Bible in 1999 from Weib, which carried then the meaning ”bitch”, to Frau, “woman”.

There are similar demands in Bible translation for political correctness regarding the translation of descriptions of persons with a handicap as well as an Inclusivist perception by the Church. Wynn Kerry was one of the first to address this issue (2001). He gave four recommendations to translators, the most helpful one being to move from generalization to descriptive terminology. Thus “a lame person” may become “a man/woman with a mobility impairment,” and “a blind person” may be expressed as “a person with visual impairment.”  Mark 8:25 reads, “his sight was restored” in most (more literal) Bible translations (so NRSV; cf. Ger. wiederhergestellt). This leaves the audience with the assumption that the healed man’s “blindness” was most likely an impairment caused by illness in later age, since the man’s sight was “restored” (“he saw again,” assuming he saw at one time in life).  In a best-case scenario, the audience will wonder, whether the man was born blind or became blind later in life. This uncertainty would be obvious mainly to sensitive exegetes, who would use Inclusivist language in their rendition. Beyond that, hermeneutics must take into consideration that the Biblical authors reflected their culture-bound perception of disability.

Over more than nineteen centuries, literal translation transporting the NT authors’ perspective on disability led to the exclusion, isolation or, since the 18 c., relegation to special homes, of people with impairment, out of the Church’s mandate of social welfare (Ger. Diakonat). Nowadays, politics force the Church, as a public player, to make possible the inclusion of persons with disabilities on all levels of society as leaders, pastors, and staff, and of course members and interested parties. In this way, hopefully, sympathy out of pity is replaced in the Church by empathy out of equality, thus performing an Inclusivist role in building diversity in the communion of saints (Reynolds 2008).

 

Additional reading: Kerry 2007a, 2007b.

 

References

Fandrey, Walter 1990. Krüppel, Idioten, Irre. Zur Sozialgeschichte behinderter Menschen in Deutschland. Stuttgart: Silberburg-Verlag. [Engl.: Cripples, idiots, lunatics. On the Social History of Disabled People in Germany.].

Reynolds, Thomas E. 2008. Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality. Grand Rapids: BrazosPress.

Wynn, Kerry 2001. Disability in Bible Translation. Bible Translator 52/4, 402-414. New York: UBS.

Wynn, Kerry H. 2007a. Johannine Healings and Otherness of Disability. Perspectives in Religious Studies 34, 61-75.

Wynn, Kerry H. 2007b. The Normate Hermeneutic and Interpretations of Disability within the Yahwistic Narratives, in Avalos, Hector, Melcher, Sarah J. & Schipper, Jeremy (eds.): This Abled Body. Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies, 91-101. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.

 

 

 

Bible translation – Ways of Communication in regard to Inspiration, Inkarnation, Condescence and Kenosis

An overview of the trinitarian-communicative foundations in relation to the science of Bible translation

Eberhard Werner (werner (at) forschungsinstitut.net)

Abstract

Scriptures teach us different ways of how the divine transcendence was revealed to man in pre-biblical, pre-Christian, pre-canonical and canonical times. The revealed concept of the Three-Unity or Trinity of the Judeo-Christian God plays an important role. However, this theological theoretical concept as biblical truth must not deceive the basic fact that it presents a purely relational structure. This relation-relevant category of the revealed nature of God is explained inter alia by the forms of communication and because of it. The event of incarnation, condescension and de-utterance or emptying (kenosis) of the divine counterpart in persona and will, as well as the formation of the canon with the entire salvation history represents a temporary climax of divine revelation, which one one must consider as a communicative bottleneck. The “before” and the “after” of the communication channels forms the basis for the science of Bible translation. The biblical canon in its present form, as well as the writings accompanying and describing it, form the basis of our image of God. This canon as a base text (German Grundtext) is formed by textual criticism. He narrows the divine patterns of communication to the implicit and explicit communicative content of the Bible text. For this reason, Bible translation scholarship is required to become aware of the variety of ways in which communicative sacred-divine content is transmitted and received by the receptor / receiver, considering both the ways of transmission and the meaning of the biblical texts ( s). The nature of God in so far as accessible to us is described in these ways of transmission and communication.

Content

This article is based on my work “Bible Translation in Theory and Practice” (Kovac Verlag, 2011), as well as the preparation of an interactive workshop for the AfeM Conference 2012.
In the first part, ways of communication in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament are considered, with which the transcendence approached mankind, subgroups, or individuals in oral trajectory or written manner. In the second part, the function is seen as a bottleneck / narrowing of these pathways to the canonization and writing of the Scriptures, as well as the importance of this process for the Church.
The third part deals with the resulting missiological consequences.

Introductory thoughts – communication channels

The Trinity, Three-Oneness, or Three-Unity is a theoretical concept derived from Biblical narratives, but not logically understandable. It remains a mystery manifested in faith (πίστις, pistis) and understanding (σύνεσις, synesis) by the believer(s). It attests a relational aspect in which God’s inner love-relationship between the formats of revelation (hypostasis or persona) are shown (ad intra), as well as the external love-relationship with man (ad extra). The latter is symbolized in the relationship with his Messenger (Messiah, Christ). The communicative forms and ways that this trinitarian revelation takes in the biblical testimony point to the outwardly revealing, self-evident-being of God. In these communication ways it can be examined which communicative attitude to the person God has and how he wants to bring him close to the Bible. The unrevealed traits of the transcendental remain hidden and form the irresolvable mystery or the mystery of the Creator.
Communication paths, which are described in the Bible from the divine-transcendental sphere into the human-physical realm of man, include:

 Oral traditions also known as oral-aural transmission (Hearing), such as in Jer 23:27.
 Written revelations, such as for example, the first words: I tell you, I am … (for example, Exodus 4:23, Isa 46:10, Mark 14:62, John 6:35).

The addressees were individuals (eg Moses, Abraham), subgroups (eg families, tribes etc.) or entire peoples (eg Israel, Babylonians). A distinction is in:

 the direct speech of God (direct revelation)
 in the form of the voice of God (for example, Genesis 3:16 in the bush against Moses),
 through dreams (Genesis 40:16) or visions (Ezk 8: 4).
 indirect speech (partial disclosure),
 in scriptures (Exodus 32:16),
 by messengers (Gen.
 prophets (Is 38,1; Hebr 1,1-2),
 appointed disciples (1Petr 1,1) and
 ordinary people (John 4:39).

The term direct revelation must not hide the fact that in the Scriptures the God of Israel never appeared in its entirety. Jacob and Moses had the most generous revelatory experience, as God approached them in persona (Latin for ‘mask’; Genesis 32:31 and Exodus 33:23). However, the phrase “face-to-face” פָּ נִ֣ים אֶל-פָּנִ֔ ים should not be overused. The overall biblical context makes it clear that no one can perceive God in its entirety (eg, John 1:18, 1Cor 2, 11, 1 John 4:12). This seems to have been an extraordinary form of revelation that enabled Jacob and Moses to cross the line between sanctity and profanity. Whether this border crossing was meta-physical or physical remains open. In other words, whether people approached the state of God or whether the transcendent entered the state of men is not described.

Another categorization of the channels of communication is based on the (outward) direction,
 communication on a horizontal (human-human; community) and vertical (human-God) level,
 social relation of the community to the outside (sociological orientation),
 religiously conditioned psychological-cognitive level.

This classification is useful to distinguish between pragmatic considerations (first level above) and an interdisciplinary theoretical model (latter level) in the areas of theology and missiology.
All examples of divine revelation enter human consciousness or world knowledge (sometimes world consciousness) through their verbal or written tradition (fixation). In the context of the history of tradition, even inexplicable events become communicative experiences, which in the future are an integral part of global experience in the communicative field. In other words, although some processes of communication from biblical revelation are unique, e.g. For example, the burning thorn-bush from which a voice speaks (Exodus 3: 2), this event enters into man’s general consciousness through its appearance in the Scriptures. Revelation contains a conservative component that addresses the critical examination of truth and relevance in human testing. This is theologically and missiologically significant, since in apologetic treatises the communicative background of the interlocutor must be considered, such as: For example, knowledge of Islamic communicative experience in dialogue with Muslims and vice versa. The process of revelation is narrowed today by the scriptural revelation of the biblical testimony. Before we enter, it is necessary to examine the historically meaningful self-revelation of the God of Israel (Hebrew Bible) and the world (Hebrew Bible and New Testament). The knowledge of the ways of communication and the content of the revelations arises from the revelation itself. In this sense, Scripture forms both the means of communication itself and the source of information about the communication revealed therein. This inherent circularity results from every religious revelation that calls for a cross-sphere source. From a communicative point of view, man thus becomes a passive recipient, target recipient and object of the communication of revelation, but an active partner in communication in prayer and Bible reading (see below).

The self-disclosure

At the turn of the Western world, the God of Israel, who calls himself “אֶֶֽהְיֶֶ֖ה” (Exodus 3:14) revealed himself in Jesus of Nazareth. This “I AM” leads back to the Tetragrammaton (484a) יהוה (yhwh; TWOT1). The attributes indicative of one-person division in the Hebrew Bible are:
 “us” (Genesis 1:26 and 11: 7);
 “Spirit of God” (Genesis 1: 2, 1 Samuel 10:10, 12x)
 “the angel of the Lord” (Genesis 16: 7, Exodus 22:23, 164x).
 This multiple orientation, or rather a tripartite division of the person יהוה into several areas of activity or revelation, indicated in the Hebrew Bible, is realized in the New Testament in concrete terms.
There is a threefold orientation for the person of God in the New Testament. The three persona (see above) of the NT are mainly indicated in the image of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here, the (Jewish) image of the nuclear family and the associated closest interpersonal relationship of the father to the son is taken up. Since God was mostly thought of as male, the mother’s closer relationship with the child in favor of the father (parenting or family image) receded. Other pictures of the relation are expressed in the relation of judge, pardoned and support (legal image) or teacher, pupil and master (image from education) or commander, soldier and commander-in-chief (military image). Within these relational images, the communication paths remain the same.
The revelation is realized in the transition from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament, or rather from the relationship with the people of Israel to the global church in the hitherto unprecedented appearance of the proclaimed Messiah. Specifically, this is expressed by:

Substance

The substantial physical Incarnation of the Jesus of Nazareth. It points to a rapprochement offered by the hitherto unapproachable transcendant creator. (1 TWOT [1971] 1980 and 2010. Harris, Laird R., Archer, Gleason L. Jr. & Waltke, Bruce K. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody Press of Chicago. So on BibleWorks 10.0. [DVD]).
 The condescension of divinity and the related passage of the sphere. This points to the thrust of the metaphysical into the physical space of man. But the opposite direction can be seen in the Resurrection and Ascension. A reversed direction of people, which up to that point and again today was thought to be able to reach from the physical into the metaphysical space, is denied in the festive season (eg Hinduism).

Physical

The physical emptying (kenosis) of Jesus of Nazareth into the will of transcendence points to the necessity and urgency of human reaction to the offer of salvation at a time determined by God (ἐκένωσεν ekénōsen Phil 2,7). Jesus gave the example, because he subordinated himself to God completely by emptying his will to the father completely available.
In sum, these processes mean that the revelation process moves from the openable (יהוה, θεος, κυριος) to the revealed. God is responsible for revealing Himself. But what about the communication channels? Are they-se accessible to man, or is he completely exposed to the revelatory will of divine transcendence, as z. Eg in dreams or visions? How can human beings act or respond responsively? These communication questions will now be discussed.

Holy Scripture – Anthropos and Theos

In order to answer the question, a small detour to the origin of the revelation is needed. Revelation is an interplay between divine and human action. Two scenarios are intended to make this clear:
Far more extensive divine revelation.
 Let us suppose – and this is quite realistic – that the scriptural proofs of salvation history presented to us are only a fraction of what was actually revealed by this God about his person and was also written down.
 In addition there is the extensive loss of oral traditions about this God of the Israelites, a developmenz, which can be observed in the history of literature worldwide even over short periods of time.
 It can also be assumed that the writings before us present themselves as curtailments – perhaps even during the lifetime of the authors.

Create a contrast
a. the Inlibration of the Qur’an, which is derived from a primitive revelation, which is reflected in the present Koranic text and therefore, according to the thesis, transported no human, but only divine information content.
b. The Book of Mormon as a breath is also suitable for such divinity.
c. Of course, a global direct revelation to all human beings would also be conceivable, as in the chiseling of the commandments in stone (Deuteronomy 4, 13 and 5:22) and the writing on the wall for Belzhazzar (Dan 5: 5).

However, all these approaches (a.-c.) are so far outside the human sphere of access and are speculative, since neither disposal over
 a divine revelation (a below, product of divine thought), open up the revealing party (b below, process of revelation),
 still insists on its global power (c below, God remains inaccessible). The human authors were aware of their responsibilities, and yet they had to get out
 personal (eg consideration of their environment, health),
 economic (eg written material, finances, reputation in society) or
 time-related (eg lack of imagination for the future, educational system),
Reasons for a selection. As an example, we can serve here the written proof of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It can be assumed that the content of the so-called “little prophets”, in terms of their content could have kept up to a certain extent with the revelation of the “great prophets”. Nonetheless, the author (s) of a particular book made a selection and accepted a cut, albeit a responsible one. The “great prophets”, on the other hand, were taken into account more comprehensively. This selection or appearance of a book also reflects the personality of a prophet. In terms of this interaction, man, as an individual and as the corpus of Christ, must be considered as the ultimate filter for the textual text of the canon of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament available today. The question of the formation of the canon and the inspiration of the biblical text is considered here from a purely anthropocentric point of view, since the divine power of action is not accessible to man. Nevertheless, the Holy Scripture remains a sacred work, as it leads back to the author of the revelation and thus a field of the saint. The text is not at the mercy of profanation, as the content itself describes the realm of the non-profane or sacred / sacral. In order to answer the above question, as it deals with the divine-human ways of communication, the text on the one hand fulfills in itself all criteria of human communication and on the other immanently bears the stamp of divine self-revelation.
But there is a new challenge, namely the meaning of this text as divine origin and its transformation into a communicative-informative revelation.

Needle eye of divine communication

To date, it has been found that the transmission of communicative content is based both on the transcendent author, who used human communication channels, and on the human author. With the manifestation of the (biblical) canon, which was definitively constituted in the course of the Reformation for the Western Church, but was relatively stable as early as the fourth century, man is given full responsibility for the administration of the revelation. Since then, the Holy Scripture / canon has acted like a needle eye or filter for the worldwide church.
Graphic 1: Needle eye / filter Holy Scripture

This means that the Church, through this tool of control, has the revelation as guardian of Scripture and as the person responsible for indigenizing it in all the popular and linguistic groups in the world. The latter only where faith falls on fertile ground. Sacred Scripture filters statements about or from God. Findings or contents that can not be deduced from the written evidence fall under the deliberately intended scripture censorship. In the course of church history, the considerably larger pre-canonical revelation narrows to the text that is relevant as a canon for the respective church. For example, a Roman Catholic church is committed to the apocrypha and pseudepigraph, while other churches, such as the Protestant ones, also differ gradually within the generally accepted 66 books of the Martin Luther Bible and assign different values ​​to the books (eg. lesser importance of Hebrew and James letter). The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches of the South and the East usually follow the text of the Septuagint and in addition to the 39 books of the Protestant canon of the Hebrew Bible also include:
Pre-canonical revelation of the Hebrew Bible and New Tetsaments        Prophecy, dreams, visions, direct and written revelation
Post-canonical revelations of church history in application of the canon        Prophecy, dreams, visions, direct and written revelations
 History books: Esdras (3Esra), 2. Esdras (Esra), Esther (with additions), Tobit, Judith, 1Makk, 2Makk, 3Makk.
 Books of Wisdom: Wisdom, Sirach.
 Great Prophets: Baruch, BrJer = Letter of Jeremiah, Ez, Dan (with additions)
 Apocrypha or additions: Oratio Manasse, 3Esra, 4Esra, Psalm 151
In addition to the 27 books of the New Testament Protestant canon, these churches offer the following canonical books:
 1 st and 2 nd Clement’s Letter, the Didache, the Barnabas Letter, the shepherd of Hermas, the Hebrew Gospel, the revelation of Peter.
This history of church history alone already points to the essential share and contribution of man. Added to this is the question of the formation of the canon, which itself
 on the one hand, the selection of books (recognition and / or rejection process),
On the other hand, the selection of texts from the total pool of existing text manuscripts (textual criticism) and
 last refers to the final editing or determination of the canon and its acknowledgment (church history).
The unresolved questions associated with these processes, the canon that is still open today, can not be discussed here, but form highly explosive themes that further underpin the human influence on the formation and design of the canon.

It should be pointed out at this point that it is a temporary constriction of the communication channels, which will be extended at the latest in another personal direct revelation of Christ to all imaginable communicative forms (eg, return of the Messiah) , Also, a change in status, i. H. into a substantially physically new body, as intended in the resurrection, changing conditions. Such a state change would be z. For example, to see in the presence of the living and departed believers in the direct presence of the biblically revealed God (eg death, millennial reign, second coming). In the presence of God, direct communication takes place that is subject to new conditions and is not subordinate to the scriptural revelation. In summary, this means that the earth-time of Jesus of Nazareth (30-36 years) included the all-embracing communicative representation of God, but because of the narrowing of time and salvation in the biblical canon, he relied on a range of information for the Posterity restricted or narrowed. Helping and bridging the gap is the Spirit of God, who, however, submits to the bottleneck of written revelation.

From a communicative point of view, Holy Scripture has evolved within the context of church history and specifically for the church into a bottleneck, which not only
1. itself is a means of communication (translation-specific function), but
2. also controls communication processes and controlled (inner-church function) and
3. advances communicative processes (human-divine communication). The concept of constriction should not be understood as if revelation only intended to limit man, but through this concentration on a written revelation the way is also possible for other revelatory paths (eg, vision, creation, dream, prophecy, etc.). that can be measured by this fixed shape.

The Holy Spirit drives the Church, as Corpus Christi, to apply the testing ground to these three communicative functions (1-3).

The biblical text is in itself a closed revelatory work which centripetally points to its spiritual-informal core and invites to deal with it. This inviting effect is based on the fascination with the person and effect of Jesus of Nazareth. At the same time, biblical revelation operates centrifugally as a world historical document. It reports on the cultures of antiquity and the religious thought of election as evidence of church and human history. As part of this informal salvation-historical function, Scripture implies an implicit mandate for communication and translation. Such refers to all languages ​​and cultures of the world to enable contextualized church structures. Following the enculturation of a person in their native-tongued cultural group, the indigenization of the message about the outbreak of the Kingdom of God into the respective cultural and linguistic group represents a parallel development.

By narrowing the divine offer of information and communication to the touchstone of the biblical canon, Holy Scripture becomes the biblio-centric center of ecclesiastical life. It is the ultimate norm against which ideological developments, ecclesiastical life, diaconate and theology must be measured (see above).
The teaching of spiritual truths and knowledge is based on the disciplines of theology, hermeneutics, homiletics, exegesis and auxiliary disciplines, sociology, linguistics, philosophy, psychology and the sciences of communication and translation. The binding member of these disciplines is the Divine Revelation, which promotes interdisciplinary communication and research. Their communicative function, informative and ap-pelative, is transported on the one hand out of itself (self-efficacy of the revelation) and on the other hand through the church, as its tool of proclamation (preaching and interpretation).

Missiological considerations

So far it has been found that the basis of a trinitarian model of communication is based on the meaning of biblical revelation as the bearer of communication and as its mediator. The divine communication narrows in the context of self-revelation to the canon in its filter function. The change of spheres in the event of incarnation, consecration and kenosis by Jesus of Nazareth shades the missiological orientation of the kingdom of God. It reflects the Missio Dei in the Missio Christi and the Missio Spiritus. The Missio Dei describes the broader context of the self-transmission of God, as well as the worldwide mission of the Church in the context of Christian development aid and its theoretical basis of Missiology (see below). The Missio Christi describes and promotes the methodological concept of the Kingdom of God. The Missio Spiritus describes the theological framework in which the believer moves and which he puts into practice in diaconate and Christian development aid. This dynamic image of the threefold transmission represents a relation and can not be played off against one another or outweighed. This means that all three parts of the program flow into each other and complement each other and never exclude each other. The theological-missiological framework, the Missio Dei, is part and content of the methodological propulsion of the mission, represented in the concept of the Missio Christi. In the same way, both complement the practical implementation of these frameworks and methods in Christian Development Aid, that is the Missio Spiritus. In accordance with the intertwining and interwoven nature of the Trinity, this mystery can not be resolved. Incidentally, this also applies to the following communicative trinitarian interpretation as it portrays an outward-looking depiction.

The model of the triple transmission finds its communicative realization in the
Communicatio Dei,
Communicatio Christi and
Revelatione Spirit.
 Communicatio Dei reflects the missiological and theological framework within which the message of transcendence and its manifestation moves. This includes the entire package of the written, oral and hearing-revealed spectrum of the divine counterpart.
 Communicatio Christi describes the beings manifested in incarnation, the condescension of God and in the emptying of Jesus of Nazareth (Kenosis) and the self-initiative methodology of transcendence of using human communication channels (vertical). horizontal axis). This is unique in human history, since otherwise religions of human communication are only used to approach the deity (s) (horizontal-vertical axis).
 Revelatione Spiritus describes the implementation of communicative means to confront the individual, the group or entire ethnic groups with the kingdom of God’s thoughts. Since this extends to all imaginable communication channels (dreams, prophecies, visions, self-revelation, salutations, etc.), the Revelatione Spirit narrows and limits itself to the canon of Holy Scripture (see illustration above).

The argument of the bottleneck function will be considered here in more detail and in terms of its communicative significance.
Graphic 2: Importance of the needle eye function for communication
With the narrowing of divine revelation to the Scriptures, the responsibility for administering the Church and its instruments has been transferred to man. These include the handling and dissemination of the word revealed, as well as the personal implementation of ethical and theological premises. From the previously one-sided address of man through transcendence, there has since been a double responsibility:
 First, the maintenance of the vertical communicative axis through prayer, obedience, and attention to divine revelation (Christofugal).
 On the other hand, the horizontal communicative axis within the church and to extraterrestrial circles with regard to sibling and charity in the framework of the Diaconate and Christian Development Aid (Christopetal).

Missio Christi        Incarnation, conescence, kenosis            Communicatio Christi                human communication channels

Missio Spiritus        Pragmatic methodology of Christian development aid            Revelatione Spirit                Communicative resources are narrowed to the canon of the Bible

Missio Dei        Missiological-theological framework            Communicatio Dei                revelatory

The Communicatio Dei includes not only the missio interna, but also the missio externa. The extent to which the model or understanding of the Missio Dei shifts thereby is not the subject of this investigation, but it would not be consistent to consider the Missio Dei as a superordinate entity, as it forms a transparent-permeable framework that is dynamically woven into the triple broadcast.

Experienced communication

The model of communication in missiology and theology presented here also has an effect on the areas of church history, the science of Bible translation, biblical studies (exegesis, hermeneutics), and homiletics. In addition, biblical translation scholarship will consult ethnology, linguistics, sociology, philosophy and psychology.
All of these disciplines address divine communication and lead to an understanding and understanding of God through the Bible that establishes “experienced communication” in the recipient. The addressed person experiences real experience and communicative address in this process. This becomes clear in the hermeneutics and the personal confrontation with the divine revelation. “Experienced communication” goes beyond the physical channels of communication. She, like prayer, enters the psycho-cognitive space of communication. Prayer, Bible reading, the direct speech of God to man (vision, dream) and indirectly in prayer (impressions, hunches, sensations) give man answers to questions of life. In this sense, a communicative process closes, which, although ideally emanating from man, but is dependent on the revelatory will of transcendence. This revelation will be narrowed to inner biblical revelation, i. Scripture as a filter. On the one hand, man is therefore open to the talk of God through the Holy Spirit, but at the same time he is also limited to knowledge within the framework of his knowledge of the Bible, since this prescribes to him the measure and the filter. So z. For example, prophecies, visions, or dreams are used as divine channels, but reduced by written revelation. The biblical testimony itself opens up the possibility of personal edification and of other persons through direct revelation when tested (1 Cor. 14, again the scripture is the standard).
Man can control the cycle on his own responsibility (prayer, receptiveness), as well as relying on the filter function of the Revelation. In this sense, he is the equivalent of the divine communication partner (Imago Dei) and holds a special position in the context of creation.
At this point, it must be pointed out that due to the biblical account, there are also interpretations that give people an external control. Here it is argued that only the Holy Spirit motivates, directs, and executes the will and achievement of a communicative approach to God. The will of man then lies in there to come to terms with this foreign leadership and subordinate to it. At this point, this interpretation,
which raises the question of predestination, only mentioned and left open for further interpretation.

Church History Review – Communication Thought

The science of Bible translation assumes the function of church history to transport the area of ​​experience of the church in the form of translation traditions to the canon. In other words, the history of the Bible translation reflects the state of the Church. In terms of this function, it does not make sense to speak of a “higher development” or “spiritual growth” of the church (vertical axis), but rather it makes sense to speak of the church’s increasing horizon of experience or communication horizon ( horizontal axis). Incidentally, this also applies to the individual in the context of the Church, who does not develop cognitively higher, but increases in his spiritual-spiritual experience. To make this concrete, it pays to browse through history:
 The pre-canonical church was dependent on oral tradition and the apostolate as well as its doctrinal succession (transmission of doctrine). The experience with Marcion, Gnosticism, Arianism and other influences flowed into the further development of the Church and is reflected in the dogmas and the Creed of this time (3rd-4th century AD).
 The first native-language Bible translations in Semitic languages ​​and dialects, as well as Armenian, Gothic and Latin reflect the state of the Church, which was heavily dependent on authorities at that time. This emphasizes the clergy in these translations. For this reason, the Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and some Middle Eastern churches also have a strong tendency toward liturgy and hierarchy.
 With the Reformation, the lay priesthood comes into the consciousness of the church. The words “salvation”, “salvation” and “grace” determine the church for the next centuries. Interestingly enough, the church, which hitherto had subordinated itself to the clergy, can adapt to this communicative change, which I would call dynamic contextualization.
This list can easily be expanded and continued based on the history of the church and theology. What is important, however, is that the communicative basis – the filter, that is the Holy Scriptures – has never lost significance or value, that is its inherent persuasive aspect, throughout the time, though the form, language and cultural references have never changed. This phenomenon is based on the trinitarian triad of Communicatio Dei, Communicatio Christi and Revelatione Spiritus. As a conservative guardian and at the same time progressive propagator of the message, a great deal of responsibility is assigned to man and the church, which should be used creatively and for the benefit of God’s reign.

Summary

The complex communicative connections between the nature of God as the “Sender” and “Messenger” reflect the trinitarian personality of the revealed transcendence. The Scriptures as the manifested document about the divine person and their work in church and human history narrows and reduces the channels of communication in the event of writing and fixing the canon. This reduction finds its cause in the incarnation, condescension and emptying (kenosis) of transcendence in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who gave himself to the will of God. Descriptions about him and the impact of his relevant historical healing actions – notably his death, resurrection and ascension – are recorded in the written record. With the concretization of church-relevant writings in the biblical canon, the responsibility of translating, disseminating and implementing the Christian message is completely transferred to man. The previously orally transmitted and more comprehensive revelation is reduced to the then authoritative written format. In this function, Holy Scripture functions as a bottleneck and communicative filter:
 previous revelation (Canon of the Hebrew Bible),
 subsequent revelation (eg, visions, dreams, prophecy), they
 is source of information on theologically and missiologically relevant issues, and
 Church history-relevant development (eg dogma, creed, faith orientation).
As a source of sacred and sacral content that transcends the human sphere, it suggests a transition to the Sphere, which turns out to be Christocentric and Christofugal. The former draws man to revelation in order to bring him near to God and to keep him there (eg fascination of the church). The latter drives him away from this center, out to his fellow men, to bring them closer to the sphere of Christ.

The communicative reality contained in the dynamically interwoven concept of the Missio Dei, Missio Christi and Missio Spiritus corresponds to the triad of Communicatio Dei, Communicatio Christi and the Revelatione Spi-ritus. This trinitarian consonance corresponds to the Communicatio Dei as a theological and missiological framework within which transcendence is revealed to man. The Communicatio Christi is revealed through the manifestation of Christ in incarnation, condescension and emptiness (kenosis). In doing so, she uses human communication channels. In order to confront the individual, the group or entire ethnic groups with the kingdom of God’s thoughts, the Revelatione Spirit narrows down and limits itself to the canon of Scripture as the touchstone and measure of the Church.

Church history, the history of Bible translation, as well as Christian development aid reflect the vertical extension of the experience of the global Corpus Christi. This extension is based on the transfer of responsibility for the establishment of a written record.

Believers are given the worldwide responsibility and opportunity to give people of all cultures and languages ​​access to the essence and trinitarian nature of God’s self-manifesting יהוה, θ
εος, κυριος (yhwh, theos, kyrios). The science of Bible translation is instrumental in this triad of Communicatio Dei, the Communicatio Christi, and the Revelatione Spiritus. In particular, it does so by providing methods and models of communication and translation in education. These allow the (Bible) Translator to actively choose a model or model mix for their project. In this sense, the recipient is provided with a contextualized offer of information, which allows him a cultural and language-related access to the Scriptures.

Bible translation and Disability Studies

Bible translation and Disability Studies

Eberhard Werner (werner (a) forschungsinstitut.net)

 

Bible translation and Disability Studies, how is that related? At first glance, “disability” in the Bible seems to be within the framework of a discourse that reflects exclusively on the lives of the non-disabled. The living worlds of people with and without disabilities emerge in the biblical text by the authors as interface out of the perspective of the non-disabled. We will not find a life picture of a “handicapped person”, which would allow to make any decision on the question of the physical or mental restriction with respect to the divine reality. The book of Job could be an exception here, if it would not leave the impression that it is a religious doctrine of justification. In particular sections like

Chapter 1 V. 1: In the land of Uz lived a man named Job. This man was blameless and righteous; he feared God and avoided evil. or V. 12 The LORD said to Satan, “All his possessions are in your hands, but your hand is not enough for him!”

or at the end

Chapter 42, 9 And the LORD answered Job, 10 and the LORD turned the fate of Job as he asked for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had. 17 And Job died old and full of life.

we get the impression that disability and illness are divine punishments. Even though the origin is placed on the work of the divine adversary, ultimately the divine causality of punishment and pedagogical means of education remains. Another text, no less difficult to understand in hindsight of Disability Studies, is 2 Samuel 5:6-8:

6 But they said to David, Thou shalt not come in here, but the blind and the lame will drive you away. By that they said that David could not get in there. 7 David conquered the castle of Zion; this is David’s city. 8 And David said in that day, He who smites the Jebusites, and reaches the well, and slays the lame and the blind that hath hated David, shall be captain and chief. Joab, the son of Zeruiah, first ascended and became captain. Therefore one speaks: Do not let blind and lame in the house!

While in the first part of this text (v. 6) one could still speak of sheer discrimination based on social prejudice against visually impaired and physically handicapped people, as also shown in the New Testament parable of the rich host (Luke 14:16-23) , the second part shows an extreme form of Ableismus (hostility on disability). The consequence of the rejection of King David to the afore mentioned group of people leads to a proverb and then to an action. The latter being at least justified in the eyes of the author. How would such a text be understood and interpreted by visually and physically limited persons? The intention of King David was probably to convict the enemies of their own arrogance. From a strategic point of view, this included to demonstrate royal power on the cost of the marginalized. That this happens at the expense of “the marginalized” is incomprehensible under today’s human and martial law and was so probably even back then. But it is laudable and helpful for Disability Studies that this episode is reported unvarnished. The stigmatization, exclusion, and rejection of those with physical limitations is a reality of their life well reflected in this Biblical text. Worse, it is inducted through the intervention of a “chosen” actor acting in divine service (1 Samuel 16). Contentwise, Jerusalem becomes stylized as the center of salvation at the expense of the marginalized The literary antipode narrative is identical with the already mentioned parable of the rich host, whose sumptuous banquet is filled up with the marginalized because of the ignorance of the “normals” (friends, acquaintances). In a certain sense, the spell of 2 Samuel 58 became reality here and was unreflected reported. Unfortunately, the unpleasant sensation remains that it the marginalized are second choice used as a stopgap to avenge the ignorant friends and acquaintances. The text reflects them as rear-employment, second-rate (second choice) and an emergency solutions, as Dorothee Wilhem, handicaped herself , points to the discriminatory and exclusive effect of the text. She asks Who Heals Here Who? And above all: About Biblical Healing Stories and Other Annoyances. (Schiefer-Ferrari 2014:12-14 (Un) disturbed reading).

Popular Bible translations ignore these side effects It is to be expected that a keen spiritual eye on these sensitivities will also influence the choice of words. Highlighting this second choice would reveal the literary approach as an antipode. Allow to make two translational suggestions at this point on 2 Samuel 5:6-7:

6 And the king went with his men to Jerusalem to fight against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. They said to David: You can not come in here, the castle can be guarded even by non-combatants who are free from military service due to their physical condition (FN1). They wanted to put him off. 7 But David took the castle of Zion, which means the city of David. 8 David said on the same day: He who beats the Jebusites and gets to the aqueduct, and beats the non-combatants (see FN1), who were thus rejected by David …! (FN2) Therefore one speaks: A person with a visual or mobility restriction should not enter your house.

Footnote 1: Visually and physically disabled people.

Footnote 2: which are hated by the soul of David  …!

Luke 14: 21-23:

21 The servant came back and told his master. Then the landlord became angry and said to his servant: Then go quickly out into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in at least the poor, the physically impaired, as well as people with limited visuality and mobility. (FN1)

Footnote 1: Crippled and blind and lame.