Monday, January 17, 2011

The Beatitudes, Part 11 of 50

TEXT: Matthew 5:3-12

IDEA: There are many nuances to the word blessed that may help us sense the richness of the word.

PURPOSE: To help listeners grasp not only the meaning of the word blessed, but the “feel” of the word.

Have you ever “stumped a translator”?  Why did what you said in English not easily translate into another language?

Translators try to select a word in the receptor language that represents both the meaning and the feel of the originating language.

This comes up in the translation of the Scriptures. Look at the section of the Sermon on the Mount called the “Beatitudes.”

I. Not all Bible translations use the term blessed for each beatitude.

The KJV, ASV, and NIV/TNIV use “blessed.”  What might be the weakness of that word when you hear it in English?

The NEB says “How blest.” Is that any better?

Phillips renders it “How Happy.”  What does that connote?

A psychological or emotional state.  The word can’t mean that the person necessarily feels happy. “Happy are those who mourn” sounds like nonsense.

Another translation is “fortunate.”  Fortunate” has the connotation of “luck.”

“Congratulations to” carries some of the impact, but it sounds a bit slangy.

II.   D. A. Carson argues for the word “approved.”

The psalmist says in Psalm 103, “Bless the Lord, O my soul” . . . The psalmist is approving God and when God blesses us, he is approving us.

Whose approval do we seek? If approval by God means more to us than approval by loved ones, no matter how cherished, or colleagues no matter how influential, then these beatitudes will have enormous meaning for us.

All of these words have an aspect to them that colors the word translated “blessed” in the Beatitudes.