The gift of translation is cause for thanks. Why? Most of Jesus’ disciples were Galilean fishermen, who only spoke Aramaic. Matthew might have known Greek or Latin, because he was a tax collector. Those three languages made people in Judea well equipped.
But what about the many slaves in the Roman Empire, who didn’t yet speak or understand Greek or Latin, let alone Aramaic? The ones from Germania, Dacia, or Gaul? Without translation the church could not have spread nearly as quickly. Without translation, Peter couldn’t witness to Cornelius’s household. Afterward, when the church in Jerusalem learned about their belief, and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence with them, the Jerusalem believers’ censure turned to praise.
The gift of translation is cause for thanks. Even if we’re never called to leave our towns for a mission field elsewhere, or teach English as a second or third language, every believer actually receives the benefit of translation. How? Well, think for a moment. How often do you prepare to pray, but can’t form thoughts and words adequate to express your distress or yearnings? That’s when the Holy Spirit interprets your soul’s groans before God the Father.
The Holy Spirit interprets our souls’ prayers.
Another reason the gift of translation is cause for thanks, is that its existence encourages us. Singing has always been part of worship, and hymnals frequently include songs from multiple cultures. I know some words of Spanish because English has borrowed them. My apartment complex has several Spanish-speaking residents, and one man frequently walks in the halls, and on the property, singing.
I’m not likely to become fluent in Spanish, but because someone, in the early years of the church witnessed to people in his language, he now sings to El Señor, and I know this man will also be my neighbor in heaven.
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Ruth DeMaat
Heidi Kortman
Ann
Heidi Kortman