Published October 15, 2005
IN THEORY
Q: The Bible has been translated into text-speak, so its passages can be sent via text messaging on mobile phones. It's being touted as a way of bringing the Bible into the 21st century. In text-speak, the Bible's first line is: "In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth." Do you agree that this is a way of bringing the holy book into the 21st century? Are you concerned that anything gets lost in translation?
A: Interestingly enough, the Armenian Church celebrates the 1,600th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian alphabet this month. Pontiffs and exhibits have been featured in stories in the Glendale News-Press.
The entire reason and purpose of inventing an Armenian alphabet was to translate the Holy Scriptures into words that would be understandable to a people.
The Church took a leading role in transmitting the faith to its congregation.
Text-speak Bibles are an attempt at popularizing the sacred. From the several Bible verses I have seen in text-speak, it seems this is an issue of spelling, rather than translation. I'm more concerned with the sacredness of the text being lost than I am with the message.
Many people, with impure approaches, have extrapolated misconstrued messages even from the most beautiful, articulate and concise translations. But in terms of sacredness, is it really necessary to flash the content of scripture on cell phone screens?
Although we say that God is everywhere, arguably there are certain spaces that are more sacred than others to celebrate, worship or even communicate.
A simple church, the open skies, or a majestic sunset will always inspire the soul to spirituality much better than, say, an outhouse or the city dump.
Most everything we do has been reduced to the mundane. Holy Scripture should lift us from our routine to the exceptional so that God becomes for us that special entity that consumes and renews us.
FR. VAZKEN MOVSESIAN
Armenian Church
Youth Ministries
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