Week 4-Bevans, Chapter 4 (The Translation Model)

For an individual to contextually translate a manuscript, a passage of Scripture, or any document related to history. We will focus on the Christian supracultural or supracontextual. In this section, Kraft suggests that if anyone does a word-for-word translation they are misunderstanding the nature of the language and Bevans continues to suggest that any translation must understand the meaning of the text, not just the words and grammar, but to capture the entire moment in that context. To have not only a theological approach, but just as important to have an anthropological approach in which a person understands the people, the movements, the languages, the feelings, and the emotion of the text. I think this is so key when a person is doing any type of translation, especially for individuals preaching the gospel to people. We must not simply "proof text," but have a holistic approach to the text. Understand what is going on at that moment in history. We must be sensitive to all cultures, languages, and people involved in our translation so that we don't miss the picture. Lastly, another interesting way we can use this model is by decontextualize the literature and then contextualize the literature again. This approach is suggested to arrive a the supracultural message to bring the entire picture and meaning into focus. I think to decontextualize material could be a good thing, but at the same time we need to be careful that when we contextualize the material back that we don't miss the true meaning because of our influences.