If learning the language it is written in is something you refuse to do, then you must likewise admit to yourself that you are always going to be reliant on others to tell you: a) what the text in questions reads; and b) what the text in question means.
I’m a late life convert to Catholicism. I was converted from primarily eastern and new age religion, and, as is the case with all believers, convert or otherwise, it is a product of grace and action of the Holy Spirit which led me to fall on my face at the alter of God and give myself over to Him. Yes…reason was involved. Yes…scripture was involved. But it is God who grants me the faith.
The Bible has been around a long time, in all it’s myriad forms, tongues, translations, etc. It is true, I have no doubt that the English language cannot convey the mind and heart of God. Neither can the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Aramaic. Most of the commonly read English Bibles, save for a couple with somewhat obvious secular, or heretical bias nearly to the point of re-write), give a good stab at the message intended by God, when inspiring the blessed authors to write the books. When I first started RCIA a few years ago, I was nearly 50 years old. Unfamiliar with the bible, for the most part, save for a secularily pedestrian knowledge of who Jesus was, and what he did, and a few stories about the early Jewish people. I had never even fully read one of the Gospels. Christianity was something that “happened to me”. It was a change in my heart. In my case it STARTED with faith, and now, I’m eagerly learning our story, through scripture, so that my reason and intellect on matters of our Lord can catch up with my faith. I love scripture deeply, though I wouldn’t even remotely suggest to anyone that I am a a bible scholar.
I’ve never studied a foreign language, except for Spanish. Now I am 54 years old, and not in the best of health. I have decided just recently to try to learn enough ecclesial Greek to experience the New Testament in Greek, and I am concurrently studying ecclesial Latin, so I can get a full appreciation for the way that both the Hebrew and the Greek were experienced in mind of Saint Jerome, when he wrote the Vulgate, which opened the scripture up to the universal Church. Even our beloved Saint was doing a translation of two languages. I guess the thing is, I’m not sure if I’ll get even these two languages down enough to read the scriptures with ease, and if I decide on just one, it will be the Latin upon which the early Church was founded, because Jesus gave us a Church.
I don’t know what my point is exactly, but, I believe what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think that knowing Hebrew or Greek, or even Latin are necessary to understand and apply the scriptures to our lives. It is, however, deeply important that we DO read the scriptures. Since our Church was founded on Jesus Christ, and the language of the Church became Latin, and the development of the Church was Latin, I would think that a Catholic, non bible scholar need only know as much of early Latin as they are able to grasp, ( and that, really more to feel the contextual setting of our Church, then to have a direct, literal, word for word rendering of the archealogical remnants of the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts).
For my purposes, I am happy with the D-R, because it tracks the Vulgate very well, but as mentioned, I also have several other bibles which I refer to when I reach a passage which is controversial, or difficult to understand, but mostly, I end up using an RSV-CE2 the most simply because the Ignatius bible study which I find so useful makes use of the version as it’s core. Not for any great preference on my part. When I read a difficult passage in study in my RSV-CE2, I will likely cross reference it with the DR, the NAB (which we use in liturgy), and as comprehension increases, the Vulgate. I AM learning Greek, and have a nice Greek NT by Nestle-Aland, as well as an interlinear English/Greek bible (keyed off of King James, I’m pretty sure) in my kindle. I have learned the Greek alphabet, and pronunciation, and the interlinear is word by word, rather than passage by passage, and when a word has more than one possible meaning in the Greek, it gives all meaning possibilities, and let’s you solve by context. There is no commentary in my Greek/English interlinear. The Greek alphabet led me to begin learning the Hebrew alphabet. Oh…I also have a Jewish translation of the Old Testament, which is interesting when I remember to use it. I am guessing that the Jewish English Translation is pretty direct to the Hebrew. It is very literal, and stilted sounding in some areas.
I’m just going on and on. Here’s the point, I think. The Church assembled and debated the books of the Bible. The Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Saints wrote on all the scriptures. St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Augustine dissected the philosophical structures and nuances. We have a catechism of the Catholic Church, and countless Papal and Episcopal writings bringing the scriptures, (even in English) to life for application in our actual day to day lives. If you read a good cross section of these beautiful resources, and if you pray for comprehension to the Holy Spirit, I believe you can get to the meaning of most every passage of the Bible with only English as your language.
Having said all of this, I agree with you that it is still a worthwhile pursuit to learn biblical languages for a richer experience, it is far from a necessity, so long as one is supplementing their reading with prayer, and trusting the Church Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Saints in nearly endless supply of exegetical work on the scriptures since the founding of the Church, and the compilation of the canon of scripture.
Thanks for listening, if you made it this far.
May God bless,
Steven
