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Home > Magazine > 2011 > February

The Son and the Crescent

Collin Hansen
[ posted 2/4/2011 9:10AM ]

Bible translations that avoid the phrase "Son of God" are bearing dramatic fruit among Muslims. But that translation has some missionaries and scholars dismayed.

After being in the LDS Church for 30 years, I began reading the New Testament. What was there shocked me.

How I Escaped the Mormon Temple

Last year, representatives from several prominent mission agencies, both national and expatriate, met to compare notes about the progress of their respective ministries in one Muslim-majority country. (The country's name is withheld for security reasons.) The representatives rejoiced that more than 1,000 "fellowships," as they

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call them, have been established for people from Muslim backgrounds. In fact, many of the fellowships had already planted new fellowships, and those fellowships had planted still more. Many thousands of Muslims in this nation alone, then, had found faith in Jesus. Several of these fellowships can be traced back to small networks of Muslims who had encountered Christ and in turn began sharing with family and friends what they had discovered. In one case, a middle-aged working mother had inductively studied a new translation of the Bible for a few years. Among other language choices, the translation she used did not refer to Jesus as the "Son of God," due to confused and angry reactions from Muslims who mistakenly believe this phrase means that the Father engaged in sexual relations with Mary. To avoid this misunderstanding, the new translation called Jesus "the Beloved Son who comes (or originates) from God." The woman, who eventually professed Jesus as Lord and Savior, began inviting friends and family to read the Bible too. At first, about 10 people met with her. This was cause enough for celebration, since Muslims in her country rarely study any religious books other than the Qur'an and the Hadith (collections of Muhammad's sayings and deeds). Three months later, another group formed nearby to discuss one New Testament chapter per week, and an elderly member of the family accepted the Good News of Jesus. Within two years, seven more reading groups had sprung up. Today, no one knows exactly how many such groups have formed. But new believers in Jesus have spread the message to nearby towns, and several hundred professions of faith can be attributed to this network alone, according to a group of long-term field workers in the country. These and many other Muslims live in places where Bible translations have been available in their languages for decades, even for more than a century. So why the sudden surge of interest in Scripture? Some translators attribute the response to the new Bible versions that use religious vocabulary familiar to Muslims. And that's precisely the problem, according to other translators and missionaries who work among Muslims.
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'Missionaries can live in a Muslim culture for decades, blaming Muslims for being "resistant" to the gospel, when the problem actually lies with linguistic and cultural stumbling blocks.'Rick Brown, Bible scholar and missiologist

They charge their colleagues with compromise that undermines belief in Jesus Christ as the pre-existent, only begotten Son of God. Both sides eagerly long to take the Good News to the nations and make it discernable to Muslims in their heart languages. Both respect Muslims; neither wants to alter Jesus' message. Yet a dispute over the most faithful and effective way to render the common biblical phrase "Son of God" is dividing missionary from missionary, scholar from scholar, in a time of evident mistrust between Western Christians and Muslims.It also underscores how few Christians in the West themselves understand this common biblical title for Jesus.

Compromise or Comprehension
Bible translation and contextualization have long divided Christians working to fulfill the Great Commission. When missionary pioneer William Carey translated the Bible into Bengali in 1809, he used the Hindu word for the supreme being, Ishwar, to refer to God. Critics charged him with making a fatal compromise in the name of comprehension. Today, "Son of God" is hardly the only point of contention among missionaries to Muslims. For example, they also tangle over whether Bible translations should use Allah to refer to God. Both sides make a compelling case. Muslims understand Allah in terms of simple monotheism rather than the dynamic Trinitarian theology that Christians profess. Yet Allah, the word for God that Muslims know from the Qur'an, actually predates Islam. Some translators have recovered it so that Muslims reading Scripture for the first time won't immediately reject the Bible as foreign to their culture.
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RELATED TOPICS: Apologetics; Bible; Bible Translation; Doctrine; Evangelism; Interreligious Dialogue;
Islam; Jesus; Life of Jesus; Missions; Muslim-Christian Relations; Other Religions; Qur'an; Trinity February 2011, Vol. 55, No. 2

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Hussein Wario

February 17, 2011

Leonard Stephens: Tell a practicing Muslim if the proposed substitute for "Son of God," "the Beloved Son who comes (or originates) from God" means to him or her and you will be shocked with the answer. If for anything, this article exposes these expert Bible translators knowledge of Islam and Muslims. In Islam, "the Beloved Son who comes (or originates) from God" has no divine qualities. Muslims believe all life originates from Allah. Jesus is not an exception. Please read Surah 4:171. All the Quran commentaries on this verse are unequivocal. From Allah in Islam does not come with divine qualities. Your argument equating the expurgation of "charity" from modern translations with deliberate removal of "Son of God" from new Bible translations geared toward Muslims, just to gain more converts, is moot.

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Leonard Stephens

February 17, 2011

Some writers have spoken of the term Son of God being "expurgated" "removed" "avoided" and so on. That is false and emotionally-charged language. Do we say that modern English translations have removed the word "charity" from the Bible, or is it true to say that "love" is a better translation of the Greek word "agape"? In the same way, in many languages there is a traditional word that would be understood to mean that God physically sired a child, and another one that speaks of close relationship, care and protection. The second is closer to NT Greek meaning. But experts like Rick Brown are also recommending that translations use footnotes, glossaries and other helps alongside the text of the translation so readers can learn the traditional terms and have the matter explained to them. Not mentioning these recommendations is simply fear-mongering and distorting the position of these people.

Hussein Wario

February 16, 2011

The Christian church needs to wake up. First, it was the question about Muslim background believers' identity, whether they should remain Muslims and continue attending the mosque for prayers, and now the Son of God is being expurgated from Scripture. Where is this drive going to end?

Salaam Cornice

February 16, 2011

Oops. Mea culpa. The phrase which read "Isn't it high time to see that a poor theological root, i.e. that tweaking information will solve the moral problem?" Should have read, "Isn't it high time to see that a poor theological root, i.e. that of "tweaking" information, will not solve the moral problem" Think of the rich man and Lazarus. All the data, even someone coming back from the dead, was said to be insufficient for breaking into the stone-hearted rebellion of the rich man's family. Thanks to the reader who saw what Samuel Zwemer the missionary to Islam, saw as the "Glory of the Impossible, " and thus rightfully noted the "not by might---even of our translations---not by power---even of the wisely worded footnotes---but by My Spirit says the Lord." Let's just admit that preaching in a graveyard, needs more than some courses on eloquence, but resurrection power.

Salaam Corniche

February 16, 2011

Part 2 of 2 Dramatic fruit on which root? Fast forward to our new and improved translation theories. There is a lack of success in getting convertsso it is alleged. That problem must be due to a lack of guidance. We will provide guidance by Islamic sounding phrases and so help people out of the realm of ignorance. Then we will declare massive successes in unstated places, led by unstated individuals and unstated organizations. A few readers keyed on to the fact that the problem is not informational, it is moral. The human heart is "darkened in its understanding," "cannot and will not understand spiritual things" and is dead in sin. (Thanks JA) Isn't it high time to see that a poor theological root, i.e. that tweaking information will solve the moral problem. Neither will footnotes, for that matter. My prayer is, "Lord Jesus, give me fruit that will remain, also in the Muslim world." A modern-day John Knox might have added, "Give me the Muslim world or I die."

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