Words Matter: How a Corrected Translation Transforms Community

We were at an impasse. We had a new grant focused on changing the sanitation and hygiene situation in rural North India. If it succeeded, child morbidity and mortality would greatly decrease. Our work depended on village women’s groups led by our newly hired teammates. The only problem was that our women teammates refused to participate in the training. As one young woman said, “Why do you want our input? We are just feeble-minded women.” The rest of the women nodded in agreement.

She and three others later joined me to study how God sees women. We began with creation. They read their Hindi Bibles, I read my English Bible, and with our varying degrees of language ability, we managed to get to the heart of the passages.

In Genesis 2:18 we explored the meaning of the Hebrew word ezer used to describe the first woman. We compared it to Psalm 121, which describes God as an ezer, rescuing those facing insurmountable odds. God intended women to be rescuers!

We next studied Genesis 2:24, in which a man leaves his father and mother to cling to his wife. In the Indian context, the bride belongs to the man’s family, the other way around. A man leaving his family to cleave to his wife was a radical biblical idea.[1]

 Finally, in Genesis 3 everything fell into place.

As I read aloud about the serpent’s words to the woman, the group stopped me and had me read it again. They explained, “Our Hindi version says that the serpent spoke to the woman because she was feeble-minded—but you’re not reading that in English.” The four of them gathered around my Bible to read it for themselves.

Suddenly our struggles made sense! Our team of Christian women had refused to engage because they did not want to risk the project’s success by adding their “feeble-minded” ideas.

They continued comparing my English Bible translation to their Hindi translation My translation described Adam standing with Eve while the serpent tempted them both. In their Bibles, Adam was missing. That clinched it: both Adam and Eve were guilty. The Fall was not solely Eve’s fault because she was feeble-minded, as they had always been taught.

Their work transformed. They now came to our planning meetings ready to learn and share their brilliant ideas. Their self-confidence and competence inspired the women in their villages.

One women’s group challenged a local government official who had siphoned government funds to drill his own private well. They decided to sit in his private courtyard until he was so embarrassed that he provided a deep well for the village out of his own funds. And it worked! They got their clean water which improved the health of the whole community.

Not only did their physical health improve, so too did their spiritual health. Every six months we asked the team whether they had seen any spiritual changes in the villages. One teammate responded, my groups have taken down their Hindu gods and now only pray to Jesus.”

In short, thanks to good Bible translation and study, four women learned of their God-given value and entire villages transformed.

Read the whole story at: Words Matter: How a Corrected Translation Transformed Community by Kimberly Dickson 

[1] Listen to Dr. Dharamraj, professor at SAICS, explain the countercultural power of Adam considering Eve kin in Mutuality Matters, see Mimi Haddad and Havilah Dharamraj, “Women and Words: Translating the Old Testament Part One,” September 1, 2023, in Mutuality Matters, produced by CBE International, podcast, MP3 audio, https://mutualitymatters.podbean.com/e/women-words-translating-the-old-testament-part-one-with-dr-havilah-dharamraj/.

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