Thursday, March 1, 2012

"Train up a child in the way he should go..."

I've been studying Proverbs, and it's frustrating how frequently the English versions misinterpret the Hebrew. Now, I realize it's impossible to translate poetry from one language into another and convey the entire dynamic of the alliteration, meter, rhyme, metaphor, allusion, satire, irony and parallelism of the original text. If you want all that, learn Hebrew.

But please, can we at least protect the meaning of the text?

Proverbs 22.6 is a classic example. Every single English translation I've seen botches it. Most read something like, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." (ESV, emphasis mine.)

But that's not what the verse actually says, nor is it what it's (immediately) trying to convey. Perhaps that's one implication of what the verse teaches, but it certainly is not the only message. Look at the Hebrew with me:

חֲנֹךְ לַנַּעַר עַל־פִּי דַרְכֹּו גַּם כִּֽי־יַזְקִין לֹֽא־יָסוּר מִמֶּ נָּה׃

"Dedicate a youth as goes his way; when he grows old he will not depart from it."

Paradoxical? Yes. Absolutely. Paradox is a very popular literary mechanism of Hebrew poetry. Proverbs is full of epigrams that tend to present partial or distilled truths, so that one is forced to mull over their meaning.

The wit of Proverbs 22.6 is that it does not give away any answers, but candidly states an observation: Children who are left to themselves will never change. This is consistent with other proverbs like Prov 22.15, Prov 23.13 and Prov 29.15 which all teach that children are inherently wicked, and it's up to the parents to teach them the way of righteousness.

So why the mistranslation? The only thing I can figure is that the good folks translating it are trying to do us a favor and spoon-feed us the bottom line. Bruce Waltke, in his first book on Proverbs, comments, "English translators, fearful that an unsophisticated reader will miss the irony, purge the text of the powerful figure by making it say the intended opposite."

Ok, I can give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they mean well. So what's the big deal? Well, theology, for starters. Christians have used this single verse for centuries to assure parents that if they just bring their children up in the "right way," their young ones' salvation is promised. But we know from real life that this is sadly not always true. Heck, we know from Scripture that it's not always true. (Case study: Cain, Ishmael, Essau, almost every king that ever reigned over Israel... All were brought up "in the way they should go," yet still forsook the way of righteousness.)

This is not a guarantee of salvation for all kids raised in the church. Rather, it is a simple admonition for parents to be actively involved in their children's lives. That's it.

Let them do what they want, and they'll continue to do what they want for the rest of their lives.