On Sunday afternoons, I typically meet with my tutor to study the Arabic language. She assigns homework for me to complete each week, and not too long ago my assignment was to write a paragraph in Arabic using my vocabulary words for the week, which happened to be present-tense verbs. That got us into a discussion about verb tenses, of which there are only three in Arabic (past, present, and imperative). English has twelve (sixteen if you count the conditional tenses).[i]
You can
imagine my frustration as I was trying to express specific ideas related to
time that were natural to my native way of thinking only to discover that there
is generally no frame of reference for such conceptions of time in the Arabic-speaking
mind. The sentence هي تكتب )heeya taktabu( can be translated “She
writes” or “She is writing.” There is no difference between those two concepts
in Arabic that can be expressed by simply changing the verb. Extra words would
have to be added to indicate that “she is writing now” or “she writes all the
time,” for instance.
Conversely,
there are concepts that come naturally to the Arabic mind that are difficult
for the English mind to grasp, e.g. making adjectives plural. For example, in
English whether we’re talking about one person or multiple people, we refer to
them as “happy,” but in Arabic there is a plural form of “happy” that has to be
used when talking about more than two people (there’s a dual form used when
only two people are referenced). My English brain can’t comprehend how it’s
possible for an adjective (a non-thing) to be plural, but to Arabic brains it
makes perfect sense, perhaps because adjectives are considered nouns (another
mind-boggling fact for my English brain).
All of this
got me thinking about how language is more than just a way to communicate
ideas. It can shape the very way in which we think about the world, the
capacity we have to understand certain concepts. (To see what I mean, check out
this short but fascinating TED talk that my tutor sent me on the topic.)
Our native language equips us to evaluate the world in a certain way, and when
we encounter a new language, we aren’t just hearing a new grouping of sounds to
communicate meaning; we’re confronted with fundamentally different ways of
evaluating the world.
That’s why
I have found it so important, when learning a new language, to have a teacher
who understands both the language I’m trying to learn and my native language,
because she can help point out the differences in the way I think now when I
speak English and the way I need to think when I speak Arabic. So too, the best
translators are those who are intimately familiar with both languages and can
translate whole concepts from one to the other instead of just words.
As human
beings, we are in need of such a translator when it comes to the things of God.
Our natural way of viewing the world is fundamentally different from the way in
which God views it. There are concepts of a God-honoring life that are foreign
to our native understanding (forgiving those who have wronged us, thinking of
others before ourselves, seeing suffering as a means of good, using difficult
circumstances to bring praise to God, etc.). And without a teacher and
translator, we have no way of recognizing that there is a different way of
thinking from our own, no way of internalizing this foreign language of the
spiritual life.
But thanks
be to God, He has given us the best and most equipped translator—the Holy
Spirit Himself. This is exactly what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 2:
“Yet among the mature we do impart
wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age,
who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God,
which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age
understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor
the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him’—
these
things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except
the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts
of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things
freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom
but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are
spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they
are spiritually discerned.” (vv. 6-14, ESV)
I had read
this passage countless times, but it wasn’t until I started learning Arabic and
recognized the things I discussed above that I realized the profound
significance of its truth and the depth of our need for the Holy Spirit. Look
at how many times the idea of understanding/comprehending is mentioned in these
few verses. They tell us that the things of God are so foreign to us that we
are not able to understand them without being taught, but that the Holy Spirit
understands them perfectly because He is God.
He
understands the thoughts and ways of God because they are His native language.
But He also understands our native language because He is our Creator, and being
all-knowing, He understands how the Fall has affected our way of thinking. So He
is fluent in the language we need to learn, and He understands our native
language well enough to be able to point out the differences between the way we
think when we live outside of Christ and the way we need to think when we are
in Christ. And it is this Holy Spirit whom God has given to us as our teacher
and translator.
What a joy
to know that God has made it possible for us to understand spiritual truths! What
a comfort to know that He has not thrown us into a foreign world without a translator
but instead has given us His very Spirit. What an encouragement to know that He
has not left us to learn a completely new way of life and new way of
comprehending the world on our own but instead has given us a teacher who is
Wisdom itself. Living the Christian life is a lot like learning a new language,
but thanks to God, we have a Native Speaker inside us to help us every step of
the way, and He’s the most perfect translator of all.
[i] Past, Present, Future, Past Perfect, Present Perfect, Future Perfect, Past Progressive, Present Progressive, Future Progressive, Past Perfect Progressive, Present Perfect Progressive, and Future Perfect Progressive [Conditional, Conditional Perfect, Conditional Progressive, Conditional Perfect Progressive]. Bonus points if you can count how many tenses were used in this blog post! :D And if you’d like to learn more about English verb tenses, you can watch a fun video here.
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