[Please note that due to time constraints this piece needs lots of editing with citing sources and it is likely to be divided into parts, but I think this first half of part one is valuable, as it stands alone. I will eventually be adding more source references, citing them and Scripture, and I will finish the part on meaningful. I expect it to be very helpful when complete. Thank you for your patience. Glean what you can for now.]
There are only three primary possible meanings for holy as
the English translation of qadosh (Hebrew), qad …. (Aramaic), and hagios
(Greek) in the Biblical text. They are:
1) set apart, 2) pure, and 3) (moral) wholeness. I find that those who have resolved it down
to one definition are a bit premature at this moment in time (we still have to
wait for a better resolution) and that those who keep coming up with more definitions
outside the main three (twenty plus) are a bit post-mature (I hope the
resolution to the meaning of qadosh, etc. is not as far off as they make it
appear). But before we define a biblical
term by any of these English words, we need to also make sure we understand
these popular English ideas in their Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek biblical
context. In this blog entry, I am going
to start with looking into the meaning of wholeness, because it is such a hot
topic in popular education and in the realm of worldview discussions among
philosophers, anthropologists, futurists, theologians, and church planters. So
here is the opening question: “How is the concept of being whole viewed in the
wider biblical context outside of the words qadosh, qad …, and hagios?”
The first thing to note is that wholeness or the whole in
English translation appears to be quite infrequent in the biblical text, when
viewed through an English translation. This
is despite the fact that current worldviews like that of Integral theory, or an
integrative vision, or a spokesperson like popular philosopher Ken Wilber
indicate that it is a very important aspect of worldview. Wilber in particular is expressing a form of
holism or wholism as opposed to atomism or reductionism in his “theory of
everything”. It is also surprising that
it does not show up in the biblical text more frequently, because of the views
of Christian writers like Pastor Rick Warren, who see healthy as the theme for
the next Great Awakening of Christianity.
I see a little influence on the central theme from his mentor, Peter
Drucker, who was a pretty good futurist besides being a management guru. So does the Bible not address the issue of
wholeness as a significant part of worldview or is it not as central as some holists
or wholists think?
I think this is a great question. I was troubled by this question myself. If wholeness is important and I believe that Yahweh
God is the Bible’s primary author, then God would not miss its importance. So what is going on in the biblical text and
in our understanding of the world? Are
they out of sync with each other or not?
Is here a problem with the worldview or the Bible in relation to reality? Is there yet another place where the
deficiency in addressing the issue of wholeness might arise?
Since I know Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek well enough to at
least spot check the major words in translations, as I read them; I elected years
ago to go to an interlinear bible for reading the Bible in my devotions. This helped me begin to notice that the
Hebrew word kol that properly means “whole” according to Strong and others, is
not translated as such into English, except infrequently. So the question arises as to why is it not
translated as “whole”, except infrequently when that is its proper meaning? This also holds true to some extent also for
the Greek word holos that means primarily whole. You might also note that holism or holistic
are derived from this Greek word holos.
So why is “whole” found infrequently in English translations
of the Bible? The answer I found to this
question is very intriguing for two reasons.
First, it begins with an historical difference between Eastern and
Western languages. I am not sure this
can be placed on a worldview level, but there does appear to be a difference of
some kind in speech with regard to tendencies or starting points. In language or speaking at least, the West
seems to begin from the parts making the word “all” as in” all of the parts”
central, while the East, in the Hebrew language at least, seems to begin from
the whole as in the “whole of the congregation”. We must, however, be careful and stick to
language and not make broader conclusions on worldview quite yet. Second, the Hebrew word kol (especially) and
the Greek word holos are not infrequent words in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
biblical text and in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, so
the implications for translation could be significant for addressing worldview
concerns. So the biblical text and the
worldviews that say holism or wholism is important may not be deficient except
in translation, but not in the original languages. The problem with not finding texts dealing
with the whole in an English translation might have to do more with the loss of
total communication, beginning with various English translations.
The first clue for me on a translation level that something
might be amiss came from Gesenius’ Hebrew and English Lexicon. In it, he points out: “In Western languages
it [kol] has to be rendered by adjectives”.
He is also implying by this that in Eastern languages, that this is not
the case, and that Hebrew would be included as part of the list of Eastern
languages. Note especially his choice
of the words “has to be”. That is significant, because he is suggesting
it is a rule of Western languages including English. He explains this further in terms of when it
is used for one continuous thing and of English in particular: “… in English
this has to be expressed either by the
whole preceded by the article or by all
followed by it; when the noun is made definite by a pronoun suffixed, it must
be rendered in English by all without
the article, or else by the whole of….”. This quote is a bit technical, but it caught
my attention, because I had begun to substitute “of the whole” in place of
“all” in my devotions based on the Hebrew word kol. I started to do this substitution, because I
knew that kol properly meant the” whole,
totality” according to Gesenius and not just James Strong. This substituting process of “the whole of”, worked
seamlessly hundreds of times with occasional exceptions due to change in context.
Now I want to go beyond just this first clue and just the
process of translation and look at the total communication involved. I believe translation gets its prominence
from the fact that it is the starting point for total communication. But I also believe that one of my mentors,
Dr. William A. Smalley, who was a brilliant translator and teacher, saw that
translation of the Bible and the church go hand in hand in the case of
communication. So I want to organize what
I refer to as total communication around the following steps, as related to the
biblical concepts of the Hebrew word kol,
the Aramaic … or the Greek word holos.
They are the 5 T’s: 1) translation, 2)transfer, 3) total, 4)train, and
5)teach. We need all five of these for
total communication! Anything less on a
fundamental level is less than adequate.
Just think of this process as “Mr. T”, as a memory tool. He after all regarded himself as the total
package. The five T’s are the total
package for communication. As an aside,
I found all five of these in Nehemiah 8, the chief text in the Jewish tradition
for the Ezra school of exegetical method.
So looking at wholeness from a translation standpoint. The very best way to translate it is to produce clear meaningful communication. There are two parts to this. The first is addressed through quantity and
the second through quality.
We arrive at the goal of clear communication through
minimizing the quantity of options. Let
me illustrate. Imagine you enter a room
filled with one third of the people shouting “yes”, another thirds saying “no”,
and another third saying “maybe”. Is it
likely to be clear what they are saying assuming all voices equal? The simple answer is “no”. Now imagine walking into a room filled with
all of the people saying “yes”. Is it
likely to be clear that what they are saying assuming all voices equal? The simple answer is “yes”.
So now let’s approach the biblical text with the
question: How many?
In the Hebrew context there is one
word used in many contexts. It is clear to
the original audience that it means properly “whole” unless some of the many
contexts are clear it is otherwise. That
is how kol can have more than one meaning.
It borrows the clarity of another word or other words in the
context. So the “one” remains clear
even with more than one definition in a supposed dictionary, because some other
word makes things clear. That is how I
speak to others everyday with near effortlessness and the majority of times my
communication is clear.
In the Greek context of the
Septuagint and the Hebrew Scriptures in a synagogue, things get less clear in
one sense. Kol , one Hebrew word, is now
translated by two Greek words, pas and holos.
This is where the beginning of clarity can become less clear. Without the knowledge that Gesenius possessed
about the rules of Western languages, some begin to assume that pas is the
primary meaning of kol and then say that kol means primarily “all”. Eugene Nida rightly points out that one
language’s glosses (ways of translating a word) are not themselves definitions
within the primary or other language. A
word must be defined in its own language system and not in the context of the
language it is translated into. Gesenius
and Nida, though separated by time are largely agreeing with each other. The other key here is to realize that Moses
and so the Hebrew was still present in the synagogues to correct any
misunderstandings due to translation.
The original continued to keep things clearer.
In English translation things get
less clear and so a little more complicated.
Kol, one Hebrew word , is now translated by three or more. Kol in the Hebrew is translated by “all”
(majority) or “whole” mainly depending on the Septuagint’s Greek translation
influence. In the New Testament the Greek pas and the
Greek holos are both used where kol would appear in Hebrew. Pas is mainly translated as “all” while holos
is translated by “whole” or “all” adding another layer of complexity and lack
of clarity. It is now as though kol
primarily means “all” and holos means primarily “whole”, but this meaning is
further diminished in English translation.
A concession must be made here so
that no one understands me to think that a wooden (without context) literalism
(proper meaning) is in order. The
statements above apply to primary contexts mostly. As the
contexts become more marginalized then the use of “holos” or “whole” in
English, etc. becomes less acceptable. In
English, “any, every, etc. are very appropriate in the more marginal cases of
meaning or definition.
I hinted at this earlier, but one
of the main things translators should consider is the bilingual or even
trilingual context of the 1st century. There are advantages here because the
original has more explicit influence than it does in a context today in which
most only access an English translation based on their monolingual status. The proper meaning of “whole” for kol would
have had an easier way of sticking around and the people could have known about
the difference in rules or tendencies as Gesenius suggests. Translators or commentators today frequently
quote “all” as the first or proper meaning of Hebrew kol. This betrays their monolingual
spectacles. So how should the word kol
be translated now for clarity?
I personally think clarity would be
enhanced by adjusting to two contexts.
The context of the 1st century and the 21st
century. First the two are not the same,
kol’s presence would have kept the proper meaning of whole more in focus. So now I think we must translate kol and even
pas and holos with the English word “whole” where appropriate to the Hebrew context
and our own. There is no bilingualism in
churches to balance both “whole and “all the parts”. We might as well realize that Hebrew is not
likely to be read out loud at church. It
might still be read at synagogue, but not many (basically none!) Christians
know that! For clarity’s sake, we do not
need to follow the wooden rules of Western languages of old. English is now adaptable to either and
“whole” would give greater clarity. This
whole discussion matters because of the goal of clarity. So what about being meaningful?
Change
information load
From
three languages to one language
Explicit
when bilingual and even implicit.
Unknown
to monolingual.
Kol – poor quality (transliteration) for an English speaker
Holos/holistic/holism – holistic carries a great deal of extra meaning beyond whole. So this option may have to be tempered.
All – while necessary in a Western language only context (Greek, Latin, English), in a wider one context of both West and East, it may no longer be the best. In the latter, it may be more paramount to address wholeness directly in translation following the hippie movement especially.
Whole – the best understood by English speakers in the context of a debate between wholism (wary of holism overstatement) and atomism, reductionism and fragmentism. It is also possible because it is not necessary any longer to only speak from the tendency or angle of “all the parts” as opposed to the “the whole of it”. I think the rules equally allow the latter and to better understand the biblical text it is now superior.
Why it matters? Meaningfulness! From meaningless (“all [of the parts of the] of the congregation”= the whole congregation) to meaningful “the whole of the congregation”). The latter is better understood in terms of making everything explicit and of addressing current issues that people understand due to the topic of wholeness being a hot topic of debate.
In Christ,
Jon
