I was at work today and I got an email from Emily. It was a love note. From time to time we send each other quick love note emails, just a short sentence or a few words. If we want to emphasize the romantic aspect of the message we will send it in Italian. This particular message I received from Emily was in Italian:

“Amo la maniera lei mi tocca. amo la maniera lei mi tiene. amo la maniera lei mi bacia.”

Now, we don’t know Italian beyond a few names of pasta noodles, so we use online translation web sites to get the message across. I copied her email, opened up Google Translate, selected the correct language settings, and submitted the form. Here’s what came back:

“I love the way she touches me. I love the way she keeps me. I love the way she kisses me.”

I thought, “WHOA, that is not what I was expecting!” Apparently, somewhere from English to Italian and back to English, a slight adjustment to the personal pronouns occurred that resulted in a major adjustment in the meaning of the message. Either that or… never mind.

This got me thinking about how difficult it is to effectively communicate a message in a foreign language, and how hard it can be to understand a message written to you in a language you don’t understand, even with The Great Google on your side.

This why bible translation is so important. For over 200 million people today, the bible exists only in a language they don’t understand. The message is foreign and unclear because it hasn’t been translated into a language they know.

With a message this important, we can’t expect people to just guess through a barrier of language about what God is saying to them. When one word or even one letter can change the entire meaning of a sentence, we can’t just hope that they will figure it out. We need to be intentional about the accurate translation of the bible into the languages of people who don’t currently have it.

Because if we care about people, we will care about their ability to know God.

Or, from English, to Japanese, back to English:

“So we people, because they worry about the features that we know God.”