True wisdom

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who practise it have a good understanding, His praise endures forever! — Psalm 111:10 ESV

The first foreign language I ever tried to learn is German. Most of my older relatives on my father’s side could speak it fluently, and I always wanted to visit Germany and converse with the native population at a reasonable level of competence. Ethnically, I am roughly half German-half British, and since I can already speak English, the study of German seemed to be the logical place to concentrate my linguistic aspirations.

I discovered very early on in the process, though, that English words do not always translate as seamlessly into German as I had hoped they would. Indeed, during the course of my studies, I began to understand that much of our literature that is translated between various languages — even among European languages — often comes down to finding the closest word, or group of words, that best conveys what the word in the original language is attempting to communicate to the reader. It can be difficult at times, even between English and German, which, along with French and some other Western European languages, are in the same linguistic family.

The Old Testament, on the other hand, was originally written in Ancient Hebrew, which is in no way related to any European language. It is a Semitic dialect that is no longer in use as an everyday language, but is alive and well at the level of theological study. Usually, at least among Western European languages, we can find words that are close enough for a proper translation, even if the word chosen does not quite cover all of the subtle nuances of meaning in the original text. This can be more problematic when translating from Ancient Hebrew.

I want to point out as an aside that the problems inherent with translating Ancient Greek (New Testament) and Ancient Hebrew into English have often been wildly exaggerated by those who wish to challenge the credibility of the Bible. I can say with confidence that no fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith is affected by any of this. That said, there are issues with translation that force translators to make an educated decision when selecting an English word(s) to use in place of a sometimes near-untranslatable Hebrew word.

For example, consider the text from Psalm 111 above, or at least the part that reads “The fear of the Lord…” A quick glance at this statement would cause someone who is unfamiliar with the text to assume that, in order to seek or to have wisdom, we must be afraid of God. Further study of the original Hebrew, however, reveals that the meaning of the word used in this Psalm is much more nuanced than that. While the Hebrew does indeed have hints of “afraid” embedded in it, it also covers concepts such as “reverence” and “knowledge.” Many English translations use the word “fear” in place of the original Hebrew word because it can also communicate these same ideas. The trouble is that the English word “fear” is not commonly used for “reverence” or “knowledge” between English speakers in normal conversation, so it is not surprising that Biblical texts such as this one cause a bit of confusion. Why is all of this important, you may ask? Well, because true wisdom does indeed begin with the fear of the Lord. By that, I mean what the original Hebrew word means: a healthy respect, reverence, knowledge and yes, fear, of the sovereign Creator of the universe. By extension, I also mean a healthy respect, reverence, and knowledge of God’s self-revelation gifted to His beloved human creation through His written Word.

Despite the attempts of a hostile world to categorize the Holy Scriptures as an outdated, antiquated, and irrelevant set of ancient documents, God nevertheless continues to speak to us through them loud and clear in utter defiance of worldly wisdom. True wisdom begins the moment that we surrender our stubborn human pride and place our trust instead in His divine voice, calling out to us though His unchangeable and eternal Word.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom … Amen.

Rev. Pastor Shane Hein is from St. Peter Lutheran Church.