If He is a Real Toy...

Jesus was accused of being a blasphemous liar many times. He was also accused of being a lunatic, a political rebel, and a trumped up magician. His list of unflattering titles and public reputations could surely be extended quite far, however, I’m not sure it would reach far enough to arrive at the name-calling we encountered in the Gmz translation office.

 

You see, the Gmz translation project we are involved with is an “Adapt It” project, which means that we use a computer program to help us in adapting a previously translated New Testament text into the new text in a related language/dialect. This previously translated New Testament, published in a southern dialect of Gmz back in the mid-90s, has proven at times to be a helpful starting point for us (working in a northern Gmz dialect). At other times, however, we have found it leading to more confusion than anything. And as expected, a dash of confusion stirred into the batter of language and baked in the oven of translation, will often produce a fine casserole of humorous anecdotes. This is one such story.

 

Plugging along on the Easter story, we had encountered Jesus’ walk to Gethsemane, the pounding of nails, the statement of forgiveness, and the dividing of clothes. Coming to Luke 23:35, the rulers took the first insulting shots at their now crucified Creator, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” I read the whole thought aloud from the previously published Gmz Scripture, then looking up from the computer, I was greeted by the look of confusion that I’ve grown accustomed to seeing on my co-translators faces after hearing the Scripture read in this differing dialect. So, I knew right away that I wasn’t getting the whole sentence served up to me on a platter. We’d have to take it slow, working through it one word at a time (for the moment ignoring the significance of the incredibly insulting nature of this challenge when hurled at the one who was held to the cross not by nails, but by love). “He saved other people…let him save…himself…if he is…God’s…real…TOY?” The guys looked at me with entirely straight, yet confused faces. They clearly weren’t messing with me and so I suppressed my chuckles and buried my eyes again in the text. The NIV English translation uses “Christ of God” here. The word Christ is actually just a transliteration of the Greek word “Kristos,” which is a translation of the Hebrew title “Messiah.” For whatever reason, the translators of the older Gmz New Testament chose to transliterate the word “Messiah” here, instead of “Christ” and thus resulted in some strange confusion. Why? Because “Masiya” is way too close to “Maasiya,” which at least in the Gmz dialect where we are working means “toy.” So, if Jesus is the REAL TOY of God, the chosen one (probably meaning God’s favorite toy of all of them in his great heavenly toy box), then let him save himself! Truly that would be a pretty spectacular toy!