And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, [the apostles] were all with one accord in one place. . . . And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. . . . Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? . . . Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. . . . And all that believed were together, and had all things common.
Due to the curse of Babel, people around the world could not understand the teachings of Jesus. So the Holy Ghost intervened and gave the apostles the gift of tongues, so that they could translate the teachings of Jesus into all the world’s languages. And all that believed would be united again in this belief. The Catholic Church opted for one language, like one Church and one God, to unite everyone. The leaders of the Reformation interpreted Acts as instead calling for the translation of Jesus’s words, so that everyone could read them and understand them themselves. Reformation leaders translated the Bible themselves, and then missionaries became language experts, translator-apostles. As a result, the Bible has been the first book to appear in hundreds of languages, and it has radically affected nearly all of them.
Protestant Bible translators are the last people to believe in the impossibility of translation. Translation not only into languages, but also into colloquial language that can be understood by all, is something they have considered absolutely necessary to the spread of Christianity. But this is not true of all religions. Jews have historically been opposed to the translation of their sacred texts. The sacred nature of the Torah is closely tied to the Hebrew language. The words of God were Hebrew words and must remain that. Jewish readers must come to God, rather than God to Jewish readers. But then Judaism is not a proselytizing religion, so it can afford not to reach out through translation. More recently,
52
