Jesus, the Son of God: Biblical meaning, Muslim Understanding ...

St Francis Magazine Vol 7, No 3 | August 2011!but as reality. 17 In other words, God really is Jesus' Father and Jesusreally is His Son in some non-metaphorical or metaphysical way.That means we are not free in a translation to change the facts ofwho Jesus and His Father are, and it is not accurate to change suchFather-Son references to something else. Rather, the solution is toteach people the truth about what the Bible teaches (through variousBible literacy techniques), not to change 18 what the Bibleteaches.3 Bible literacyOne key strategy for building Bible literacy in the receptor languageaudience is to provide quality footnotes in conjunction withthe translated Biblical text. For example, early passages in Matthewand Luke would be good places to include footnotes thatclearly explain who Jesus is. Extensive testing conducted in Africahas proven that quality footnotes are one of the most effective waysto develop Bible literacy in a society that previously did not havethe Bible. That research shows that such notes outperform storyingand other methods by a large margin. 19 An example of a footnote atMatthew 1:18 could be:God is a Spirit (John 4:24), so He did not have marital relations withMary. Rather, in a way that we do not understand, He miraculouslycaused Mary to be pregnant with His Son Jesus through the power ofthe Holy Spirit. Also see Luke 1:35.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!17 Once again, God's Son has existed from eternity and so the reality of the divineFather-Son relationship was also in existence before Jesus' conception as a humanbeing. Before Jesus ascended to heaven and His disciples started spreading thegospel message, Father-Son terminology may have been understood as metaphoricalby many, but as was mentioned previously, those understandings would havebeen corrected in light of God's revelation of the reality of Jesus' divine Sonship.18 Placing substitutes for Father-Son terminology in the text of a translation andrelegating the literal terms to footnotes (as the MIT movement promotes) impliesto the audience that the literal text does not mean what it says; at every pointwhere this is done, the meaning of the text is changed. Footnotes, glossary entries,or notes in the preface of a Bible translation that say Father-Son terminology isonly metaphorical are also not accurate and promote a serious falsehood.19 Harriet Hill, "Communicating Context in Bible Translation Among the Adioukrouof Côte d'Ivoire" (PhD dissertation, Fuller Seminary, 2003).St Francis Magazine is published by Interserve and Arab Vision!(!