Lost in Translation

Martin Luther once said the following:

"The Hebrew language is the best language of all, with the richest vocabulary... If I were younger I would want to learn this language, because no one can really understand the Scriptures without it. For although the New Testament is written in Greek, it is full of Hebraisms and Hebrew expressions. It has therefore been aptly said that the Hebrews drink from the spring, the Greeks from the stream that flows from it, and the Latins from a downstream puddle."

In this rare, remarkable and uncharacteristic moment of lucidity; Martin Luther revealed a great deal to the Christian world. Would that they have taken heed, or at least notice.

Not only was Luther being generous of spirit enough to admit that only those fluent in Hebrew, that is the Jews, could understand the depths of Torah; he was saying that the German translation of "the Bible" that he himself produced could be nothing more than a torpid cesspool, if Latin was "a downstream puddle". Most remarkable of all, it is not only inferable, but necessarily true from Martin Luther's statement, that he admitted that he did not understand the Bible that he translated into vernacular German.

Whether or not Luther was aware of the alpha-numerical properties of Hebrew, which provide the layers and lattices of meaning, as well as alternative readings of the Text that are inaccessible to all but the adept and which render Hebrew wholly untranslatable is not inferable from the passage above. If he was aware of the alpha-numerical nature of Hebrew, he preferred not to share this information with his flock.

Because it is true that the Torah is wholly untranslatable, all hermeneutics and exegesis based on a "Bible" in translation must be delusion based on initial gross, often intentional, misunderstanding. It is most likely that any translations based on translations (translations of "the Bible" from Greek or Latin) will go yet further afield and one will be led into the sphere of hallucination based on delusion. Any conclusions drawn from hermeneutics and exegesis based on the Greek translation will be without foundation, while conclusions drawn from hermeneutics and exegesis based on translations of translations cannot but be insanity.

Woe to the followers of a religion who based their thought, their emotions, their intellectual work, their "spirituality" on gross misunderstanding! How much wasted effort, indeed, how much pain could have been averted had the Christian world heeded, or at least noted, Martin Luther's admission.

Christianity was, and remains, the most sophisticated system of mind and emotions control ever devised. I believe the leaders of the various denominations in the uppermost echelons of power and influence were, and are, very much aware of what Luther knew and chose to lead the Christians into demensions [sic] of "Bible" interpretation that constituted a delusional state of mind. The emotions generated by those delusional ideas must be considered extreme emotional disturbances. Christian history and how Christians typically related to the rest of humanity bear out these sad, but ineluctable, conclusions.

It is said that the mind sciences are a recent discipline and systematic mind control a modern undertaking. I differ from that opinion. It seems to me that pagan practices were nothing but mind and emotions control, often by trauma. These are age-old practices and Christianity has seen to it that they have not been lost in the mists of time, but only hidden behind filmy veils and symbols of sufficient abstraction that they are not immediately recognizable.

Would that the Christian world had taken heed, or at least notice, of Luther's message in the passage above. It was probably the most important message he delivered to the Christian world in his lifetime.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com