Week 4 – Bevans Chapter 4

On of the primary objections to “dynamic equivalent” bible translations is the assertion that “meaning cannot exist outside of words.”  The assertion is that when we attempt to dissect the meaning from its formal presentation, we destroy the message.  A similar argument is relevant with regard to contextual translation (and noted by Bevans).  The presupposition is that there exists a “supercontextual” something that must be “put into” other words.   It seems that this is the central issue in the entire contextual theology debate: “we cannot have access to the gospel apart from some kind of human formulation.”