introduction
Several years ago I watched a pretty intense and illuminating debate on the Trinity between two people who (obviously) did not share the same belief. One believed the God who revealed himself within the Scriptures revealed himself as triune (i.e., the Trinity). The other believed he did not. For him, God is “one”—case closed (i.e., Unitarian).
At one point in the debate, the individual defending the reality of the triune God appealed to John 13:19, which in Greek reads: ἀπʼ ἄρτι λέγω ὑμῖν πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι, ἵνα πιστεύσητε ὅταν γένηται ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι. In English it’s: From this point forward I am telling you all before it happens, in order that when it happens you may believe that I am.
The important part of that verse (at least as it related to the Trinity debate) comes at the end with the short phrase: ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι / that I am.
where does this come from?
If you’re familiar with your Bible—especially the story in Exodus 3—you know that Jesus (in the Gospel of John) loves to allude to the reality of who he is—the embodiment of Yahweh—by consistently applying what Yahweh said about himself back in Exodus 3 to himself later in John. In Exodus 3 Yahweh told Moses I am who I am, and Jesus uses that same I am phrase to point to the reality of who he is.
“…that i am”
As this individual referenced the Greek text of John 13:19 and pointed out that Jesus quite plainly identified himself with Yahweh by showing that he used that ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι / that I am phrase, the other person arguing against the trinitarian reality of God pushed back by saying that when you look specifically at the New Living Translation (NLT) of John 13:19 you don’t read something like you may believe that I am; instead, you read, “…you will believe that I Am the Messiah.” You see, he appealed, Jesus wasn’t claiming to be Yahweh in the flesh, but only that he was the Messiah.
The other individual who was defending the trinitarian reality of God quickly responded saying show me where Messiah is in the Greek text.
It’s a good question. And it’s obviously not there.
He continued by saying we’re not talking about bad English translations. To which the audience listening to the debate groaned, and to which my eyes widened when I first heard it. It’s barely a paraphrase, folks, he responded, if you have to use that [the NLT], you’re not dealing with the New Testament.
EXCURSUS
Before going further, I must say—up front—that I’ve not written this article to respond directly to either of the individuals in that original trinitarian debate. This is not my participation in their original debate. I have, however, written this article in response to what I think has become quite a common and unfortunate point of view regarding the trustworthiness of English Bible translations.
To say that if someone uses the NLT they are not dealing with the New Testament is an incredibly strong statement, and it’s that statement I’d like to address in this article.
don’t mess with the text
Over five-years ago when I first heard that statement (if you have to use that [the NLT] you’re not dealing with the New Testament) I was pretty much immediately convinced he was right. I didn’t know any Greek at the time, but it didn’t really take knowing any Greek to see that Messiah (Χριστός) was not in the Greek text. So the obvious conclusion was that the translators of the NLT messed with the text and possibly even messed with the doctrine of the Trinity. Therefore, the NLT could not be trusted as an honest translation.
How easy it is for seemingly innocuous statements to change entire ways of thinking.
That stuck with me for quite a while. But over the next several years a couple of things happened. 1) I started to work on Koine Greek—the language the New Testament was originally written. And 2) I read many different English translations of the New Testament—including the NLT.
What I came to find is that it’s not so simple when it comes to translating the Greek (…or Hebrew or Aramaic) into English. It’s not as if each Greek word has its exact counterpart in English. Further, there is an art to translating not only the Greek words into English, but the Greek meaning into something that makes sense in English. This can be seen with any translation of John 13:19.
NIV: I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am.
NASB: From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe that I am He.
NET: I am telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I am he.
KJV: Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
ESV: I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.
NRSV: I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.
NLT: I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I Am the Messiah.
translation, as it is
What has every single English translation above done with the ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι phrase in John 13:19? Some would say they have changed it, or at least added to it. But is that correct? Is that the most accurate way of describing the translation process of that phrase?
If you look at my translation above, you’ll see I translated that phrase quite literally as that I am, but that isn’t good English, because it’s awkward to end a sentence like that. And it’s okay that it’s awkward because 21st-Century English is not 1st-Century Koine Greek. Something must be done in order to give the sentence actual meaning in English, which is something every major English Bible translation recognizes.
textual formatting
Now, to be fair, the NLT stands alone by translating that phrase as I Am the Messiah instead of something like I am he (as the NIV stands alone by translating that phrase as I am who I am). But look for a second at what the NLT has done that the translations above have not done. They have capitalized the “A” for the phrase I Am, as a way to signal to the reader that this is a pointer back to the I Am statement from Exodus 3 (and the rest of the I Am statements in the Gospel of John).
textual footnotes
Further, the NLT has added a footnote after this phrase saying, “Or that the ‘I Am’ has come; or that I am the LORD; Greek reads that I am. See Exod 3:14.” For those of you who love footnotes like I do, that particular footnote is beautiful!
It’s beautiful because of the way it it does a few things: 1) It plainly states the other options for translating John 13:19; 2) it shows the reader what the Greek says in the original; and 3) it shows the love the translators have for God’s people. They didn’t have to put that in there, but they did because they wanted anyone who reads John 13:19 in the NLT to have the information for themselves.
dealing with the new testament
So we come back to the point of this article. Is it true that if you’re using the NLT in John 13:19 you’re not dealing with the New Testament?
Absolutely not.
Mainly because it’s not that simple. With a haphazard glance it might appear that the NLT did something odd, or maybe even nefarious. But after a more serious look into the situation, we start to see that the NLT is first off, not alone in their work and secondly, their work is not anything close to nefarious at all.
On the contrary, it’s the honest and helpful thing to do. It’s the thing to do when you’re doing your best to ensure that we, the readers, can know we’re really dealing with the New Testament.
To trust or not to trust?
The easy thing to do is to throw stones at modern English translations. Especially when someone we look up to says something bad about one—or several—of them. The hard thing to do is to sit back and take them for what they are: the hard work of a lot of faithful people trying to make something that will allow people to read and understand the Scriptures.
They aren’t all the same. That much is clear. They also aren’t all the best. There are some great translations, some really good translations, and some decent translations. And that’s okay.
People aren’t perfect, so translations won’t be perfect, but that doesn’t mean we can’t trust people or the translations we read.