Recently the Enga Bible translation team and I were reviewing our draft of the book of Revelation. And while Revelation is full of symbolism and imagery that can be quite difficult to interpret, it is actually not all that difficult to translate. But we did run into some difficulties here and there. One of the difficulties that we faced was the translation of the term lake of fire. Of course the lake of fire is the ultimate destination of the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, along with all of those whose names are not found written in the book of life (see Revelation 20:10-15).
The difficulty in Enga is that there is no traditional concept or imagery of a lake that is made out of fire. Lakes are made out of water, not fire. And there is not even really one word for lake. Instead Enga people literally say water depression. Now the word depression is not referring to an emotional state in which a person is feeling sad, but rather it means “a sunken place or hollow on a surface.” In other words it refers to an area where there is an indentation in the ground. And when the word depression is preceded by the word water, it indicates that the indentation in the ground is filled with water.
So, knowing that the Enga people say water depression to talk about a lake, I of course suggested that we should translate lake of fire by saying fire depression. In other words, a sunken place or indentation on the surface of the earth that is filled with fire instead of water. Well, as often happens when I think that I have made a brilliant suggestion, I was met with blank stares. In Papua New Guinean cultures, people will often not disagree with you directly, but they will show their disagreement by simply ignoring what you say. Not only that, but it can be difficult to articulate why something doesn’t sound quite right. The translators knew that fire depression didn’t sound right, but they might not have been able to articulate right away why that was the case. English speakers also have the same problem. For example, a typical English speaker would immediately be able to recognize that goed is not the past tense of go, but if they had to explain why, they would run into difficulty. (It is because the past tense went is actually from the verb wend as in wend your way through a crowd.) So just as English speakers know when something does not sound right but can’t always explain why, Enga speakers also encounter difficulties in explaining why something sounds wrong, especially since most Enga speakers have never had any formal training in their own language. Well as we continued pondering the best translation, I kept ignoring the nonverbal cues and pushing for fire depression as our answer. Finally, it dawned on our lead translator Maniosa why fire depression did not sound right. He said, “Do you know what a fire depression is? It is the little fire pit that we have in our homes that we cook over.” To give you a better sense of what that looks like, please see the picture below.
As you can see, what I was hoping would mean lake of fire actually just meant fire pit. Big difference! So the terminology that I was suggesting would have people envisioning that the lake of fire, which is supposed to be an intimidating image of the ultimate end for untold numbers of those whose names are not written in the book of life, was nothing more than the little fire pit where people cook food in their homes. In fact, if more than one or two people were thrown into a lake of fire like that, they would probably smother the fire and put it out, which is not quite what Jesus had in mind when he talked about the “fire that is not quenched.” So we had to abandon the idea of using the term fire depression and translate lake of fire as the place where big fire continually burns. The idea that this fire is burning in a depression or indentation in the ground had to be left out because that concept created the wrong image of a fire pit where one cooks food in the house. And fire pits are considered to be useful things that help people cook. They are not places of punishment.
I am thankful that I am not alone in doing the work of Bible translation. Rather I am part of a wonderful team, who can correct me when I make bad suggestions. Thankfully there are many times when my suggestions are more helpful. But I am thankful not just for the translation team, but also for you who pray and give to make this work possible. We are all contributing a small part to the work of the Lord in Enga. And it is a work that none of us can do alone. We need each other. So thank you for playing your part so that the translation team and I can play our part.
The difficulty in Enga is that there is no traditional concept or imagery of a lake that is made out of fire. Lakes are made out of water, not fire. And there is not even really one word for lake. Instead Enga people literally say water depression. Now the word depression is not referring to an emotional state in which a person is feeling sad, but rather it means “a sunken place or hollow on a surface.” In other words it refers to an area where there is an indentation in the ground. And when the word depression is preceded by the word water, it indicates that the indentation in the ground is filled with water.
So, knowing that the Enga people say water depression to talk about a lake, I of course suggested that we should translate lake of fire by saying fire depression. In other words, a sunken place or indentation on the surface of the earth that is filled with fire instead of water. Well, as often happens when I think that I have made a brilliant suggestion, I was met with blank stares. In Papua New Guinean cultures, people will often not disagree with you directly, but they will show their disagreement by simply ignoring what you say. Not only that, but it can be difficult to articulate why something doesn’t sound quite right. The translators knew that fire depression didn’t sound right, but they might not have been able to articulate right away why that was the case. English speakers also have the same problem. For example, a typical English speaker would immediately be able to recognize that goed is not the past tense of go, but if they had to explain why, they would run into difficulty. (It is because the past tense went is actually from the verb wend as in wend your way through a crowd.) So just as English speakers know when something does not sound right but can’t always explain why, Enga speakers also encounter difficulties in explaining why something sounds wrong, especially since most Enga speakers have never had any formal training in their own language. Well as we continued pondering the best translation, I kept ignoring the nonverbal cues and pushing for fire depression as our answer. Finally, it dawned on our lead translator Maniosa why fire depression did not sound right. He said, “Do you know what a fire depression is? It is the little fire pit that we have in our homes that we cook over.” To give you a better sense of what that looks like, please see the picture below.
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| A typical Engan fire depression—not really a lake of fire |
I am thankful that I am not alone in doing the work of Bible translation. Rather I am part of a wonderful team, who can correct me when I make bad suggestions. Thankfully there are many times when my suggestions are more helpful. But I am thankful not just for the translation team, but also for you who pray and give to make this work possible. We are all contributing a small part to the work of the Lord in Enga. And it is a work that none of us can do alone. We need each other. So thank you for playing your part so that the translation team and I can play our part.
