The decision to translate the Word of God into secular tongues, rather than imprisoning it within the sanctuary of a specific sacred language, is an unprecedented event in both intellectual and religious history. This implies there was “something” so vital that it was worth obtaining even at the cost of damaging the original form of truth. The motives for this span a vast spectrum, from sublime missionary aspirations to the most mundane mechanics of political governance.
Strategic Popularization for Survival and Expansion
If a religion remains the private property of a select few, it may be preserved as a mysterious relic, but it can never possess the vitality to change the world. The decisive moment Christianity leaped beyond the fences of Judaism to become a world religion was when it abandoned the national tongue of Hebrew and was “translated” into Greek, the lingua franca of the era.
Translation was a process of secularizing the Divine, but it was also the only gateway to universalizing truth. To reach more people, God laid down the authority of a “Divine Language” and chose the lowly speech of the masses—this was the most aggressive survival strategy a religion could adopt. Yet, the bleaching and distortion of meaning that occurred in this process remains a painful debt hidden behind the achievement of “popularization.”
The Monopoly of Translation and Invisible Empowerment
Paradoxically, while translation appears to aim for equality, it has historically served as a powerful tool for creating new classes. During the ages when the masses could not read the divine word for themselves, the priestly class—who monopolized Latin or Greek scriptures and “interpreted” them for the public—grasped absolute spiritual power.
Translation is an act of opening information, but it is also a process of exercising “filtering power,” where the translator dominates the public’s thought by choosing specific words. Depending on how a term is translated, God can become either a benevolent father or a cruel judge. At this point, the intellect must perceive that translation was never a pure service, but a sophisticated political act for governance and management.
The Inevitability of Secularization: How God Enters Human History
To the question, “Is it permissible to secularize divinity so thoroughly?” theology responds with the logic of “Incarnation.” Just as God took on human flesh and descended, the logic goes that God’s Word must put on the humble rags of human language to establish a relationship with humanity.
From an intellectual perspective, however, this is the result of prioritizing “efficiency of communication” over the primordial purity of revelation. The moment God is translated into human speech, the Divine is shackled by human cultural bias and linguistic limitations. Standing at the crossroads of remaining in silence to protect sanctity or intervening in human life at the risk of distortion, religion chose the latter. This secularization resulted in the contamination of truth, but it simultaneously allowed truth to become the engine that moves history.
Closing Thoughts
Translation was a massive trade: the abandonment of the original form of truth in exchange for the expansion of influence. Thanks to this choice, faith burrowed into the hearts of the masses, but it also met the fate of being butchered according to human desire and political interest.
As intellectuals, the dogma we must guard against is the belief that “the translated text is the identical original of God.” Translation always implies “treason.” Every translated word we encounter is steeped in the translator’s intent and the limitations of their era. Therefore, rather than being overwhelmed by the authority of the text, we must maintain a critical attitude that asks why the text was translated in such a way. To persistently dig into those gaps where divinity was secularized, and to find the traces of universal truth hidden beneath the layers of power—that is the final act of courtesy for an intellect that has accepted the tragic blessing of translation.
The Intellectual Property of Min Jinseong
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