My
Arabic is not terribly useful for doing daily life things like buying groceries
(though I did buy a cell phone in Budapest in Arabic). It is useful for understanding the
news, which use the formal classical Arabic, complete with case endings that no
one else ever uses. Sermons are
also understandable, because they normally use more formal Arabic. Most of the church services that I’ve attended
have some form of translation into English, from someone sitting behind the
foreigners in chapel at the hospital and whispering quietly to the fancy radio
headphones, or even two people standing up front, with one person repeating
every sentence in a different language.
Sometimes I choose to not put my headphones on or to sit away from the
translator to practice my Arabic.
And I’ve grown to enjoy the insights that come from listening to the
bible in a different language.
Sometimes
my understanding of un-translated sermons is a disaster. I thought an entire sermon was about
peace and rest until the very end when I overheard the translator, and realized
that he was actually talking about peace and grace. Whoops. The sermon illustrations and funny stories are also
usually lost on me, because I don’t have the vocabulary for those sorts of
things. But most of the time, the extra mental work required to understand
sermons is worth it, because I have to think more about what’s being said. Just listening to the bible passage
makes me think more, because I have heard a lot of passages many times in
English, but the different words make me pay attention to what’s actually going
on. Even subtle differences help point
me in the right direction, because translation is an art, not an exact science.
My
favorite new word in Arabic is found in the Bible a lot, but I mostly heard it
during Christmas songs. The word
is ‘mukhullṣi’, which means “my savior” in English. This word is kinda fun to say (it has a velar fricative, a pharyngeal,
and a geminate all in one word), but the meaning and relationship to other
words that I know is the best part.
In Arabic, most words are related to other words, which can sometimes
help one figure out a new word. (But
only sometimes. Sometimes you’re
just stuck. Or sometimes you’ll
figure it out wrong) This word for ‘savior’ is related to the word ‘khalaṣ’,
which means ‘finished’. I use it
all the time; whenever I finish at task I throw up my hands and say ‘khalaṣ’,
and it’s the word you use to tell kids to stop doing something. A great word all around, but an even
better word inside of Christmas songs.
The word has been put into a form where it means “the doer of this
verb”. So ‘mukhullaṣi’ sounds
like ‘my finisher’, and yet it refers to a tiny baby whose birthday we
celebrated yesterday.
I
love thinking about this. Yes,
Jesus is my savior, but I’ve heard that a million times, and perhaps so often
that I forget what it really means.
But Jesus is my “finisher” too.
He finished my sins, he finished my selfishness, and he finished my justly-deserved
punishment. The last thing Jesus
said before he died on the cross was “It is finished”. He finished the never-ending sacrifices
at the temple and he finished the division between humans and God. Jesus’ death
on the cross was God’s way of putting an end to our task of trying to be good
enough. Because of the little baby
born in Bethlehem, who grew up in order to die a terrible death, I can through
up my hands in surrender, and say “khullaṣ”. My salvation is complete, so I am finished with trying to work
for it. And I can rest, because I
know my finisher.
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