This conversation was the second Dr. Brickle and I had during our day together. The first conversation took place during the morning and can be found in Episode 4: Ancient Media Culture and Memory Arts.
Following this, we took a break and grabbed some lunch Dr. Brickle was gracious enough to buy me Thai food and as we ate together, I was able to pick his brain about all the richness of his field of study. He explained that our English translations of the Bible often can miss the “Hebraisms” that are native to the original text. This doesn’t alter our essential understanding of the meaning or our ability to discern matters of salvation, but he likened it to looking at a picture in black and white versus seeing in color. The same basic form and understanding can be gleaned from both views, but the “richness” of everything that was intended often becomes obscured in the process of translation.
An example of this type of richness can be found in the concepts of sound mapping and aural coherence. Essentially, this refers to examining a text through the lens of what it sounds like when it is read aloud for the ear, versus just read with the eyes, in order to better understand what the author is trying to emphasize.
This lead us into the conversation that we recorded as Episode 5. We started with a discussion about how many scholars have turned a critical eye towards the Epistle of 1 John, as (apparently) the “quality” of the writing in the original Greek during the opening prologue of the letter leaves quite a bit to be desired. Dr. Brickle, among others has argued that there may instead be “aural design” at play here, rather than simply “bad writing from a crazy old man” or something like that.
I hope you all find this discussion as fascinating as I did! And thanks again for the Thai food, Dr. Brickle. :)
Best regards,
Nathan Marlette
