When we read a text in translation, we imagine we hear what the author wrote because we believe that meaning can be taken separately from the words on the page. But if you can conceive of meaning, it needs must be part and parcel with a series of words. If not the words of the original text, then the alternative words of a translation, or worse, the self-referential words in your head. There is no meaning without words, and each set of words represents a different meaning.

Three words appear in chapter one of Luke: pragma, logos, and rema; all interconnected, all critical to Luke’s thesis, all washed away in translation. If you have never heard these three words as they appear in Luke, then you have never heard Luke.

And that’s the point. 

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 1:36-38.

Episode 438  Luke 1:36-38

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3755-finding-the-balance
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://incompetech.com