Lost in Translation

Maureen aka suburbanbanshee posts Worst Vatican Translation Yet at # Over the Rhine and Into the Tiber

On October 27th, Pope Francis addressed the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and talked about evolution as one of God’s probable methods of Creation. News reports in English had the Pope saying, “God is not a divine being.”

What the Pope actually said was, “….Dio non è un demiurgo….” which is the Italian for “God is not a demiurge.”

In heretical Gnostic theology, the creator of the material universe was an evil or depressed lesser being called the Demiurge [Builder] who was often identified with Satan, whereas God was a higher being (or beings, or eight beings, or….) who never wanted matter created at all. Christian Gnostics justified this term (like many others they used) because it was used once in the Bible in Hebrews 11:10 – “For [Abraham] looked for a city that has foundations, the Architect and Builder of which is God.” (Of course St. Paul didn’t mean it like they meant it.)

So yeah, maybe some of you will believe me now about the pathetic inaccuracy of the current Vatican English translations.

I do have to wonder if the English translator is a native English speaker or not since there have been so many egregious translations. Is there even a team that cross-checks translatons? I would not be surprised at all to find out there isn’t.

Her primary blog is Aliens in This World which covers a cornucopia of topics and has been a long-time favorite of mine.