Finding What was Lost in Translation

Anybody else wish our Bibles had an emoji here and there?

According to the BBC,

Emojis have been available on Japanese phones since the late 1990s but gained worldwide popularity after 2011, when iPhones started coming with emoji keyboards. They are now widely available on Android phones too.

They differ from emoticons by being coded little pictures rather than collections of punctuation points like 🙂 or 😥 or ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. (For emoticon newbies, the latter is a shruggie).

But like emoticons, emojis can be used to indicate tone or emotion in messages composed largely of text. [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-38287908]

Frequently when reading the Bible I’ve wondered what happens between two verses…as in, Did Jesus slap his forehead and roll his eyes before answering something St. Peter asked?

Emojis sure do come in handy in clarifying written communication.

But not always. From that same BBC source comes this —

A company in London has advertised for an emoji translator in what is thought to be the first such job worldwide.

The role will involve explaining cross-cultural misunderstandings in the use of the mini pictures, and compiling a monthly trends report.

Anybody want to review what the Old Testament says about Babel? Or what the New Testament says happened on that one particular Pentecost?

Cue Jesus: “Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No.” (Matthew 5:37)

Or, to place what he says in context,  “Don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.” (Matthew 5:33-37)