The Changing Finnish Bible

STEP BACK 

In a private account of my life experiences, I had included this article about how the Finnish Bible—in particular—had evolved and how the text was "changed" to support a key doctrine in the Lutheran dogma. This is a copy of that entry from 2003.

“Muuttuva Raamattu” (The Changing Bible) would clearly be  a blasphemous concept in the eyes of the Lutheran clergy. But it was the least of my concerns when I set out to put together an article with that title for our mission magazine, Valkeus. Though I was in virtually daily contact with the pastors in my parish via religion classes in high school, their views and cynical comments about my new-found faith did nothing but strengthen my resolve.

The impetus  for my research was just a portion of one verse in the Bible (Genesis 1:26):  “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...” or, “Ja Jumala sanoi: ‘Tehkäämme ihminen kuvaksemme, kaltaiseksemme...’” Translated literally that says “And God said, ‘Let us make man to be our image (picture), to be like us...’”

Not many nuances there between those, but here’s where the plot thickens.

To better understand the intent here, let me go back in history, way back to Martin Luther.  As we know, he wanted the Bible in the hands of the common people, and translated it from Greek into his native language, German. It was first published in 1534, though Luther kept working on refining his work until his martyrdom in 1546. This translation is considered to be largely responsible for the evolution of the modern German language.

Martin Luther and the first German Bible as he translated it. Joseph Smith declared that Luther’s translation of the Bible is the most correct among all the other translations.

Now let us travel North to Finland. The same condition of illiteracy and ignorance prevailed in Finland that had prompted Luther to do something about it in his own country. Meet Mikael Agricola, a clergyman who became the de facto founder of written Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Finland. He is often called the father of the Finnish written language.  Agricola was consecrated as the bishop of Turku  in 1554. As a result, he began a reform of the the Finnish church along Lutheran lines. Using the Luther’s German Bible as his source, he translated the New Testament. His other works include the prayer book, hymns, and the mass into Finnish, and through this work set the rules of orthography that are the basis of modern Finnish spelling. His thoroughgoing work is particularly remarkable in that he accomplished it in only three years. 

The first translation of the whole Bible was the so-called Vanha kirkko-raamattu (Old Church Bible), titled Biblia, Se on: Coco Pyhä Ramattu Suomexi (Bible, That is: The Entire Holy Bible in Finnish). This edition was published in 1642. 

As the Finnish written and spoken language evolved during the centuries and literacy became commonplace also amongst the laypeople, need for a new edition arose. The so-called Biblia or Vuoden 1776 raamattu (Year 1776 Bible) was published in that year. It was the first edition meant not only to ecclesiastical but also to domestic use, and first written in Modern Finnish.

Again a new translation was needed in the early 20th century, and a committee for translation was set 1911. It had its work ready 1933. Full edition of Bible was published in 1938. It was translated by the Finnish Lutheran Church, and intended to Lutheran use.

(I might interject here, Why Lutheran use? If it is the word of God, should it not be such as can be used by anyone? Or, as follows here, Just what would make the revision “ecumenical”?)

The latest official Finnish translation dates from 1992, the so-called Uusi kirkkoraamattu (New Church Bible). It is the first Finnish ecumenical edition; the translation committee consisted not only of the representatives of the Finnish Lutheran Church, but also of academics and representatives of Finnish Orthodox Church and Finnish Catholic Church, and is intended for  use of all Christian denominations.

Now that we have a taste of the Finnish church history, it’s time to get to the point of this study.

I am not quite sure why I was so attracted to the creation story, but I would guess it was because the nature of Godhead was such a large issue to me in those days as a new convert. I could not comprehend the Trinity doctrine of the Lutheran church, so the teaching of a loving God with flesh and bones who is separate from His Son and the Holy Ghost was like water in a desert. And it was not a mirage!

Somehow I had stumbled on an early Finnish Bible that clearly spoke of God being a tangible being, like us. When I was hired to work as a guide in a museum in Joensuu during the summer holidays, I was drawn to the old Bibles on display, and then finally decided it would be fine if I unlocked the glass cases where the books lay and checked that one passage of scripture. It turned out to be a gold mine!

The museum was located in the basement of this building, called Karjalantalo, or The Karelia House. Incidentally, the Joensuu Branch met here for a time when we had no other place.

In the museum, I had access to the first complete Finnish Bible. Can you believe my luck! Well, actually, I did not consider it luck but a blessing, for that opened the floodgates to all sorts of rumination. 

I will quote the passage in question in Finnish by years of publication, and then explain how it is different from the other ones. (Note: the years of publication are not the same as years of revision, yet they reveal the changes that have relevance in the doctrine of the Godhead. These are the ones that I found in the museum.)  

1642

Ja Jumala sanoi: tehkäm Ihminen meidän cuvaxem joca meidän muotoisem on.

And God said: let us make Human to be our image who is shaped like us.

1758

Ja Jumala sanoi: tehkämme Ihminen meidän cuvaxemme, meidän muotomme jälken.

And God said: let us make Human to be our image, after our shape.

1840

Pretty much the same, except for one letter, to make it more Finnish: c changed to k in the word kuvaxemme.

Ja Jumala sanoi: tehkämme Ihminen meidän kuvaxemme, meidän muotomme jälken.

And God said: let us make Human to be our image, after our shape.

1893, 1911, 1923

Again, pretty much the same, except for a few letters, to make it more Finnish

Ja Jumala sanoi: tehkäämme Ihminen meidän kuvaksemme, meidän muotomme jälkeen.

And God said: let us make Human to be our image, after our shape.

In 1927 version, the meaning was changed by one single word:

Ja Jumala sanoi: tehkäämme Ihminen meidän kuvaksemme, meidän kaltaiseksemme.

And God said: let us make Human to be our image, like us.

“Like us” is a pretty loaded change. Now it is explained that it means “eternal like God,” and removes the supposition that God might have a body of flesh and bones, glorified and exalted. 

1938

Again, pretty much the same, except for dropping the word “meidän” before “kaltaiseksemme”, to make it more modern and fluent Finnish

Ja Jumala sanoi: tehkäämme Ihminen meidän kuvaksemme, kaltaiseksemme.

1992

Jumala sanoi: "Tehkäämme ihminen, tehkäämme hänet kuvaksemme, kaltaiseksemme.

God said: “Let us make Human, let us make him to be our image, our likeness.

I don’t know why in the revision, there is the repetition of “let us make” or why the word “meidän”(“our”)  is excluded, but there they are—or not.

Incidentally, the Bible that I studied and preached from was the 1938 edition. 

So that’s it for this time.

Here’s the article from the magazine, written in 1963, just before I graduated from high school. The article was one of the requirements for—have you heard of this?—the Golden Gleaner Award which I received. Part of the reason for the research and writing was my hope that the missionaries would find the article useful, but it is possible that the language was too high-flying. Even then, and especially then, since it was Finnish, my mother-tongue, I was quite verbose.