Iceland review - 2007, Síða 50

48 ICELAND REVIEW
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men [...]
shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
Thorsteinsson maintains that the Lutherans responsible for the
translation are changing the doctrine according to public opinion
and thus caving to the ethos of the society. “When priests think
they can write a better law than God, they should get a better job,”
he says. “God is eternal and what he wrote, he wrote in stone.” As
a form of silent protest – and to ensure his congregation won’t have
to adapt to the new text – he has purchased the remaining supply of
the 1981 translation of the Bible, which he more or less venerates.
There have been several opportunities in the last decade,
however, for the ecclesiastical community, including Thorsteinsson,
to suggest corrections to the text. Even Bishop Sigurbjörnsson admits
that “the f irst samples were not very good translations.” Despite
repeated invitations to suggest replacement text, Thorsteinsson
declined. “In my humble opinion they would never get through,”
he says. “You have only Lutherans doing the translation and I can
assure you that no correction on any real level could go through.”
Though Thorsteinsson opted against submitting remarks,
between 50 and 60 people did, including Arnfrídur Gudmundsdóttir,
an ordained Lutheran minister and associate professor in the
Department of Theology at the University of Iceland. She has not yet
seen the text eventually adopted by the committee but submitted a
letter in 2005 explicitly suggesting, among other recommendations,
that “one” be used instead of “one man” in the texts of Matthew
19:5 and Genesis 2:24 regarding marriage.
While Gudmundsdóttir is supportive of the new translation,
calling it a “huge step forward in terms of really addressing the
problem of having a traditionally masculine language,” she falls into
the camp of those who wanted to see more inclusive language used.
“What will end up happening with the pastors if the translation
doesn’t go far enough is that they will…[amend]…the text themselves
in order to make it more inclusive.”
After asking if I was a “believer,” Gunnar Thorsteinsson’s next
question was if I was Jewish. It was more of a declarative statement,
though. “Sara, you must be Jewish?” Which were the same questions
I was asked by evangelist minister and Omega TV founder Erik
Eriksson.
Eriksson heads up the Believers’ Fellowship, which as of last
year had 40 registered members. The services are held in Omega’s
studio, where retractable maps of the Middle East hang on the walls
and bouquets of silk f lowers add color to the cavernous space. Like
Thorsteinsson, Eriksson isn’t “interested” in the new translation
even though he hasn’t heard “exactly what they’re doing” in regards
to the new phrasing. In any case, his opinion is that it’s “not a good
translation” and that “they are just trying to please everybody and
are drifting away from the meaning.” The meaning to which he
refers is the same meaning God apparently wrote in stone.
Stone, however, isn’t pliable enough for the Lutheran church to
accept in the 21st century and for a text expected to endure for at
least the next century. “The classic Christian faith is not a monolith
and the Lutheran tradition emphasizes that the scripture is open to
interpretation,” says Bishop Sigurbjörnsson. “Our church is not a
club or a party with only one opinion on different matters. It can
tolerate different opinions, it can tolerate that people have different
theologies in different ways and come to different conclusions – as
long as they don’t lose the center of faith.”
One of his most heated imbroglios, however, stems from the new
translation of the Icelandic Bible, which he calls “total baloney.”
†