Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Gospel in Two Languages

One of my favorite gospels is the Parable of the Talents.  The church we attended this morning reads the gospel in both english and spanish.  I have always liked the parable because it says two things.  First, that one should use what we have been given and second that we should take risks in life.

In the english version a master brings together three servants and gives them one, two and five talents.   He comes back after a while and two of the servants have doubled their master's money.  The third had buried it in the ground and so returned only the talent he got.  I've liked this gospel because it encourages us all to take risks in life.  We come into life with a set of things that come to us without regard to our needs or desires but regardless we should take risks to make the best use of what we are given.

The spanish version has two major differences.  First the servant (servidor) becomes and employee (empleo) and the master becomes a boss (jefe).  Second, the amount is expressed in thousands so one becomes one thousand.  I am not sure it makes much of a difference theologically.

They also did a baptism this morning, which was done in Spanish.   I was able to keep up with the responses reasonably well.

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