Perhaps you noticed it too – in September and October there was a noticeable uptick in activity on the CanRC website. In addition to some calls being extended, accepted, or declined, a good number of committee reports were posted. When the reports start rolling in, it's a sure sign that another general synod is just around the corner.

One of the larger reports, weighing in at forty-four pages, came from the Standing Committee for the Publication of the Book of Praise (SCBP). This time around the committee "presents the 2013 definitive edition of the Book of Praise to General Synod for approval." It's been well over a decade since Synod Neerlandia 2001 mandated the SCBP to begin receiving submissions for additional hymns (Art 97), but the job's almost done now.

Final Touches⤒🔗

Before presenting the "2013 definitive edition" to Synod Carman, the committee wanted to dot as many i's and cross as many t's as they possibly could. They further refined the wording of some revised psalms. The musical notation of some hymns was fine-tuned. Here and there syntax was strengthened and historical details were sharpened. And, if you soldier on through to sub-point 9.4.2 on page 39, you will discover that the SCBP is also proposing a change to the translation of Lord's Day 44, Question and Answer 115.

"But," you ask, "I thought we were revising psalms and hymns, not the Catechism?" Good question. Tracking down the answer leads us back to the rolling farmland of northern Alberta, to an ecclesiastical assembly in a town not far from the shores of the mighty Athabasca River. You guessed it: Synod Neerlandia 2001. Not only did that Synod initiate the process leading to our augmented hymn section, but it also decided to forward a letter from Regional Synod West (Dec 5, 2000) to the SCBP. That letter contained some "proposed improvements to the translation of the Heidelberg Catechism" (Art 78). One of those proposals, indeed the most significant one, was an improvement to the translation of Q/A 115. So, before the 2013 edition of the Book of Praise is printed, the SCBP wanted to tidy up this outstanding matter as well.

So, what's the Issue?←⤒🔗

The Catechism is being memorized by youth from Surrey to Ottawa, from Neerlandia to Denver, and beyond. Therefore, if we are going to alter the translation of a certain Lord's Day, there ought to be a compelling reason. Stable, familiar wording assists in solid, long-term retention. So, why change Q/A 115? Let's take a closer look at the first part of the last sentence as we have it in our present translation. "Second, so that, while praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, we may never stop striving to be renewed more and more after God's image..." Compare that to a literal translation of the original German text from 1563:

Furthermore, that we, without ceasing, devote ourselves and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we might be renewed more and more in God's image...

Two items are noteworthy here. First, the original German text leaves us hanging a little bit with the words "devote ourselves." "Devote ourselves to what?" someone may ask. One possibility is that we should devote ourselves to prayer. After all, that fits with the next section, Lord's Day 45-52, which is all about prayer. Another possibility is that we should devote ourselves to doing good works. This would be in line with the previous answer which emphasized that those converted to God begin to live according to God's commandments (A 114). However, whether Answer 115 encourages us to devote ourselves to prayer or good works (or both!) is not immediately clear.

Second, what is clear from the original German is that God, through his Holy Spirit, is the one who renews us in his image. In fact, this has already been clearly confessed in Lord's Day 32. There we learned that not only has Christ redeemed us by his blood but "Christ ... also renews us by his Holy Spirit to be his image" (emphasis added). However, when you read our present translation you might well walk away with the impression that it is our unceasing striving which leads to the renewal in God's image.

Now the sharp grammarian in the crowd will point out that "to be renewed" is a passive verb. This passive form indicates that the action of renewing is being done to us not by us. However, will the average fourteen-year old sitting in a catechism class pick up on that finer point of English verbal morphology? Or will he (and many others) simply see "strive" beside "renewed more and more after God's image" and conclude that it is our striving which accomplishes the renewal? The issue is further complicated by the fact that whereas the original German mentions devoting (or: striving) first and praying second, our present English translation reverses that word order. Now instead of a close connection between praying to God and renewal in his image we have a tighter tie between our striving and renewal.

So, here's the heart of the issue. Who renews us in God's image: Christ, through his Holy Spirit, or us? From Lord's Day 32 the clear answer is: Christ. However, our present translation of Lord's Day 44 muddies the clarity of that water a bit.

A Pastoral, Spiritual Matter←⤒🔗

All sincere Christians are concerned about the incompleteness of their renewal in God's image. We long for "more and more" holiness in our lives. However, we're often left sighing, "Too little and not enough holiness in my life." If you yearn for greater sanctification in your life, where do you go and what do you do?

Do you begin with striving? But then, what if the results are not what you expected, and you are still giving in to that tenacious temptation? What do you do next? More striving? And when you've re-doubled your efforts to avoid Satan's lures, and the results still hover somewhere between negligible and non-existent, what's your next step? Still more striving? By now, you get the point.

The Apostle Paul, also self-described as "the wretched man," was afflicted by the small measure of sanctification in his life. He regularly found himself doing what he ought not to do, and not doing what he knew he should be doing (Rom 7:14-24). In his plight, he did not say, "O my soul, strive yet harder, you can do it!" Instead, he turned to his God and asked,

Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!Rom 7:24-25

In short, being renewed in God's image requires nothing less than divine power. And to receive divine aid we must pray.

This does not mean that we may idly, let alone fatalistically, sit by and ignore God's commands, thinking to ourselves that the Holy Spirit will do it for us. The Holy Spirit does not work our sanctification instead of us but rather inside of us – from the heart to the head to the hand. Yet it is he who does it. If we try to renew ourselves by our own striving and strength, the task would be hopeless and in vain (Hymn 28:3). We need a translation of Lord's Day 44 which clearly teaches us to rely on God for our sanctification. At this particular point, our present translation has the potential to confuse young and old alike.

So, both from a translation perspective, as well as a pastoral, spiritual point of view, our present translation is sufficiently weak that it warrants another look. Indeed, Synod Neerlandia 2001 already pointed us in this direction.

Back to the Translations←⤒🔗

So, how shall we translate Answer 115? A glance through previous editions of the Book of Praise demonstrates that we've been wrestling with this for some decades now. Back in 1972 the last sentence of the answer read:

Second, that we may constantly endeavour, and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed more and more after the image of God...

The strong points of this translation are that it is close to the original and it directly connects prayer and renewal, thereby indicating that it is God who renews us. The weak point is that we're left with a lingering question about what we must "constantly endeavour" to do.

Therefore, in 1984 an effort was made to answer the lingering question. The new translation was: "Second, that we may be zealous for good deeds and constantly pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that he may more and more renew us after God's image..." So, now it was very clear what we should endeavour to do: "good deeds" (cf. Q. 86 and A. 114). Moreover, it was made even clearer that God does the renewing. There was only one problem. The phrase "for good deeds" is not in the original text of the Catechism.

Upon further reflection, Synod Winnipeg 1989 decided that it was not wise to have a translation of Lord's Day 44 which "brings into the text more than the original expresses" (Art. 159). Consequently, yet another translation was adopted. This time it was borrowed from the Psalter-Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church of North America. That's also the translation we still have today. (Interestingly, in the meantime, the CRCNA also found its translation of Q/A 115 to be problematic and moved to a different one.)

One question and answer, three different translations, and all within the span of less than twenty years: it was not an ideal situation. But it's also water under the bridge. The best we can do now is try to stabilize things for the future.

The New Proposal←⤒🔗

The SCBP is now proposing the following translation: "Second, so that we may constantly apply ourselves and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit to be renewed more and more after God's image, until after this life we reach the goal of perfection." For the most part, it is quite similar to the 1972 translation. In a sense, we're coming full circle here. That's the way it sometimes goes in (ecclesiastical) life. After you try this and that, you discover that what you originally had was not so bad after all.

There is one noteworthy change, though. Instead of "we may constantly endeavour" (1972), the proposal suggests "we may constantly apply ourselves." For one thing, this is closer to the original German (wir o[h] ne underlasz uns  befleissen). Yet, more significantly, it underlines how we should live before our Triune God. In the end, maybe it's not so important that we decisively determine whether the endeavouring of Answer 115 reaches back to the obedience of the commandments (A. 114) or forward to the activity of prayer (A. 116). After all, both are central parts of our thankfulness to God.

However, it is crucial that our entire life of gratitude is filled with "earnest purpose" (A. 114). And it is precisely this emphasis that the new proposed translation aims to convey. Living out of gratitude for God's grace is something about which we all need to be sincere and serious. That is to say, with a heartfelt love and delight, we ought to "apply ourselves" to every aspect of being thankful to God for such deliverance.

Translation is always a challenging task. Yet, the Lord willing, the proposed translation of Answer 115, coming to the table of Synod Carman 2013, will serve the churches well for many years to come.