{"id":4114,"date":"2010-03-25T08:25:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T12:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/?p=4114"},"modified":"2010-03-25T08:28:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T12:28:26","slug":"finding-a-name-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2010\/03\/25\/finding-a-name-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a word for God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Adam<\/a>
Adam Martin chats with some Akolet men.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What word do you use for God?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re translating the Bible, you can often simply use \u201cGod.\u201d That word was introduced to the English language, after all, and many tribal people have heard the word and have some familiarity with God. Although it\u2019s often a flawed and shallow understanding, that can be corrected by clear Bible teaching.<\/p>\n

But in some languages God means something else. In other cases, the word carries absolutely no meaning. And that\u2019s what Adam and Julie Martin faced while working with the language of the Akolet people of Papua New Guinea. Akolets just drew a blank when they talked with them about using that word.<\/p>\n

So then the Martins looked at the Akolets\u2019 stories. In the traditional stories of many cultures there is a creator or other powerful being that perhaps reflects an ancient knowledge of the true God. While the picture in traditional tales is never perfect, clear Bible teaching can usually correct that problem as well.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not that far-fetched. In the language from which English gets the word God, the word has pagan origins.<\/p>\n

But when Adam and Julie looked at the traditional stories of the Akolet people, they found no spirits or beings whose name they could use. All the spirits of the Akolets had too many negatives.<\/p>\n

So what would they call God?<\/p>\n

Turns out the perfect term was hidden in an obscure place in the Akolet language. There\u2019s a verb in Akolet that no one uses. No one uses it because it means to make something out of nothing, and no one can do that.<\/p>\n

No one but God, that is.<\/p>\n

Adam and Julie decided that Ker Etolingka<\/em> — our Creator — was an excellent name to use to introduce the Akolet people to God.<\/p>\n

This month Adam and Julie expect to begin teaching Akolets to read and write, in preparation for teaching through God\u2019s Word. Please pray that several people learn to read and write well, so they can help share God\u2019s Word with others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What word do you use for God? When you\u2019re translating the Bible, you can often simply use \u201cGod.\u201d That word was introduced to the English language, after all, and many tribal people have heard the word and have some familiarity with God. Although it\u2019s often a flawed and shallow understanding, that can be corrected by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29],"class_list":{"0":"post-4114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"tag-bible","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}