Looks like Gideon has some Competición

Looks like Gideon has some Competición

After the Partners in Science conference was over, I moved from the superlative Hilton on Mission Bay to a serviceable but forgettable hotel down the street. It was fine, but primarily used as just a place to rest our weary heads between aventuras. Probably the highlight of our stay there was waking up to the sound of parrots squawking in the adjacent palm trees—something you just don’t experience in the Pacific Northwest.

I did make a discovery in our room, however. We’re accustomed to finding a Gideon’s Bible resting in the top drawer of the night table or dresser, and this hotel was no exception. There it was, crisp and unused, yet reassuring in a funny way. It’s a piece of Americana, of traveling tradition. But this time there was a twist. Not only was there good ‘ol Gideon’s Bible, but another book was sitting on TOP of the dresser. This one was completely unfamiliar.

It was called Jing Si Aphorisms, and was a small book of verses; about 240 in all. But these were not Bible verses, they were Buddhist. Well, since I know just about nothing about Buddhism, I’ll leave it at that: 240 aphorisms which, according to my online diccionario, are “terse sayings that embody general truths.”

The thing that caught my eye about the handsome little book, however, was that it stated each aphorism in four different languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, and Spanish. This was a Twenty-first Century Gideon’s Bible: positive and multicultural. I flipped through it, not so much to gain enlightenment but to compare the English to Spanish.  Here are a few examples:

If we can reduce our desires,

There is nothing really worth getting upset about.

Si logramos diminuir nuestros deseos,

No hay nada por lo que realmente valga la pena enfadarse.

Or how about:

The beauty of a group lies in the refinement of its individuals.

La belleza de un grupo está en el refinamiento de los individuos.

General truths are universal. The previous one has been expressed, I’m sure, in a Spanish proverbio; and the following one sounds extremely Biblical:

It is more of a blessing to serve others than to be served.

Es mayor bendición servir a otros que ser servido.

But let’s not leave Gideon’s Bible completely out, it also contains a lot of universal truths (as well as some slightly bizarre stories.) In fact, observing that Jing Si employs multiple languages makes me consider this world full of many tongues and the Biblical story of The Tower of Babel. At the beginning of this leyenda, it was said that the entire world spoke the same language (Hebrew?) But construction of the great tower somehow threatened God, and He responded by causing everyone to be unable to understand each other:

Genesis 11: 7

“Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”NIV

Génesis 11:7

Vamos, bajemos y allí confundamos su lengua, para que nadie entienda el lenguaje del otro.

Bible literalists consider this to be an historic event that marks the beginning of the different languages on Earth. Can you imagine a bunch of Babylonian workers suddenly incapable of communication because each one suddenly spoke a different language? One guy says something in Arabic, but his confused coworker responds in Italian. A third guy interrupts using Ebonics. A final guy says “It’s all Greek to me.” Well, linguists would have a much different explanation, but let’s not even start that discussion. Suffice it to say that the good folks that donate the Gideon’s Bibles may want to take a look at the Jing Si format, and consult with their publishers about an updated version. America reads more than just English these days.