World Cup Blogs 3: Belgium

Continuing to blog reflections on the 32 nations represented at this summer's World Cup in Russia I come to the first, alphabetically, that I have set foot in - Belgium.  

We are driving to Belgium this summer and it is very striking that it is less miles away than when we drive to Liverpool.  In this year Belgium figures in the great commemoration of a hundred years since the 1918 Armistice Day. Beneath its soil lie thousands of remains that testify to the madness of the 20th century wars.  It is not surprising that Belgium (which also had post-colonial connections to the Congo Crisis in the 1960s and the troubled lands of Burundi and Rwanda) should have a strong official bent toward peace.

Belgium, moreover, is an amalgam - or rather an accommodation - of two very different cultures (Dutch and French) with even a little of Germany added as a result of the First World war settlement.  This duality (plus the German corner) makes for a strangely divided yet relatively historic country - they have a a fine football team at the moment so they might have plenty of reasons for unity as the World Cup begins.

So the more successful they are, the more often we'll hear the Belgian National Anthem.  In its National Day form it has alternate lines in Dutch, German and French.  The last three lines of the verse usually sung is a repeat (Eng. King, Law and Freedom!).  After a very brief look I think you will guess which of the three languages this line was first written in  . .

Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht!

Gesetz und König und die Freiheit hoch!

Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté!

Today, on Pentecost Sunday this perfectly illustrates the difficulties of translation, and this is very relevant to the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised Him in John chapter 14.  Jesus spoke Aramaic, a form of Hebrew but the New Testament was penned in Greek and the word used was paracletos.

And in English?

Advocate (New International Version)

Comforter (King James Version)

Helper (English Standard Version)

Companion (Common English Bible)

Counsellor (Revised Standard Version)

Paraclete (Douay-Rheims)  [which of course is not English but a transliteration]

If the Belgian National Anthem is a clue that its nation is very varied, then perhaps the attempts to translate paracletos are a sign that the Holy Spirit is God with us in amazing and varied ways, something to be celebrated on this Pentecost Day by people of every language, tribe and tongue.