The Growing Seeds (Mark 4.26-32): Can Growth Be Eco-Sustainably Translated? Some Preliminary Thoughts

Abstract

The emergence of eco-linguistics is a result of the advances in human ecology where interdependencies among different systems (including economic, social, religious, cultural, linguistic, and ecological) are highlighted and explored rather than ignored. Even more importantly, eco-linguistics has been drawing great interest because the consequences of ignoring the ecological embedding of humans are becoming more and more clear. Linguistics inevitably affects many other hermeneutical approaches in diverse fields, including biblical studies. Within this context, language ecology, “the study of interactions between any given language and its environment” (Einar Haugen, 1972), is primarily determined by the people who learn that language, use it, and transmit it to others. This article aims to investigate the connection of language to the notion of “growthism” and how this functions in a specific biblical narrative. Mark 4.26-32 will be examined under an eco-linguistic lens to arrive at a more “eco-friendly” understanding of the passage, as well as potential implications for translation.