Black Pearls in the Bible. A case-study of "Rabbuni" in Applied Linguistics.

The Bible translated into a few thousands languages constitutes the most powerful mind-shaping book . It is a literary text, global cultural phenomenon and religious text recited in synagogues and used for Christian liturgies. For translators, a very challenging Ancient text due to its enormous complexity.

In my project I challenge the Under-translated “Rabbuni”- a real biblical black pearl used only twice: by Bartholomew in the Gospel of Mark and by Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of John . I explore “Rabbuni” uttered by Mary Magdalene , the key female protagonist chosen by Jesus as His beloved disciple and a messenger . She was also acknowledged the most honourable title in the Catholic Church as the Apostle of Apostles and a saint. The title reserved only to “crème de la crème”.

Being a gospeller in the Liturgy, I was dissatisfied with the translation offered so far. Inspired by a newly emerging interdisciplinary field called genetic biblical translation I apply parallel intralingual texts: the current Missal and the Lectionary . But also, a mystic ‘Dairy” by a Polish contemporary female mystic Faustina , also acknowledged the title of a saint representing the so-called Love /Passion mystique in female Western Christian mysticism who experienced human-Divine encounters with Jesus who called her His secretary and a messenger. I was curious to find out how those two female Catholic saints address “their Master”.

To challenge the huge translation gap I am using my own authorian mixed-method interdisciplinary approach, creative transposition and case-study methods for more quality credible and responsible research . I invite other researchers and translators globally for the quest of the Truth.

Key words: Rabbuni, translating Sacrum, genetic biblical translation, creative transposition, intralingual parallel texts, Western Christian Female Love/Passion mysticism; case-study, applied linguistics