The French Bible In MP3 Audio Format

You can now listen to the French Bible online- http://www.bibvoice.org/fr.ls1910.index.html#a40

Translation: John 1:1-3

Today we want to introduce our  first translation of John’s Prologue . We will look closely the first 3 verses: John 1:1-3 (Jean 1:1-3).

Jean 1

Verse 1   Au commencement était la Parole, et la Parole était avec Dieu, et la Parole était Dieu.  

Verse 2   Elle était au commencement avec Dieu.  

Verse 3  Toutes choses ont été faites par elle, et rien de ce qui a été fait n’a été fait sans elle           

Nouns

commencement (beginning)

parole (word)

Dieu (God)

choses (things)

 Verbs

était  (was; it is the past tense [imparfait in French] form of the verb [être = to be)

ont été faites ( could be translated three ways: 1) came into being, 2) was made, 3) was done.  ont été faites, as it appears,  is a compound tense, a combination of the past tense of the verb être and the past participle of faire [to make, to do, or bring into existence]. Notice here, ont ete faites is 3rd person plural and have for its subject choses ( a plural noun). Its singular form is a été fait

 articles

la (the; it is the feminine form of le).

 adjectives

rien (nothing, apart)

 adverbs/prepositions/conjunction

avec (with)

par (by)

sans (without)

au (in)

et (and)

de (of)

side notes

verbs – underlined

adverbs/prepositions/conjunction – in bold  

Translation & Syntactical notes-

 Verse 1Au commencement était la Parole, In   [ the ] beginning  was the word, Notes-

• the definite article is absent in the French translation before “commencement” (beginning).

 et    la   Parole était avec Dieu, and the word   was  with God,  et  la      Parole était Dieu.              and the word    was God. Verse 2 Elle était au commencement avec Dieu.

            She was in  [the] beginning with God

 Notes-

• Elle is a personal pronoun standing in the place of Parole ( word = a feminine noun by gender). Therefore it is best translated as “She” not “he” as it appears in our English translation.

Verse 3 Toutes choses ont été faites       par   elle,

All        things  came into being  by   her (Him)

 Notes– elle before par substitutes for parole in verse 2. We rightly translate it as her instead of him.  et         rien        de ce qui a été fait n’a été fait and     nothing /apart         that    came into (being)                                         

               sans    elle.

               without her .

 Notes-the second part of verse 3 is not easy to translate in English. We could simply translate it as : “and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being”

Accent Marks 1

Accent marks are important for three reasons. They deal with: 1) the spelling, 2) the pronunciation, and 3) the meaning of words. Therefore it is of vital importance to learn the accent marks represented in the French language.  There are 5 accent marks in the French language: four placed on the following vowels  a, e, o, u, ,i  and one for the consonant c .

 The accent aigu (´  ) is placed on E and lets you know to pronounce an e as the english word a (i.e. date). 

Examples : éléphant , Sénégal, étudiant

The accent grave (` ) is placed over an a, e, or u. This particular accent is used to make distinction between words. Observe the following example : ou (or) vs où (where ; also denotes a location or place).

Examples: zèbre, élève ( the grave accent is placed on the second e).

 The accent circonflexe (^) is very flexible and can appear relatively on any vowel.  It is used to  indicate that an s used to follow that vowel and is placed on a, e, e, o, or u.Examples :  forêt, pâté, île, hôtel, flûte 

The tréma (¨) is used normally when two vowels appear next to each other. The trema on the second vowel indicates to pronounce each vowel separately.  Examples :  naïve, Saül, Haïti.

 The cécédille (¸) is only found under a c, indicating to pronounce the c like an s.  When the cécédille is used under a c it alters the hard sound K to a soft C sound.Examples: français,  ça, garçon 

Language note-Accent marks are not placed on capital letters in French. île (Ile), état (Etats-Unis) 

The French Alphabet

The French alphabet looks the same as the English Alphabet. The only difference is in the pronunciation.

A                     as in astronaute (astronaut)

B                      as in banana or bébé (baby)

C                     as in croissant

D                     as in deux (two) or dessert

E                      as in Europe or leçon (lesson)

F                      as in fille (girl)         

G                     as in giraffe

H                     as in hélicoptère (helicopter) or huit (eight)

I                       as in igloo

J                       as in jeu (game)

K                     as in kilo or kangourou

L                      as in livre (book) or lion

M                     as in microscope or maison (house)

N                     as in Nöel

 O                     as in orange

P                      as in parachute

Q                     as in quatre (four)

R                      as in rose

S                      as in serpent or soupe

T                      as in table (table) or trompette

U                     as in uniforme or univers

V                     as in violette or voyage

W                    as in wagon or western

X                     as in extra or xylophone

 

Y                     as in yeux (eyes) or yo-yo

 

Z                      as in zèbre

Language note-

I strongly encourage you to learn to pronounce the alphabet correctly, especially the vowels. Learning to pronouce it rightly will increase your reading ability. Repeat the letters several times, make flash cards and use them.   

* I am working on the sound which I hope to include later for each letter respectively.

Tips for studying French

I thought I would share some tips on learning the French language which I normally share with my first year students. Even though you are studying French for reading knowledge; however you might find these tips very helpful to you (I hope).

Listening

• Careful listening is a major part in learning a new language. Listen carefully to what is going on in class. Pay close attention to (your professor’s) pronunciation. Ask questions if you don’t understand. Don’t be afraid to ask your professor to repeat the word so you know exactly how to say/pronounce it.

Speak

• If you are serious about learning French (beyond reading knowledge) you ought to practice speaking French every day. Speak French to your teachers and classmates. Don’t be afraid to make silly mistakes (Who care?). After all French is not your native tongue. Although most students of theology will find this aspect of the target language unhelpful since they only need to acquire the reading knowledge of French.

Practice

• Students of language have an idea about the art of practicing. You know that from taking Greek & Hebrew in seminary?  The fact is this –Guys learning a new language requires practice and repetition. It is like to play a sport or an instrument.

Reading

• Start reading French on your own. Don’t wait for your professor to give you reading assignment. You can go online and try to read French (I will link you to some useful sites). It will be worth it to buy a French Bible (Louis Segond version is a very good translation). I was able to get a French Bible for only $ 8.00 from lifeway Christian stores (www.lifeway.com).  Start with the Gospel of John. It is the easiest one to start with and read.

Organize

• As you learn French, your memory is going to be stretched out, so it is critically important to know how to organize your material efficiently. Look for Cognates ( Cognates are words that look similar and have the same meaning in French and English (i.e. chocolat, musique, vacances, etc).  Once you recognize which words are cognates, you can then spend more of your time studying the words that are not.

Have Fun!

• Learning French can be fun and frustrating. You are the Boss! Determine if you are going to make this beautiful language an enjoying experience.

Au revoir (Bye Bye)

  

Theological French blog

Theological French/Français théologique is created to teach students of theology to read theological French and improve their French Grammar so they might be able to read their Bible in French and read theological material in the target language.  The following are the topics we will attempt to cover in the coming posts:

Part I- The French Language (La langue francaise)

·     The French alphabet

·        Accent marks

·        Numbers

·        Punctuation and Syllabification

Part II- Nouns (Les noms)

·        French Nouns

·        Articles

·        Adjectives

·        Negation

·        Contractions

·        Prepositions

·        Demonstrative Pronouns

·        Personal Pronouns

·        Relative Pronouns

Part III-Verbs (Les verbes)

·        French Verbs

·        Subject Pronouns

·        Present Active Indicative

·        Past Tense

·        Future Tense

·        Conditional mood

·        Subjunctive mood  

Side note-

As we’re walking through the language together we will also translate the Gospel of John verse by verse (because it is very easy to translate). We will also post daily vocabulary from various biblical books or authors (i.e. Gospels, Johannine writings, Pauline letters, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Peter, etc). However, since the Gospel of John is easy to read both in Greek and French we will begin our translation with the fourth Gospel. Drills will be included pertaining to each studied lesson. We will also include several useful links. A little about Me-I married to Katia . Together we have two sons: Terrence and Joshua. Presently I teach French in High School for Henry County Schools in Georgia. I look forward to doing Ph.D. in New Testament Studies.  Linguistically speaking, I am trilingual (Haitian Creole, French, English). I hold a B.A. in Theology (Baptist College of Florida); M.A. in French Language & Literature (University of Louisville); M. Div. in Theology (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), and a Th. M. in New Testament ( Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary).  I have another blog, Christ, My Righteousness ( http://lou9587.blogspot.com)

Buckle up your seat belts let’s learn the language spoken in heaven:) 

Bienvenue!