On Literal Translations – A Quick Note
A post by Polycarp on his blog calls into question John Piper’s demand for a translation “that has all the words.”
I frequently find it useful to look at modern languages to see how valid a particular approach to translation is. For example, if I’m translating from French into English, which would I prefer?
- How you call you?
- How you call yourself?
- How do you call yourself?
- What’s your name?
I started with the French, Comment vous appelez-vous? which is how one asks, “what’s you name?” in France.
More On Parallel Passages
On Thursday, I posted about the English translations of near-parellel passages in Mark and Matthew. It got me thinking about Chronicles, which frequently quotes other books such as Kings. II Chronicles 6:1-5, for example, seems to be an update (grammatically and in terms of spelling) of I Kings 8:12-16.
In particular, I Kings 8:15 and II Chronicles 6:4 are identical in Hebrew except in spelling and that the former has yado (“his hand”) where the latter has yadav (“his hands”) — and this, too, may originally have been a matter of spelling.
Still, in most translations the English (for identical Hebrew!) doesn’t match, even in the “word by word” translations.
Do you think this is a problem?
Comparison of Translations
(Differences are marked with italics, except for the KJV which is too different for that to be practical.)
| I Kings 8:15 | II Chronicles 6:4 | |
| KJV | And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying, | And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, |
| NIV | Then he said: “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David. For he said, | Then he said: “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David. For he said, |
| NRSV | He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hand* has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying, | And he said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hand* has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying, | NAB | He said to them: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and by his hand has brought it to fulfillment. It was he who said, | He said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth made a promise to my father David and by his own hands brought it to fulfillment. He said: |
| NLT | “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. | “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has kept the promise he made to my father, David. For he told my father, |
(*) The English is the same but the Hebrew is different.
From AGS-
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