A pizzeria in Eilat, Israel, offers plain pizza and “pizza with fungus,” according to the large English menu at the restaurant. Of course they meant not “fungus” but “mushrooms.” Unfortunately, the modern Hebrew for both English words are the same. What went wrong here is mostly a matter of connotation. While mushrooms are indeed a…
Read more
Scot McKnight suggests that, “The sweeping conclusion is this: unless you can read the original languages, you should avoid making public pronouncements about which translation is best.” (emphasis his). This is yet another example of a fundamental dilemma in translation: the only people capable of doing translation don’t need it. More importantly, the only people…
Read more
Recent posts from my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives:
