translation challenge – Page 2 – God Didn't Say That

Translation Challenge: Joseph, Pharaoh, and the Servants’ Heads

The Joseph narrative is brilliantly written in a way that few translations capture. One example comes when Joseph, having been thrown in jail, is asked to interpret the dreams of two of Pharaohs’ servants — the butler and the baker — who have also been imprisoned. First comes the butler, and Joseph has good news…
Read more

JoelMHoffman January 13, 2011 8

Love is What Love Does: On 1 Corinthians 13

The first 13 verses of 1 Corinthians 13 form an extended poetic passage about love. As with all stylistic prose, this text is difficult to translate well. In particular, verses 4-7 present a challenge to the translator, because in those verses “love” is personified through 15 Greek verbs that describe what love does. (As an…
Read more

JoelMHoffman June 27, 2010 5

Translation Challenge: The Truth Will Set You Free

John 8:32 — “the truth will set you free” (i alitheia eleutherosei umas) — is one of the most well known lines in the Bible. The key words are pretty easy to translate. The Greek alitheia is “truth” and eleutherow is the verb “to free.” So even thought we might prefer “the truth will free…
Read more

JoelMHoffman June 9, 2010 10

Growing Old and Fat in God’s Courtyard

Psalm 92:12 begins a series of verses that compare the righteous to trees: the people, like Palm trees, will blossom and flourish. They will be planted in God’s courtyard. And they will grow old and fat. What’s going on is this: In antiquity, most people didn’t get enough calories to live. Today (in the U.S.…
Read more

JoelMHoffman May 7, 2010 8

Translation Challenge: Song of Solomon

In keeping with the spirit of spring, here’s another post on the Song of Solomon, this time addressing how hard it is to translate the romantic imagery there. Here are two translation challenges: Fragrant Oils Verse 1:3 is supposed to express the physical beauty of the male hero of Song of Solomon, but translations like…
Read more

JoelMHoffman March 25, 2010 17

Translation Challenge: Isaiah 28:16

My last post was in response to a question about the final verb in Isaiah 18:26. In my opinion, the really beautiful poetry in that verse lies in the verbal repetition in the middle. Here’s a guide to the Hebrew: lachen ko amar adonai YHWH so thus said Adonai God hin’ni yisad b’tzion aven I…
Read more

JoelMHoffman January 14, 2010 9

Translation Challenge: Psalm 17:8

The text of Psalm 17:8 brilliantly combines two Hebrew expressions, pairing both their meaning and their underlying semantic basis: shomreini k’ishun bat-ayin//b’tzel k’nafecha tastireini, that is, “guard-me like-a-dark-spot of daughter-of-eye//in-the-shadow of your-wings hide-me.” The first expression is “keep me like the pupil of your eye,” almost universally rendered, “keep me like the apple of your…
Read more

JoelMHoffman October 16, 2009 5

Translation Challenge: Psalm 2:2

Psalm 2:2 exhibits particularly clever structure, with meanings that form chiasmus and word combinations that pattern in straight parallelism. The Hebrew reads: yityats’vu malchei erets//v’roznim nosdu yachdav. Yityatsvu means the about same thing as nosdu yachdav, and malchei eretz is like roznim. That’s the chiasmus. But equally, each line has three words, and both times…
Read more

JoelMHoffman October 13, 2009 8

Category: translation challenge