According to the Religion Newswriters Association, Bible translation stories were among the top 10 religion stories of 2011. The RNA singled out three events that contributed to the prominence of Bible translations in the news this past year: Celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the King James Version. There’s no doubt that the King James…
Read more
There is something intuitively appealing about a translation that takes the Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible and translates each one into English. But the premise behind such an approach is flawed, because words work together differently in different languages. Here’s a simple example from Genesis 29:19: vayomer lavan tov titi ota lach mititi…
Read more
Isaiah 54:7 — part of the incredibly uplifting poetry of Isaiah 54 — has two parallel phrases, both starting with the Hebrew b-. First we find b- attached to rega (“moment”), and then next attached to rachamim (“mercy” or “love” or “compassion”). The effect is to underscore the contrast between God abandoning for a moment…
Read more
An article in World Magazine discusses Wycliffe‘s recent debate about how to translate “Son of God” and “God the Father” into Arabic for Muslim audiences, noting that “in Muslim contexts,” a literal translation “implies that God had sexual relations with Mary” — at least according to some translators. Therefore, Wycliffe’s translations have at times resorted…
Read more
The latest round of reporting on the LifeWay Bible-preference poll addresses the theme of gender-neutral translations, with headlines like, “Study: Bible readers oppose gender-inclusive translations” (from the Associated Baptist Press). What I find interesting here is that the poll specifically explained that some Greek and Hebrew terms refer to “people in general,” and the question…
Read more
According to a recent report by Lifeway Research, described by David Roach in the Baptist Press, “most American Bible readers … value accuracy over readability,” which is why they “prefer word-for-word translations of the original Greek and Hebrew over thought-for-thought translations.” There is overwhelming evidence and near universal agreement among linguists that word-for-word translations are…
Read more
Recent posts from my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives:
