Thanks to Naomi of Storahtelling for pointing out this ancient (mid-first-millennium AD) thought about translation, from the Babylonian Talmud (Kiddushin 49a): Rabbi Judah said: One who translates a verse according to its form is a liar; and one who adds anything commits blasphemy and sacrilege. (my translation from the Aramaic) Plus ça change…
The KJV translation of the OT mentions unicorns nine times and dragons over 30 times — translations that go back to the LXX, which features the monokeros (“one-horn”) and the drakon. The Hebrew words behind these animals — r’em and tanin, respectively — are more obscure. But the real question, in seems to me, is…
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Who says homosexuality is a sin? The NLT does, right there in its “translation” to Leviticus 18:22: “Do not practice homosexuality; it is a detestable sin.” But that’s not what the Hebrew says, and I’ve put the word “translation” in scare quotes because I think that what the NLT has here is an interpretation, not…
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Anthony asks on the About page: I have a question about Heb 3:13. When it says “exhort yourselves,” is the Greek literally saying “you all exhort each other” or “you all exhort your own selves,” supporting Galatians 6:4? Would the expression in question be parakaleite eautous? Yes, that is the Greek, and it’s a great…
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Sometimes it seems that translators look too closely at individual words, only asking “how do I say this ancient word in English?” rather than asking “how do I translate this text into English?” I think this flawed approach comes in part from ignorance, but also from the religious tradition that each word has meaning. So…
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A question arrived via e-mail about the different Hebrew verbs that mean “create” or “make” and how they relate to “peace.” There are three Biblical Hebrew verbs that all mean roughly the same thing: asah, yatzar, and bara. Later Jewish thought would differentiate them, giving asah the most basic meaning (like “do” or “make” in…
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Perhaps the biggest translation mistake I’ve seen is relying too closely on word-internal structure to figure out what words mean. We saw this last week with toldot and in a comment regarding etymology. I call this the trap “word-internal structure” (even though it applies to phrases, too). English As usual, we can look at modern…
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From the about page comes a question about the Hebrew word toldot: I ran across Genesis 6:9 in the TNIV, which says “this is the account of Noah and his family.” Ive checked the KJV, NIV, NASB, ESV, Message, Luthers translation (1545), the Amplified Bible, the NLT, and the Leningrad Codex for good measure. Only…
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Last month, Bill Mounce, C. Michael Patton, and Clayboy all alluded to the issue of etymology, which is surely one of the biggest translation traps (and important enough that I devote considerable attention to it in my And God Said). Etymology is really fun. Tracing a word’s winding history, seeing how meanings mutated, and learning…
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