Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Bible translation

The Importance of Dignified Translations

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Translating is complicated because it involves so many factors. One factor is dignity. And that’s not the strength of some translations or paraphrases.

Three examples:

1. 1 Samuel 20:30a

  • וַיִּחַר־אַף שָׁאוּל בִּיהוֹנָתָן וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ בֶּן־נַעֲוַת הַמַּרְדּוּת
  • NASB (cf. KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ESV, HCSB, NIV): Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!”
  • NET: Saul became angry with Jonathan and said to him, “You stupid traitor!”
    • Translator’s note: Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.
  • NLT: Saul boiled with rage at Jonathan. “You stupid son of a whore!” he swore at him.
  • The Message: Saul exploded in anger at Jonathan: “You son of a slut!”
  • Original Living Bible: Saul boiled with rage. “You son of a bitch!” he yelled at him.

2. Acts 8:20

  • Πέτρος δὲ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν· τὸ ἀργύριόν σου σὺν σοὶ εἴη εἰς ἀπώλειαν ὅτι τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνόμισας διὰ χρημάτων κτᾶσθαι·
  • NASB (cf. RSV, NRSV, ESV, NET): But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! [Read more…] about The Importance of Dignified Translations

Thank God for Good Bible Translators and Translations

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These two excerpts from Moisés Silva illustrate some ways that Bible translation is complex:

Silva, Moisés. “Are Translators Traitors? Some Personal Reflections,” in The Challenge of Bible Translation: Communicating God’s Word to the World; Understanding the Theory, History, and Practice: Essays in Honor of Ronald F. Youngblood (ed. Glen G. Scorgie, Mark L. Strauss, and Steven M. Voth; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 37–38 (emphasis added in paragraph 3):

During my student days, while looking over a Spanish theological journal, I happened to notice an article on a topic I knew would be of interest to one of my professors. When I brought it to his attention, he asked me whether I would be willing to translate the essay into English for him. Since Spanish is my mother tongue, he figured I’d be able to come up with a rough translation quite quickly. I thought so, too, but to my surprise, the project became a nightmare. I labored over virtually every sentence and felt burdened that at no point was I communicating in a truly satisfactory manner what I knew to be the “total” meaning of the Spanish. Possibly for the first time I sensed what factors may have motivated the old Italian complaint, Traduttore traditore—“A translator is a traitor.”

This incident was rather puzzling and troubling to me. [Read more…] about Thank God for Good Bible Translators and Translations

Translation and the Doctrine of Inspiration

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Gordon D. Fee and Mark L. Strauss, How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 35–36.

One of the surprising, and from our perspective unfortunate, recent developments in the story of English translations is the reappearance of an old argument that “literal” versions are more compatible with the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of Scripture. We say “old,” because this is precisely what drove Robert Young . . . to produce a version vis-á-vis the KJV (first ed. 1862). . . .

Our first point, then, is that, as with beauty, “literal” is in the eye of the beholder, in this case meaning “in the perception of the user.” This is why we have tried to avoid the word “literal” in this book and have often put it in quote marks when we use it—because those who use it tend to have such a wide range of meanings. Unfortunately, it is also often used in the literature simply as a rhetorical device over against “meaning-based” versions.

Second, much of this rhetoric represents a poor understanding of the doctrine of verbal inspiration, which historically does not refer to the words as “words in themselves,” but “words as they convey meaning.” [Read more…] about Translation and the Doctrine of Inspiration

Reproduce the Meaning

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That’s the goal of Bible translation. If you speak more than one language, then you can easily think of more examples like the ones below.

Gordon D. Fee and Mark L. Strauss, How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 25.

There is a common perception among many Bible readers that the most accurate Bible translation is a “literal” one. By literal they usually mean one that is “word-for-word,” that is, one that reproduces the form of the original Greek or Hebrew text as closely as possible. Yet anyone who has ever studied a foreign language soon learns that this is mistaken. Take, for example, the Spanish sentence, ¿Como se llama? A literal (word-for-word) translation would be, “How yourself call?” Yet any first-year Spanish student knows that is a poor translation. The sentence means (in good idiomatic English) “What’s your name?” The form must be changed to express the meaning.

Consider another example. The German sentence Ich habe Hunger means, literally, “I have hunger.” [Read more…] about Reproduce the Meaning

How to Disagree about Bible Translation Philosophy

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This is a follow-up to my post yesterday about Bible translation.

I’m grateful for different Bible translations on the spectrum from the more formal equivalent (like the NASB) to the more functional equivalent (like the NLT). While a mediating translation like the NIV may be optimal overall, I respect the other translation philosophies and benefit immensely from their translations.

Fee and Strauss, How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth, p. 28

I have a lot of friends who advocate a more formal equivalent philosophy and who prefer the ESV as the all-around optimal translation. I respect that. (The last two churches I’ve been a member of use primarily the ESV, and the one before that uses primarily the NASB.)

This is what I emailed one of those friends yesterday (slightly edited): [Read more…] about How to Disagree about Bible Translation Philosophy

The Best All-Around Book on Bible Translation

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Next month I’m planning to teach a class called “Greek Reading” at Faith Bible Seminary, and they asked me to devote a half-day to the topic of Bible translation.

I’ve spent a good deal of time studying New Testament Greek. For example:

  • I’ve read the Greek New Testament almost daily since 1998.
  • I took ten semesters of Greek in college and seminary (not including many other courses that built on that foundation), finishing with Don Carson’s “Advanced Greek Grammar.”
  • I passed Greek proficiency exams at two seminaries.
  • I graded Greek proficiency exams at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
  • I passed the comprehensive exams that Don Carson wrote for my PhD in NT at Trinity, which requires the student to sight-read the Greek NT.
  • I’ve taught nearly twenty introductory and intermediate semester-long Greek courses on the college and seminary level.
  • I’ve written papers and publications that deal largely with Greek exegesis.

But my knowledge of NT Greek is merely novice-level compared to the best NT professors and Bible translators. Further, I had never thoroughly studied the topic of Bible translation.

This class has given me the opportunity to read over 100 books and articles in my library on Bible translation. As with just about any subject, the more you study it, the more you realize how much you don’t know. (That’s one reason I’m planning to interview Craig Blomberg during class next month.)

I recommend other helpful resources at the end of this post, but one book stands out as the best all-around resource on Bible translation that I’m aware of:

Gordon D. Fee and Mark L. Strauss. How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.

It has at least seven strengths: [Read more…] about The Best All-Around Book on Bible Translation