[b-hebrew] NWT's approach of consistent translation

Peter Kirk peter at qaya.org
Fri Nov 18 07:18:04 EST 2005


On 18/11/2005 08:48, Rolf Furuli wrote:

>...
>
>According to the foreword of the NWT New Testament from 1950 three factors 
>were behind the choice of Jehovah in cases where NT manuscripts from the 
>second century C.E. and forward have KURIOS, 1) quotes from the OT, 2) New 
>Testaments in Hebrew using Jehovah, and 3) the context. In *all* cases where 
>Jehovah is found in the NWT New Testament one or more of these factors are 
>behind the choice. Theology *must* be an important factor in Bible 
>translation. We cannot translate a text we do not understand, and a part, 
>often a great part of this understanding is theology. One can disagree with 
>the theology of the NWT translators, but to claim that they are inconsistent 
>to their own translation principles in their choices of Jehovah in the NT is 
>false witness.
>
>  
>
I agree that "Theology *must* be an important factor in Bible 
translation". But, Rolf, you also wrote of translators of idiomatic 
versions:

>Such translators  interpret the text to a much greater extent than those who make the literal translation, and much more theology is introduced in such a translation
>

In the light of "Theology *must* be an important factor in Bible 
translation", is this a criticism? But I know of no idiomatic 
translations which have introduced theology to the extent of using it to 
determine whether KURIOS should be translated as a divine title. So I 
wonder the translation which introduces "much more theology" is in fact NWT.

-- 
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/




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