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  • From: peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu, furuli AT online.no
  • Subject: Re[3]: Bible translations
  • Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 18:06:05 -0500


Dear Rolf,

You wrote:

(1) You as a logical thinker do not see that to translate a proper name
with another word with a huge load of connotations do not meet my
definition of bias based on linguistics. I am simply breathless.

Just because a word was once a proper name does not mean that it is
always used only as a proper name. Take for example "sandwich". This
word is derived from the name of the Earl of Sandwich, a man whose
name came from a town in England. Would you be "simply breathless" if
I translated "sandwich" into Russian (Norwegian is similar, if I
remember rightly) as "buterbrod"? Arguably, in just the same way
"gehenna" was used as a common noun in its New Testament occurrences
and should be translated with an equivalent common noun. I accept that
there is a problem here with possibly misleading connotations, but
unfortunately every word may have that unless it is a completely
meaningless transliteration. I think the translation "soul" for NEPE$
which you approved of is at least as serious in terms of misleading
connotations like "soulful" and "soul music".

(2) You as a responsible Bible translator feel it is correct to force upon
the unaware reader a particular theological viewpoint therough translation,
something that he or she has no possibility to know.

I "feel it is correct" to represent faithfully to readers, as far as
possible, the thinking, the theology if you like, of the author of the
Bible passage in question, or in this case of Jesus whose spoken words
concerning "gehenna" are quoted. The reader is not forced to read the
Bible, but the one who chooses to do so should expect to learn the
theology of its authors. I accept that this particular theological
point is debatable, but the translators had to make a decision and
made a responsible one. Many of the translations you quoted mark the
debatable occurrences of "gehenna" with a footnote indicating an
alternative understanding as a place name.

Peter Kirk





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