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b-hebrew - The call for concordant translations (was Chapter)

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  • From: Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>
  • To: list b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: The call for concordant translations (was Chapter)
  • Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 23:11:54 +0800


Rolf Furuli wrote:

> I wonder why Peter, who is also a competent Bible translator, and yourself
> draw the conclusion that
> the literal translation I discuss, is for people who know Greek and Hebrew.
> Here in Oslo I know scores of people, young and old who want to understand
> the meaning of the details in the Bible, but who do not know the original
> languages. I am sure there are many similar people all over the world.

Rolf,

Of course, I cannot speak for Peter. But from my point of view, a purely
concordant
translation like you describe would fall seriously short in helping someone
who has no
biblical language skills in "understand[ing] the meaning of the details in the
Bible." It would open the distinct probability of misunderstanding of
concepts
expressed by the chosen "translations," and it would not even begin to
explain how the
meaning and significance of words change in different forms and in different
contexts.

As you have stated, there is no 100% overlap of concepts between words in
different
languages. So, even though the stated purpose of the translation is to allow
the
reader to see the word used in the original through a distinct translation,
that
reader will become misled when the concept in the original language does not
equate
with the concept in the target language. And this is assuming that the
selection of
translations corresponds one-for-one with the original vocabulary, that the
same word
is not used to translate two different words. That, Rolf, is an
impossibility in many
languages. The language in which I do most of my work has a definite paucity
of
prepositions--the word used for "to, towards" is the same word as used for
"from." It
is also used for "at" and "by" and many other concepts. And there are no
other
options!

As far as falling short in explaining different forms and different contexts,
how
would a concordant translation handle the meaning changes resulting from the
use of a
root in different stems. Some of these even change the word into antonyms!
And the
use of a word with a preposition many times brings out a characteristic of
the word
that is normally de-emphasized. A person with no biblical language
background would
not have the tools to understand this.

Since such a "translation" would have too many shortfalls for a person without
biblical language skills, I would see it only truly benefitting those who
actually do
have the skills. And I repeat that the benefit is too small to warrant the
effort of
developing it. In fact, I recall an evaluation of NT portion of the
translation you
chose as the "literal" translation. The reviewer reported that it was very
similar to
what would be put out by a person with about half a year's worth of beginning
Greek
and a simple lexicon. When we think about how many hours a student must
study after
that point to understand the structures of a text, how can you expect a
person with no
Greek or Hebrew to benefit greatly without a guide?

If what you are looking for is a tool that allows a non-student of the
biblical
languages to gain insight in the significances of the original vocabulary,
there are
already a number of those out there. I can recall many hours spent with
Strong's
Exhaustive doing just that! And I didn't have to search the entire OT
through looking
for the occurances of a particular English word.

BTW, what is the term for the smaller divisions of the new Euro? I wanted to
use the
equivalent of the American phrase, "This is my 2ยข worth."

Paul
--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer AT faith.edu.ph








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