Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

On 14/08/2003 15:24, Bill Rea wrote:

> As a rank-and-file church-goer with no special responsibilities I see
> ``translations'' going further and further away from the original texts.
> We now have the situation when originality of expression in the target
> language is valued over faithfulness to the original.  There are
> ``translations'' on the market which are paraphrases but are labelled
> ``translations'' purely for marketing purposes.  ...
Which ones? You are making serious allegations. I would like to see some 
evidence.

> ... A person who reads a DE
> translation or a paraphrase trusts the translator(s)/paraphraser(s) to
> have understood the text and correctly rendered in into English. But they
> ought to do that knowing full well they have abicated a significant
> portion of their responsibility to understand the text to someone else. ...
Indeed they have. By choosing to read a translation rather than the 
original text, they have abdicated the responsibility to understand the 
text to the translators and trusted them to render the meaning of the 
text in the language which they prefer to read. It is simply impossible 
to translate without understanding the text. And if the preferred 
language is English, there is a wide choice of translations so readers 
can choose whichever translators they trust.

> ... What you have today are many Bible versions which are striving to
> differentiate themselves from others on the market ...
Mostly by competing claims that they are the best for everyone. I wish 
they would differentiate themselves by defining their target audiences.

> ... and often overtly
> slanted to a particular theological persuasion. ...
Again, which ones are you talking about? I hope you are not confusing 
Bible versions with editions complete with study notes. For example you 
might find that the "Reformed Study Bible" and the "Spirit-Filled Life 
Bible" have the same text, just different notes.

> ... A purchaser has the right
> to know what they're buying. But some Bible publishers are deliberately
> misleading purchasers as to what they're getting. ...
Again, which ones?

> ... If Alter stands up
> against it, I say Amen!
>  
But is this what he is doing?

> I bet Alter has give more thought to these matters than most and I think
> you've taken some cheap shots at him. Such as "But any translator who even
> thinks about their target audience will realise that in general they do
> not know the source language." Yeah, right, sure, cheap shot Peter.
>  
OK, I'm sure Alter does realise this. I know of some translators who 
seem to forget it.

> And how about this gem:-
>
>  
>
> > But it totally fails to communicate the intended message to its
> > target audience.
> >    
>
> Perhaps you ought to stop and think why the KJV is still quite popular.
> The KJV brought a lot of Hebrew idiom and even word order in to the
> English language. It did not and does not totally fail to communicate.
> Quite the opposite, it was a shaper of the English Language.
>  
Well, I wasn't referring to the KJV. But I can quite easily find 
passages in KJV (though more easily in the New Testament) which are 
quite incomprehensible. As for KJV being a shaper of the English 
language, I see that as a bad  thing rather than a good one. The 
language had to be distorted out of its natural shape so that people 
could understand KJV.

As for why KJV is still popular, if it still is outside traditionalist 
congregations, perhaps that is partly because it is not well understood. 
It seems easy to obey a command "Thou shalt not covet" when you don't 
know what "covet" means except that it's something you shouldn't do to 
your neighbour's ass. It's a bit more uncomfortable to have to obey "No 
lusting after your neighbor's house - or wife or servant or maid or ox 
or donkey. Don't set your heart on anything that is your neighbor's"  
(The Message).

If  anyone is interested  in further discussion on Bible translation, 
see the list at  http://www.geocities.com/bible_translation/list/.

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