Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Reinier de Blois" <r.de.blois AT solcon.nl>]

Dear Philip,

I think you should phrase the question differenty. Most Bible
translation organizations in the world translate from the MT, but keep
an eye open for other traditions in cases where there are textual
problems. So there is no law that says they have to stick to the MT in
each and every verse of the OT. And I'm glad, because there are places
where the MT is simply untranslatable.

Most organizations, however, work together with local churches. There
are cases, especially in eastern Europe where churches have requested
that the Old Testament be translated with the LXX as textual basis. This
was a problem at first for the UBS, because it used to be our policy to
always use the MT as the textual basis. We had to change our policy
somewhat to be able to deal with exceptional cases like this.

There are various Bible translation organizations in the world:

- Wycliffe Bible Translators (with Summer Institute of Linguistics)
- United Bible Societies (working through local Bible societies in
different countries)
- Pioneer Bible Translators
- Lutheran Bible Translators
- International Bible Translators
- Trinitarian Bible Society
- and a few other, smaller, organizations

I don't know the ground rules of each of these organizations. As Peter
said, you will have to ask them. I believe that most of them prefer to
work from the MT. In cases of textual problems most organizations are
open to borrowing from other traditions. The only organization I know
that is strongly against that is the Trinitarian Bible Society.

By the way, there are some people working on a translation of the LXX
into English somewhere. I believe it is called New English Translation
of the Septuagint (NETS).

Best wishes,

Reinier de Blois

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org 
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of 
> Philip Engmann
> Sent: dinsdag 22 juni 2004 15:03
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [b-hebrew] MT for most OT Translations?
> 
> 
>  
>  
> Let me re-phrase;
>  
> 1.    How many different BIBLE TRANSLATION societies or organizations
> there are in the world and 
> 2.    Which ones translate the MT and which ones translate the LXX?
>  
> Thank you.
>  
> Philip Engmann
>  
>  
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