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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] History of the Bible

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
  • Cc: hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] History of the Bible
  • Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 21:54:31 +0000

On 05/01/2005 18:01, C. Stirling Bartholomew wrote:

...

Lets take a hypothetical contemporary situation where a woman, an SIL
person, is translating Genesis into one of the Turkic languages. This woman
uses all the computer based tools that SIL provides for their translators
plus commercial products like BibleWorks, etc. This woman knows a little
Hebrew but she is not a specialist in Semitic languages.

How dependent will she be on ENGLISH versions in her rendering of Genesis
into the target language?

Peter knows the answer to this one.


Yes, although none of the translators are actually "an SIL person", although they are working on a project in which SIL is a partner.

And the answer is: not at all! At least for some of the translators. That is because they were working from Russian, Turkish and other existing translations into languages which they know, as well as from the Hebrew - and one of the team was working from English as well.

But your point is well made: they are dependent on existing translations into languages they know. So was Wycliffe. So in fact have nearly all translators of the Hebrew Bible, except for the original Septuagint and Targum translators. Even people like Ferrar Fenton who claim to have translated it from the original without reference to any other translation were in fact surely semi-consciously referring to the translations which they already knew well from many years of study. And the same is of course true of Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message - although I don't thik he claims not to have used existing translations at all. And surely it is also true of Alter, who must know the Bible in English rather well.

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



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