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  • From: "Robert Newman" <rob AT designceramics.co.uk>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] NIV v' NWT translation policy
  • Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 23:58:07 -0000

Peter wrote
But I don't
believe that it is possible even in principle for translation to be free
from such biases. It certainly is not true of NWT, which, as an example,
biases the understanding of nephesh and `olam by its choice of the
particular consistent renderings "soul" and "to time indefinite". (NWT
has been accused of other kinds of bias, of course, but I don't want to
get into such matters which chiefly concern the NT.)

Hello Peter,
I agree with your point that all translator's have biases. Your comment as
respects "soul" for nephesh surprises me. Afterall the bias in this case is
toward the source language. Ask someone very familiar with NWT what "soul"
means and they will likely describe the range of meaning of nephesh. Ask a
general Bible reader and they will likely give the principle English
definition, they are only familiar with Bible texts where translators have
judged it be the intended meaning. Is "soul" a bad English equivalent to
nephesh? Take a look at the word in an English Thesaurus and you will see
that its synonyms include most of the principle ways nephesh is usually
translated such as life, person, being, body, creature. So 'soul' is broad
enough in meaning to approximate much of nephesh and the reader can select
the specific facet of meaning intended. However, in Kelton's earlier example,
and in his very good judgement he distinguished 'breath' as the intended
meaning of nephesh - this is not part of the English word "soul" and so his
criticism stands with regard to where 'breath' is intended and "soul" is
used. This is a welcome criticism. It should be noted though that readers of
NWT may learn this meaning from its footnotes and come to the same conclusion.
Robert





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