Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Hi James,

 

You're right - this is not a simple issue. But let me point out that ALL
translations of the Bible from the Septuagint through the NRSV have taken
certain "interpretive liberties" with the text - of course some more than
others. So that at least where the Bible is concerned, this is a
long-standing tradition. 

But there's more to it than that. The Bible, even in the original, is not an
easy book to understand. Not just linguistically, but contextually as well.
There are many reasons for this difficulty, including the Bible's long and
sometimes convoluted textually history and the fact that we are culturally
very far removed from the world of the writers. So each generation of
readers has had to (and been able to) reinterpret the Bible in order to make
it relevant to them. Even more: since the Bible's primary readership is made
up of different faith-communities (I don't mean just Jews vs. Christians,
but all of the different groups/denominations within those two), each such
community has developed its own traditions of both interpretation and
authority regarding the text of the Bible. Who are we to "force" our
interpretation (based on the traditions and authority of our academic
community) on anyone else? 

 

And finally, as I mentioned, there are translations today that attempt to be
as faithful as possible to the literal meaning of the text, including the
way they transcribe the Name of God. The fact that these translations are
mostly used only within the Academy and have not been adopted by the various
churches and synagogues is in itself proof of the need for different
approaches for different contexts.

 

 

Yigal Levin

 

  _____  

From: James Christian [mailto:jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 12:55 PM
To: Yigal Levin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] adonai "my Lord" or "the Lord"

 

Hi,

 

that's not an easy question to answer but I suppose if we are to justify
corruptions in such a way we then have to ask questions like:

 

1) where do we draw the line

2) what changes are we justified in making before we accept that we are no
longer being faithful to the original text

 

So, let's say for example that readers have problems with anthropomorphisms.
Shall we remove them all and replace with something more acceptable to the
modern reader?

 

What about parts where YHWH executes death sentences? Some might have a
problem with God behaving in such a despotic fashion. Shall we remove these
accounts and say that YHWH gave people a good telling off?

 

I'm sure you can start to see how the line of which changes are justifiable
may be different to different people. But where is that line to the
responsible and impartial translator?

 

When the readers of the massoretic text pronounced adonai they were fully
aware that this was in replacement of the name YHWH because it was there
staring them in the face in the original text. Is that the case today? Most
people I have met who are familiar with an English version of the bible are
not even aware that the God of the bible has a name. We can safely say that
the tradition of translation is responsible for this phenomenon. So, what
about this kind of compromise? Why not translate the name faithfully in
every occurrence so that everybody who reads the bible knows where the name
is and those who have problems with pronouncing it can do just as the
readers of the massoretic text did (read it but pronounce something else)? 

 

James Christian

2009/12/17 Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>

James, I think that your answer is unfair. First of all, some "academic"
commentaries do simply transcribe the Name as either YHWH or Yahweh. But
translations aimed at the general church or synagogue-going audience don't
do so because this would alienate their audiences. Most (Engish-speaking)
Christians have been calling God "the Lord" for centuries. This is the title
they are familiar and comfortable with. Jews have traditionally refrained
from vocalizing the Name as well, using "Adonai" in worship and "Hashem" in
regular speech. For many, any attempt to vocalize the Name is sacrilege. So
some Jewish translations have replaced "Lord" (which to many Jews sounds
"Christian") with either "Adonai" or "Hashem". Why should translators force
their audiences to use something with which they are not comfortable?



Yigal Levin



 _____

From: James Christian [mailto:jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 3:04 AM
To: Yigal Levin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] adonai "my Lord" or "the Lord"




But, I suppose, the real question is why modern translations don't just
translate the name rather than following the most heavily testified
corruption of the original texts. I vaguely remember reading that the main
motivating factor of the translators of the NIV was that translating the
name YHWH rather than replacing it with LORD would be the surest way of
blowing the millions invested in the translation's production.



James Christian

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