People can’t even reliably retell a story they witnessed firsthand and experienced in their native language 5 minutes ago. I don’t understand how anyone can put any stock into religious and other historical text, it’s all complete bs.
Translating the Bible is a vexed task
101–110 of 183 posts
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#102A big challenge in translating "The Bible" is that it is an anthology collected over 100s or 1000s of years in many different and divergent forms. Thus there is no authoritative original version. All available versions were compiled, curated, and edited by their respective authors.
Another big challenge is the punishment for getting it wrong, which the article doesn't even mention.
>For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Personally, I wish more people would include curse clauses in important documents. Legal contracts, government constitutions...why not tack on a few lines threatening a dire curse for any party who reneges on their responsibilities?
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#103Most Bible translations remove the tetragrammaton, anyone familiar with whether or not it appears in copies of the Torah? Many Christian denominations simply don’t acknowledge its existence.
It absolutely does. A Torah scroll without it would be invalid for public readings.
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#104With a bit of work, one can find Ronald Knox's short volume On Englishing the Bible, which has many interesting things to say.
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#105Odd that an all powerful god would choose text written in dying languages, easily susceptible to being lost or destroyed, as the preferred method of communication.
Thomas Paine, US founding father and deist, believed God's Word is the universe he created. From "The Age of Reason":
It is only in the CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can unite. The Creation speaketh a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.
Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the scripture, which any human hand might make, but the scripture called the Creation.
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#106Americans have a weird fixation on translating the Bible. No religion apart from Protestants attempt to interpret holy texts without supporting ancient commentsry. Jews have the Talmud and other commentaries, Muslims have hadiths, Orthodox and Catholic Christians have centuries of commentaries by saints, similarly Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and others all have many supporting texts, not just a single canonical one. Y…
There are some strains in at least American Protestantism that do so, I suppose. On the other hand, Eerdmans, based in Michigan, publishes https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7978/eerdmans-commentary-o... .
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#107Since the article is kind of shallow, here are a few atypical approaches to Biblical translation I’ve found interesting over the years: • The Five Books of Moses, by Everett Fox, who attempts to retain in English the underlying poetry of the Hebrew like alliteration, meter, wordplay, and so on. ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/55160/the-five-book... ) • The Books of the Bible: not a new translation (it’s ju…
There was a beautifully made book from 1936 called "The Bible Designed To Be Read As Literature" that was set out and edited to be more like a normal book:
https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.10239/
I picked up a copy secondhand years ago and I'm happy I did.
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#108Faithfulness to an imagined "original text" is often asked for, often attempted, but wholly futile. We have no such "original text". There never was any such "original text". Read it in the form most entertaining, and you will experience it in the purest form still possible. Seek precision, and you will go badly astray. Anything that turns on the exact meaning of a word will be forever ambiguous. There can be no usef…
"You may evaluate others' opinions in this way. The more confidence they have, the less competent is their opinion." Rare self burn, nice.
Rare? Thanks.
Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#109Since the article is kind of shallow, here are a few atypical approaches to Biblical translation I’ve found interesting over the years: • The Five Books of Moses, by Everett Fox, who attempts to retain in English the underlying poetry of the Hebrew like alliteration, meter, wordplay, and so on. ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/55160/the-five-book... ) • The Books of the Bible: not a new translation (it’s ju…
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Re: Translating the Bible is a vexed task
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
No it doesn't go without saying, specially because it means the translations are extremely biased towards showing a positive view of the texts and towards translations likely to reinforce their existing believes.
> the translations are extremely biased towards showing a positive view of the texts That's certainly not true of reputable translations - you can easily verify this by just glancing at something widely available like e.g. an annotated version of the NIV - the scholarship and scrupulous attention to detail is evident.
The critical apparatus on the NET Bible is massive. The notes are well worth reading and probably unparalleled for anyone interested in ancient document translation.