The Big Idea: The Bible is an ancient book of books that has been translated many times over the centuries.
Learning Goal: Learners will gain an appreciation for the complexity of the Bible and significant distinctions among its translations.
It is easy to get an idea of the breadth of Bible translations available in our time with a quick walk through a large bookstore. The Bible continues to be one of the best-selling books of all time, and new translations are continually being released. What is easy to forget is how recently this wealth of options became commonplace, and how much work goes into producing a single biblical translation.
Historical
Before the work of actually translating a portion of the Bible from Greek or Hebrew can begin, translators must first agree on the text of the original language. Certain standard texts are available, thanks to the work of textual scholars who have pored over hundreds of ancient manuscripts and fragments, working to compile a single text among the many variations. The number of discovered manuscripts has increased over time, and their availability to scholars through the Internet has meant tremendous changes in textual scholarship in the last few decades.
Many students are not aware that translating the Scriptures into the vernacular was pretty much unheard of until the Reformation. For centuries Jerome’s Latin rendering was the official Bible of the church. Luther was the first to go back to the Greek and Hebrew in order to produce a Bible for the lay person, and others followed suit. Not until this century were Roman Catholic translators allowed to work from the ancient manuscripts and produce multiple translations.
Translators also have a myriad of decisions to make before a single word is rendered into English (or whatever language they are translating into). Am I trying to make the text sound as close to the original language as I can (for example, Everett Fox’s translation of the Pentateuch)? Or is it more important that the sentences flow in such a way that they seem fluent and even poetic in English (The New English Bible)? Should the translation be understandable to a fourth grader (Contemporary English Version)? Should it sound the way an English speaker today might say it (The Message) or is it okay if it sounds distinctly “biblical” (The New King James Version)?
Translations called “word-for-word” translations are those that show a literal or formal correspondence. Examples are the King James Version and the New Revised Standard Version. Translations called “meaning-for-meaning” translations are those that show a dynamic equivalence. Examples are The Jerusalem Bible, The New English Bible, and Today’s English Version of the Bible. The Holy Bible, New International Version attempts to balance literal and dynamic translation methods.
