[Worship] Worship and Bible translations

[translators@juno.com]

Someone wrote ( I think it was Bob Dozier): 
>What do you think of my selection of translations? Is there a another
>translation that I should include? Please remember I am trying to get 
>at the intended original language not to explain or expand.

When doing a study on (a) specific "word(s)" theme (such as 
Worship) and when you are trying to "get at the idea of the original text

and language", it is important to understand the purpose of the different
types of translations.  Whenever I hear a minister say, "and it 
says in the Greek" I take the whole thing with a grain of salt, because
that person is not a native (or even near-native) speaker of the 
language that the original texts were written in.  This goes for
Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.   If I know that the
preacher doesn't speak another language, then so much more
the need to be careful, because it is easy for a non-multilingual
person to _suppose_ that there is a simple 1-to-1 correspondence
in words between languages.  Well, as a person with 10 years
of experience in languages ( teaching, translation, development
of machine translation tools and systems)  and with intermediate
to native-speaker level in 4 languages, and plenty of experience
studying and using 9 other languages (from Biblical Greek to Italian 
to Croatian to Swahili) , I do understand what the differences are 
between languages.

The KJV and RSV are the versions that tend to aim at a 
more word-to-word rendition of the original text, but this
does not mean that it is a "better" translation.  It is a translated
version with a certain purpose.  In most cases
of word-to-word translation that I have ever seen of any
human or machine-translated text (and I've worked with it a lot,
believe me) , the resulting text is not necessarily as good as a 
more "dynamic" translation.

The NIV is known as a "dynamic" translation that does not
use the "word-for-word" approach, but one that is "meaning-
for-meaning".   The latter is the common approach that
any experienced translator will use.  This is not to say that the
NIV is "better" or "worse" that the above-mentioned versions.
It has a different purpose.   

KJV and RSV, and often NASB, are very difficult for non-native
English speakers to understand.   The NIV is easier for
non-native speakers, all while also being a reputable 
translation by a decent team (around 100) of classic language
scholars.   

As Biblical Greek and Hebrew are considered "dead" languages 
(this just means that they no longer evolve because no one speaks 
them anymore; the level of mutual intelligibility between Koine and
Hellenistic Greek is low with that of modern Greek; same for Hebrew),
just as much as Latin is, there is always an emphasis
placed on the "word-for-word" approach in translations into modern
languages from these dead languages.  However, I
know many experienced translators who have become very
proficient in other modern languages by learning the written
form, and they produce excellent translations from and into
those languages.    

I can only warn people doing "word" and "theme" studies to 
be careful in assuming that there is a 1-to-1 correspondence
between the word for "worship" or "praise" in the ancient
languages and our modern day languages.  The fact that
a modern day English version adds the word "worship" in
the text does not mean that the translator was "adding" 
anything at all.  It may simply mean that the translator was
rendering to the best of his/her ability the "idea/concept" from
one language (with its words) to another language (with its
words).  More words does not mean "worse".   

It is a well-established in translation theory and practice that 
translating from English to many other languages, especially the
Modern Romance languages, that there is between 10-20% swell
(increase in number of words used) to get the idea across.

I have the utmost respect for Biblical language scholars who have
not only mastered the written forms of these dead languages
(this has nothing to do with them being "inspired by God"; it refers
to them being spoken as used as a native-language today) but
who have also sought to become proficient in one of more other
modern day languages in order to "feel" the difficulty of what it
means to really translate and interpret a living language.

The appropriate method of good Bible Hermeneutics (study
of the Bible) is to study the words and their use within the
close context of where you find each word.  Then spread out
to nearby chapters by the same author to the beginning and
end of that biblical book.  Then go to books written by the same
author.  Then go to other authors, after comparing of course
the words used by that other other in the same way as outlined
above.

Comparing words across authors and out of context is one of
the ways to really misunderstand a word or passage. One of
our elders just presented a short talk at communion where some
words were not studied in context, and could have been. The
result was an interpretation that could lead a lot of people astray
on that idea, and it's an issue that we all deal with on a daily basis.
I am working on how to present this to him so that he understands
the principles I've just indicated above, hoping that he will be more
careful next time in presenting such an idea to the congregation
at large.


When doing "word" studies, run it across someone who is a "language-
type" in your congregation, and get that person's input, especially if
they are well-versed biblically, and have fun in your Bible studies.


Jeff
<translators@juno.com>

>>On Sat, 20 Jun 1998 "Bob Dozier" writes:
>>>I am aware that words are occasionally added to the original text to
>>>allow better English understanding but I can find no direct
>>>justification (that is to say it may be implied by the context but 
>not
>>>by the words) for the use of the word "worship" by the following
>>>translations in the following verses.
>>
.... rest of message deleted due to length ......

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