28 March, 2024

How God’s Word Has Come to Us (Part 4): God’s Word Translated

Features

by | 10 February, 2008 | 0 comments

By H. Lynn Gardner

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

January 20″”God”s Word Written. How did God communicate through prophets and Scripture writers?

January 27″”God”s Word Collected. What is the canon and how can we be sure our Bibles contain the right books?

Last Week””God”s Word Preserved. How close to the original are the Bible manuscripts we have today?

Today””God”s Word Translated. How true to God”s Word are the English words available for us to read?



After his conversion to Christ, Samuel I. J. Schereschewsky, a brilliant Lithuanian Jew, went as a missionary to China. A paralytic affliction occurred confining him to a wheelchair for 21 years. He could move only the muscles of one hand and arm. Yet he translated and typed with one finger the entire Bible into a colloquial form of Mandarin Chinese. It was called “The One-Finger Bible.” The commitment and courage of Bible translators challenges us to appreciate having the English Bible today.

Without a translation in our language, the Bible is a closed book unless we can read Hebrew and Greek. A translation or version restates the text of a document in the words of another language. Translating God”s Word into the heart language of peoples of the world is a key ingredient in the vitality, faithfulness, and outreach of the church.

Early Translations

The Old Testament. Early translations help clarify, complement, and establish the credibility of our standard Hebrew text. The Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek made between 250 to 150 bc in Alexandria, is the most important early translation of the Old Testament. It provided Scripture for the displaced Jews in the Greek language they commonly used. It was the Bible of the early church and the text most often quoted by New Testament writers. Being in the Greek language, it served as a key link in the advancement of the Christian mission in a Greek-speaking Roman Empire.

Aramaic Targums (paraphrases) and the Syriac Peshitta indicate early agreement with the Masoretic Text. The earliest Old Latin versions of the Old Testament were based on the Septuagint. Asked in ad 382 to revise the Old Latin, Jerome completed the Latin Vulgate in 405. It proved more valuable than the Old Latin versions because Jerome translated directly from the Hebrew text. The Hebrew text he used agrees almost completely with the Masoretic Text.

The New Testament. As the gospel spread, the New Testament was translated into Latin and Syriac in the second century. Latin translations had great influence in western Europe and northern Africa as Latin became the language of the learned in these areas. Syriac was the language spoken in Syria and Mesopotamia.

The Vulgate Bible dominated Western Europe for a thousand years, shaping the terminology of the church. Roman Catholics made it their official version. During this time every translation of Scripture was a translation of the Vulgate. Johannes Gutenberg produced the first printed Bible, a Latin Vulgate (1456).

Erasmus pointed out errors in the Vulgate, which reflected Roman Catholic doctrine, for example: “Do penance” instead of “Repent” (Matthew 3:2) and of Mary “one that is full of grace” instead of “one that has found grace” (Luke 1:28)1.

Stephen Langton in 1227 added chapter divisions, and Robert Stephanus added verse divisions in 1551. The first English Bible to include number verse divisions was the Geneva Bible published in 1560.

Early English Translations of the Bible

John Wycliffe, an early reformer, appealed to the Scriptures as the ultimate authority on matters of faith and morals. In spite of opposition from the English church authorities, he organized a band of men to preach the gospel. He believed people deserved a translation in their own language. Wycliffe produced the first English Bible (1382) translating from the Latin Vulgate. A farmer exchanged a load of hay for a few pages of the book of James demonstrating the value of this translation.

Church officials feared that the Bible in the language of the people would break their monopoly over the Bible. They opposed Wycliffe”s Bible as casting pearls before swine. Nervous about the rising individualism and the power of the people, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1407 ruled it illegal to translate the Bible into English or to read the Bible in English.

The Bible in the language of the people contributed to the success of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German from Greek and Hebrew (1522, 1534). William Tyndale did for England what Luther had done for Germany. Unwelcome in England, Tyndale went to Germany to do his translating and printing work. Using Erasmus”s Greek New Testament (1516), Tyndale was the first to translate the New Testament from Greek into English. His was the first printed New Testament in English (1525).

Tyndale told a priest who confronted him, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” Hunted and captured, he was executed for the crime of Bible translation before he could complete translating the Old Testament. Bible translating proved fatal for others as well. We owe a great debt to Tyndale as the father of the English Bible. In fact the King James translators used 90 percent of his translation.

The Geneva Bible (1560) was useful for personal and family use being compact in size and relatively inexpensive. Even though its Calvinist marginal notes angered the English church officials, by 1600 it was the most popular English Bible. Shakespeare used it, and the Pilgrims brought it to America.

Pressured by the popularity of the Geneva Bible, the Church of England produced the Bishop”s Bible (1568), which fell short of the scholarship and popularity of the Geneva Bible. After opposing the Bible in English, Roman Catholics did produce the Rheims-Douai Bible (1582, 1609). It was an English translation of the Latin Vulgate with Catholic footnotes.

King James I disliked the Geneva Bible, feeling it undermined the divine right of kings. In 1604 he appointed and commissioned 54 scholars to follow strict rules in producing a revision of earlier translations in dignified yet understandable English without marginal notes.

The translators” high standards of literary excellence resulted in a beautiful English translation. The King James Version (1611) emerged as the most influential English translation. “The King James Bible became part of the everyday world of generations of English-speaking peoples, spread across the world,” Alister McGrath noted. “The King James Bible was seen, not simply as the most important English translation of the Bible, but as one of the finest literary works in the English language.”2

The fact that after the King James Version no other revision appeared for more than 250 years proved the superior quality of the translators” work. It continued as the dominant English Bible until the end of the 20th century.


Modern English Translations of the Bible

New translations become necessary because in a living language words change in meaning. Many words in the King James Bible had a different meaning in 1611 than they have today: conversation meant “conduct,” suffer meant “allow,” prevent meant “precede,” ghost meant “spirit.” When the words of a translation need translation, it is time for a new translation. Modern discoveries have brought to light new information on biblical texts and words.

Better textual evidence provided the basis for the English Revised Version (1881) and its American counterpart, the American Standard Version (1901). These versions are literal translations closely following the Hebrew and Greek texts. The Revised Standard Version (1946, 1952, 1971) is a clear and generally literal revision. Many conservatives never accepted it, especially in the Old Testament, because it blurred some of the messianic passages. The New American Standard Bible (1963, 1970, updated 1995) closely follows the wording and syntax of the original text in an effort to be as accurate as possible.

A completely new translation, the New International Version (1973, 1978, 1984) is a readable thought-for-thought translation. In some cases it interprets instead of translates, for example, “sinful nature” for “flesh” and “live” for “walk.” It has emerged as the dominant English Bible.

The English Standard Version (2001) revised the Revised Standard Version. It is “essentially literal,” emphasizing word-for-word accuracy with literary readability.

Evaluation of Bible translations must be made on two basic criteria””reliability and readability. No translation is perfect since each is a human production having its own strengths and weaknesses. Many excellent translations are available. A translation by a committee is preferred over that made by an individual. A good translation is accurate, clear, and readable.

Literal translations, also called formal equivalent, reflect the structure and idioms of the original languages. This kind of a translation is preferable for careful study of the text to learn the author”s intended meaning. In some cases this results in awkward English.

The dynamic equivalent translators choose structures and idioms of the receptor language trying to reflect the intended meaning of the original. It may be easier to understand, but is more vulnerable to the translator”s interpretations.

Paraphrases are more a commentary than translation. They may provide helpful insights, but are not recommended for a study Bible.

Between 1881 and 1961, 513 new English translations or revisions of parts or whole Bibles appeared.3 Having Bible translations does not mean more Bible study. An unread Bible is not better than having no Bible. Only when the Bible is believed, studied, understood, proclaimed, and lived will vitality and spiritual power energize the church of our Lord.

We owe appreciation and gratitude to the men and women who have devoted themselves to the noble work of Bible translation. The work of Bible translation must continue as the church seeks to fulfill the unfinished task of carrying out the Great Commission.

________

1Alister McGrath, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 56-58.

2McGrath, 3.

3J. H. Skilton, unpublished PhD dissertation, “The Translation of the New Testament into English, 1881″“1950: Studies in Language and Style” (University of Pennsylvania, 1961).



H. Lynn Gardner is retired after serving many years on the faculty and as academic dean of Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Features

Follow Us