Translations
Introduction
Mini History of Translations
Problems
Styles
Introduction
Every translation is an interpretation. Read the wonderful passage
by Everett Fox in your handouts (pg. 16) Speiser, another scholar,
writes, in his introduction to his translation of Genesis (Anchor
Press)
"The main task of a translator is to keep faith with two different
masters, one at the source and the other at the receiving end...If
he is unduly swayed by the original and substitutes word for word
rather than idiom for idiom, he is traducing what he should be
translating, to the detriment of both source and target. And if
he veers too far in the opposite direction, by favoring the second
medium at the expense of the first, the result is a paraphrase.
The task is an exacting one even with contemporary or relatively
recent sources. With ancient sources, the difficulties are compounded
as problems af text, usage, and cultural setting increase progressively
with age."
Mini History of Translations
The Jewish community of Alexandria, Egypt under the influence
of Hellenism, could no longer understand the Bible in the original
Hebrew. In the third century BCE, the Bible was translated into
Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint, after the legend that 72 scholars translated it.
Aramaic translations were next, and are called Targums.
When the Christian church began to use Latin, the Church Father,
Jerome (4th century CE) produced the official Latin version, called
the Vulgate.
The most famous English version is of course the King James version
(1611), a revision on the earlier Tyndale edition. The Bible has
been translated into every human language. There are a number
of fascinating 'polyglot' editions that include with the Hebrew,
Arabic, Aramaic, English, Latin and Greek translations on the
same page.
Problems
Because no two languages are equal or identical, a translator
cannot simply substitute one set of words in one language for
a different set in another. For example, bayit, means house. But
it also means family, and dynasty. The translator must determine
the correct meaning from the context.
In translating, it is impossible to avoid:
- adding information: Punctuation, bias, hidden agenda.
- losing information: word plays, echoes, alliteration, scribal
oddities.
- choosing information: ambiguity. The Torah can mean A or B; the
translator can only choose one.
- guessing (making up?) information: Unknown meaning. In the Joseph
story, Joseph is dressed in special clothing and paraded through
the people shouting, 'Abrek.' (Gen. 41:43) What does the word
mean? Check your English edition to see how they render it.
The translator must resolve these problems in rendering the text.
Styles
Translations differ in three major ways:
- Ornamental: Thee and Thou instead of You; Fowl instead of bird.
- Philosophy: where the translator(s) are on the literal-idiomatic
spectrum.
- Understanding: different translators may disagree about what a
word means.
The Hebrew (I Sam. 27:1) reads:
vayomer David el libo
And David said in his heart
|
And David said to himself
|
| Literal (almost) word translation: this is the closest to the
Hebrew English will allow. It gives us a feel for the original
Hebrew image, and words. |
Idiomatic translation: It takes the Hebrew phrase and uses the
equivalent English expression. This gives us the true meaning
of the text without getting bogged down with the words. |
|
When we use both (or more) we are able to get the full meaning
of the text. Comparing translations is a very helpful way to catch
any red flags. If a word is translated differently in three different
translations, then it means the word is unknown, or ambiguous.
Whatever the case, it makes it a worthwhile area to explore further. |
Let's try doing some comparisons!
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Translations
