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Bible Translation in a Changing World

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Bible Translation in a Changing World Transmission Summer 2011 Bible translation in a changing world After a brief survey of the history of translation, Jon Riding considers three key developments in recent decades that have radically transformed the task of translating the Bible. He also reflects on what the future holds for Bible translation. The first great impetus to translate Scripture in the Dutch, German and Scandinavian societies. What had nineteenth and early twentieth centuries went hand previously been nationally driven programmes for the in hand with the (largely) Protestant outpouring of translation, publication and distribution of Scripture1 missionaries into the rapidly expanding colonial and now became a global programme within which all commercial empires of first the Western European these societies sought to cooperate in a shared task as nations and, latterly, America. Men and women members of the fellowship of Bible Societies which is the answered the call to mission to bring the gospel to these United Bible Societies (UBS). The history of the following new territories and peoples. Hand in hand with the 60 years would take too much space to cover in detail work of mission went the work of translation. A model but during this period there have been a number of Jon Riding for translation work was soon established which closely developments in Bible translation which have already Jon Riding leads mirrored that of primary mission. Individuals who felt radically transformed the task and will continue to do so the Linguistic called by God to the work of translation committed into the future. Computing team their lives, often sacrificially, to the task of making God at Bible Society in known through the Scriptures in the languages of this The local approach England and Wales. expanding mission field. The impetus for the work was, For much of the last In more recent times, and encouraged by the UBS, therefore, often external to the intended audience. 20 years he and there has been a significant change in the model for Whilst there is no question that much good work was his team have been translation work. Whilst there is still a place for the closely involved in done and the translations were warmly welcomed by the expatriate missionary translator, in many cases the the development early mission churches, it is also true to say that many impetus for a translation now comes from within the of many of the of the expectations of the parent churches in Europe computer based target audience. The Church is now well established in and America were translated into these new Christian tools now available many places which 100 years ago were primary mission communities together with the Scriptures. to translators. fields and as these local Christian communities now After the Second World War the world was left reeling begin to seek a Bible in their mother tongue it is no from the effects of near global conflict. This was a longer the case that this dream must await the arrival of moment when the dependency of nations upon one European or North American translator. Representatives another and the need for peoples to cooperate with of the local community, typically ministers and scholars, one another were keenly felt. Just as the geopolitical are now able to take on the translation task, drawing on reality of the time led to the formation of the United the support offered by the UBS. This is a very significant Nations, similar imperatives brought together the major development. Sadly, despite all the hard work and players in Bible translation, the British & Foreign Bible commitment of the early missionary translators, it is Society, Scottish Bible Society, the American Bible Society sometimes the case that earlier translations are regarded and other Western European societies, such as the as obscure and clumsy, even occasionally unintelligible, 11 11 Transmission Summer/Autumn 2011 by their intended audience. This is in part due to the particular and the Church in general. Often dismissed Notes reality that language is always a moving target. Just as (erroneously) as ‘paraphrase’, functional equivalence 1. For an analysis English usage has developed since the 1950s so other translation is now the norm for most Bible translation of the motives of languages have developed and adapted in a world in work. When the first UK English Bible2 based upon translation in a colonial context see which the pace of change is accelerating. Nevertheless, it functional equivalence principles appeared in the H Sharkey, ‘Sudanese is now generally accepted that a translation for a group 1970s there was much discussion about ‘dumbing Arabic Bibles and the prepared by mother-tongue speakers of their language down’, ‘paraphrasing Scripture’ and the fact that some Politics of Translation’, The Bible Translator is likely to speak more clearly to its readers and hearers vocabulary present in more traditional English Bibles 62.1 (2011), than one prepared by translators whose cultural and had been replaced by words and phrases which were pp. 37–45. linguistic roots are outside the community. more generally accessible to modern-day English speakers. This is a fundamental principle of functional 2. Good News Bible Linguistic and cultural differences are not the only British & Foreign equivalence which seeks not to translate literally or word potential limitations on the expectations for Bible Bible Society, 1976. for word but to find ways of expressing the meaning of The Good News translations. Hand in hand with the growth of the original text which are equivalent to that meaning Bible remains an indigenous translation teams has come an increasing outstanding example within the culture and language of the target audience.3 of functional recognition that Scripture can and should transcend equivalence denominational boundaries. No one denomination Functional equivalence in translation is inevitably highly translation in action. Avoiding the use owns the Bible. Much of the earlier work of translation contextual. The experiences and expectations of the of inaccessible was driven by the protestant churches but the growth target culture and language often offer the possibility theological language, of community driven translation has ensured that the of translations which can seem strange to a reader or it has remained a best- seller in the UK since vast majority of translation projects today are inter- hearer from a different culture. For example, the attempt its introduction. confessional with each of the principle denominations to translate using functional equivalence the English 3. An excellent review in the community represented on the translation phrase ‘do not lead a bad person into temptation’ into of the strengths team. This is a most welcome development despite the the South African Tsonga language may well result in and weaknesses of inevitable tensions that it can bring. Not least among something like ‘don’t throw a mouse into a granary of both ‘literal’ and functionally equivalent these tensions is the question of canon. To the Western monkey-nuts’. The complaint of the writer of Judges that translation can be Protestant the question of the canon of Scripture ‘everyone did what was right in his own eyes’ can be found in M Strauss, rarely arises despite the fact that some communions, expressed in Ndoga by the proverb ‘everyone was a lone- ‘“Literal Meaning” Fallacy in English such as the Anglican and Lutheran, recognise a set of grazing goat’. Idioms familiar to English readers such Bible Translation’, The apocryphal books in addition to the principal canon of as ‘beating the breast’ if translated literally can in some Bible Translator, 56.3 Scripture. For the majority of their church members this languages, such as Batswana, express self-assurance (2005), pp. 153–68. canon is limited to the 66 books found in traditional and aggressiveness – the equivalent expression in 4. If this still feels a Protestant Bibles. The moment a member of one of the Batswana is ‘to take hold of the beard’. In the oriental little avant garde see WE Vine’s Expository other major Christian confessions joins a translation world the general Western perception of a dragon as Dictionary of New team the question of canon must be addressed. For violent and evil is reversed. This must be taken into Testament Words example, a project in some parts of East Africa may account when translating Revelation. The Good News (London, 1940), pp. 298ff., which offers well need to include the books of Jubilees, Enoch and Bible (GNB) translation of Matthew 5.6 generated much the following gloss for 1–3 Maqabyan which are considered canonical by discussion when it first appeared. The King James Bible dikaiosynē, ‘whatever the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Translation projects had rendered this as ‘Blessed are they which do hunger conforms to the revealed will of God’. in some parts of Eastern Europe, the Balkans or parts and thirst after righteousness.’ The GNB turned this into of the sphere of Russian influence may well require ‘Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what 5. All of the examples above are drawn from that the base text for their Old Testament be the Greek God requires.’ What had happened to ‘righteousness’ JD de Waard and Septuagint rather than the Masoretic Hebrew text, let alone ‘hunger and thirst’? In modern English ‘hunger EA Nida, From One others still where there is a strong Syriac Christian and thirst’ is a phrase rarely encountered in day-to-day Language to Another: Functional Equivalence tradition may prefer the text base to be the Syriac speech. The original intention of the writer seems to in Bible Translating Peshitta. Whatever the needs of a particular project, have been ‘to want something more than anything (Nashville: Nelson, the position of the Bible Societies is simply to serve the else’, hence the GNB’s ‘those whose greatest desire’.
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