The Bible Translator: Volume 19, Issue 2

In the Reformed Church the OT and NT enjoy the same status. Yet today many men feel the OT is a liability for the Church’s life and mission. The problem is how to make the OT intelligible to the Church as a vehicle of the Word. New perspectives must consider (1) the unity of the two Testaments; (2) the OT as an entity; (3) the significance of the people of Israel; (4) the doctrine of election; (5) a re-emphasis of eschatology; (6) the historicity of the OT; and (7) the realistic view of life it presents. View Less

The basic principles and techniques for preparing common-language and popular-language versions of the Scriptures, at a level within the reach of people who have little reading experience, must focus on both the language form and the content. The literacy translation most consider the people whom it is to serve, the nature of the language and the orthographic system, and the attitude of those who will be responsible for distributing it and promoting its use. It is a derived translation, not prepared directly from the Hebrew or Greek, so there will be linguistic restrictions or distortions which include redundancy, simplified grammatical relationships, and common-language vocabulary. This material is discussed at greater length in the author’s book Bible Translations for Popular Use. View Less

Bible revision in any language is necessary for the growth of the indigenous church, serves as a way of preparing the ground for dialogue between followers of different faiths, and contributes to the literary importance of the community. In Ceylon translation alternated between the classical as over against the colloquial style. In 1938 the Union Version of the Sinhala Bible amalgamated the two Sinhala Versions in current use. Today there is cooperation between various groups in Ceylon for a new translation. The Sinhala Bible Revision Committee has completed the revision of Mark with reflection on the balance and contemporary trends of Sinhala idiom, vocabulary and style, avoiding archaic and un-Sinhala expressions, in order to make the Bible intelligible to the non-Christian. Thus new terminology has been used wherever possible without compromising the Biblical message. View Less

The formulation of an orthography for a language involves information theory, linguistics, cultural anthropology and psychology. This article seeks (1) to compare speech and writing as communication systems, (2) to review the characteristics of an efficient orthography, (3) to reiterate the major principles involved in the formulation of efficient writing systems, (4) to suggest priorities and emphases among these principles, and (5) to call attention to some contributions of information theory and recent linguistic studies. An efficient writing system must be able to communicate a message to its readers as unambiguously as possible within the limits of acceptability and readability. View Less