The Bible Translator: Volume 5, Issue 2

After a brief history, surveys the present emphasis of the Bible Societies in producing revisions for the Iron-Curtain countries (Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish and Georgian), African translations, and translations in India. View Less

Response to Aalders’ article in The Bible Translator, 1953, 4(3) on the relationship between textual criticism and the translator. Raises four objections to Aalder’s insistence that the translator is not to be a textual critic. View Less

In addition to the primary principles of cultural pressure and unity of graphic symbolism, there are certain supplementary principles which should be noted briefly: (1) omission of certain phonemic distinctions; (2) dialect differences; (3) conformance to the culturally superior language should involve (a) value of symbols, (b) types of symbols, and (c) the spelling of borrowed words; (4) phonemic features need not be systematically represented and (5) it is valuable to make certain distinctions less obvious, rather than attempting to indicate them conspicuously. View Less

In order to translate Biblical poetry into a receptor language that is itself poetical, the translator must understand the principles of biblical poetry (both OT and Hebrew poetry in Greek dress in the NT). Discusses several aspects of Hebrew poetry, including parallelism, rhythm, plays on words and the forms of stanzas. Includes examples drawn from the OT and NT. View Less

After a brief history of Mongolian translations, the principles and procedures of the new revision are detailed. Notes some of the difficult terms with which the committee struggled (e.g., baptism, cross and love). View Less

Discusses the impact and nature of translations of the Bible (1952) and the Qur’an (1953) into Swahili in East Africa. View Less

Illustrates how desirable it is to employ uniform principles in the translation of biblical proper names. Discusses the problem of how to give translations of proper names which approximate the original language but also can be pronounced and read without difficulty by the native speakers of Swahili. View Less

Details the history and principles of translating the Psalms into Uruund which is the language of the Aruund (Lundas) of the southwestern part of the Belgian Congo. Includes a brief account on how the names of God are translated. View Less

Discusses how the revision committee dealt with specifically Christian terms such as bond & free, sober, “fields white to harvest,” hate, end, “to beat one’s breast,” “shipwreck,” castaway, Spirit, sanctify, busybody, overseer, discipline, deacon, worship, to believe, to save, praise, confess, repent, righteousness, love, doubt, forgive, divine names, and “world of iniquity.” Chokwe is a Bantu language of Central Africa. View Less