The Bible Translator: Volume 67, Issue 3

Translation studies scholars have recently recognized a definitive “social” turn in the field, leading to the emergence of a sociology of translation which recognizes that translation happens in the mind of translators as social beings who function in multiple roles and negotiate meanings, situated within an environment of social and cultural dimensions. A sociology of translation shifts the focus from texts to the translators, their roles, social networks, and lasting effects on society. In this paper, I review some recent discussions in translation studies, focusing specifically on the emergence of a sociology of translation. My purpose is to explore how we might reaffirm the competing social networks within which the Bible translator works and within which Bible translation is carried out. A sociology of translation, I argue, helps us become more aware of the central role of the translators as socially constructed and constructive agents, simultaneously producing texts and making meaning. View Less

This paper examines the different word order in the otherwise identical words to Jesus of Martha in John 11.21 and of Mary in 11.32, and discusses what the purpose of this difference may have been, and how it could affect the translation of these verses. View Less

The classical Christian reading of Isa 1.18 has usually taken the verse as referring to the grace and mercy of God. But there is a formidable set of objections that challenges this reading. In this article, these objections will be attended to, alongside the offering of a contemporary gloss, in order to offer an alternative to exegetes and translators of this text. View Less

Proverbs 20.26 allegorizes the optimal method of scattering the wicked by likening it to the wind-driven separation of chaff from grain. Since the word ʾôpan denotes the tool used for this process, it is proposed here that this term evokes a tuyere, a nozzle through which air is forced in a furnace, rather than a cartwheel, used for the threshing of grain. Functional affinities between ʾôpan and ʾap (= nose), the organ of blowing, together with the lack of a satisfying etymology for ʾôpan as a wheel, suggest that tuyere is the primary meaning of this noun in ancient Canaanite languages. Moreover, the similarity of ancient furnace nozzles to spokeless wheels suggests that the use of ʾôpan to denote a wheel is derived from the primary denotation of the word, a tuyere. View Less

In the world of both Bible commentators and translators two different views are offered on the function and meaning of the expression περὶ οὗ as used in Acts 25.18. The central question is whether this expression functions as a direct reference to the similar expression in Acts 25.7, or whether it has its conventional meaning. In this study the author analyses both views, and argues that one of these views is not tenable. View Less

This article analyzes three syntactical forms that occur frequently in the Fourth Gospel. These forms are often associated with aspects of the literary style for which John is well known—for example, misunderstanding, irony, doubt, reversal or denial, and division. These categories are not mutually exclusive. In fact, irony, misunderstanding, and reversal might occur in the same context. View Less

The Bible Society movement has its roots in the ideologies and social practices of the Enlightenment that led to a radical reconceptualization of the Christian religion and to the construction of a non-confessional and non-denominational Christian domain, with non-denominational Bibles and strong emphasis on a common non-confessional core of fundamental “simple” Christian truths and on the virtues of tolerance, civilization, knowledge, and learning. It is in these Enlightenment contexts that a new type of evangelistic Bible translation emerges with a missionary goal of spreading Christian civilization, in dozens of non-Western languages. At the same time we see another new type of Bible translation in Western languages: enlightened Bibles, not meant for the pulpit but for the home, to educate, instruct, civilize, and enlighten their readers. These enlightened Bibles incorporated results of modern, enlightened biblical scholarship, and strongly deviated from the authorized versions. View Less

For the most part, biblical scholars have joined their secular counterparts in being vigilant—and even vigilantes—against anachronistic thinking and language. However, Scripture itself models a variety of apparently intentional anachronisms, such as the introducing of updated equivalents or of outdated archaisms. Such occurrences in both the Old and New Testaments invite us to revisit this complex phenomenon and to consider what anachronism (or some fresh, less pejorative designation) might contribute to our own contemporary interpretation and translation of the Bible. View Less

This article investigates attitudes to Bible translation as mirrored in the Letter of Aristeas, Philo’s treatise On the Life of Moses, and the prologue to the book of Ben Sira. In each of these documents, its respective author reflects on the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. The author of the Letter of Aristeas was concerned about a possible revision of a translation that was highly esteemed and tried to preserve it by alluding to the “canon formula” (Deut 4.2). Philo considered the Greek Torah as divinely inspired, presuming a strictly literal translation which was the perfect image of its source text. The article mentions today’s followers of these two writers whose views can be criticized from the point of view of modern translation theory. The translator of the book of Ben Sira, on the other hand, showed a balanced opinion which can serve as a model for today’s Bible translators. View Less