The Bible Translator: Volume 70, Issue 3

In an age termed by some as the “Capitalocene,” Christianity and the biblical text are sources for developing alternative economic imaginations that respond to the contemporary ecological crisis. Noting the economic inequality and ecological destruction common to both first-century Palestine and twenty-first-century global capitalistic societies, this article draws upon world-ecology theory and offers an ecological-economic reading of the parable of the “rich fool” (Luke 12.13-34). I argue that the assumptions of neo-liberal economic ideology often determine our interpretation of this text. In contrast to the rich fool who lives beyond ecological limits and disconnects himself from his community, Jesus offers ravens and grasses as teachers of ecological wisdom: redefining “wealth” and what is required to be “rich towards God.” The article concludes by discussing how translation choices may assist readers to see the economic-ecological dimensions of this text. View Less

Some traditional translations of Genesis represent the text in ways that are excessively anthropocentric, masking the awareness of the nonhuman other in the text, silencing the nonhuman voice, and wrongly subordinating the nonhuman to the human. Selected translations in Genesis 1–2 from the Common English Bible illustrate a more integrative understanding of the human and nonhuman, recognize the presence of nonhuman agency, and capture a more accurate representation of the human place in the world as Genesis’s authors conceived it (Gen 1.9-12; 1.26-28; 2.7). A tradition of translation has inscribed the dualistic, anthropocentric, and hierarchical cast of Western philosophy and theology into the biblical text. Careful attention to the world of the text, and translations that reflect that world authentically, can open up new (“old”) readings that are more ecologically sound and sensitive. View Less

In The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol Adams develops a feminist-vegetarian theory of the absent referent. She argues that cultural imagery and semantics function to make moral consideration of the animal absent from the act of eating meat. For instance, the use of the word “meat” for nonhuman animals and “flesh” for humans helps humans deny that meat is the flesh of another sentient being that can suffer like humans and wants to live. When translators of the Hebrew Bible use “ivory” for Hebrew shen in Ps 45.8(9) rather than “teeth,” this makes the elephants who provided their tusks the absent referent and makes human identification with the suffering of those elephants less likely. This paper argues that translators need to understand absent referents in English in order to translate the book of Psalms adequately and ecologically. View Less

The emergence of eco-linguistics is a result of the advances in human ecology where interdependencies among different systems (including economic, social, religious, cultural, linguistic, and ecological) are highlighted and explored rather than ignored. Even more importantly, eco-linguistics has been drawing great interest because the consequences of ignoring the ecological embedding of humans are becoming more and more clear. Linguistics inevitably affects many other hermeneutical approaches in diverse fields, including biblical studies. Within this context, language ecology, “the study of interactions between any given language and its environment” (Einar Haugen, 1972), is primarily determined by the people who learn that language, use it, and transmit it to others. This article aims to investigate the connection of language to the notion of “growthism” and how this functions in a specific biblical narrative. Mark 4.26-32 will be examined under an eco-linguistic lens to arrive at a more “eco-friendly” understanding of the passage, as well as potential implications for translation. View Less

The difficulty of translating the Greek word ouai in three numbered “woes” of Revelation and in the exclamations of Babylon’s merchants and rulers poses a challenge for ecological hermeneutics. The most common English translation, “woe,” can imply God’s curse against the earth. “Alas” is the translation used in RSV and NRSV for the threefold laments in Rev 18, but not for the earlier references to ouai in regard to Earth or the inhabitants of Earth. The Common English Bible translates “Horror, horror, oh!” (Rev 8.13). The New Jerusalem Bible uses “disaster” in Rev 8.13 and 12.12, but “mourn, mourn” in ch. 18. Micah Kiel notes a thirteenth-century Latin manuscript, the Trinity Apocalypse, that portrays the eagle’s announcement in 8.13 as “Alas, alas, alas.” I will argue that it is important to find a consistent translation such as “alas” for all references to ouai that can convey God’s lament over the earth as well as God’s horror at ecological catastrophe. View Less

The book of Revelation shows an unexpected interest in trees, and not only for their symbolic or anthropocentric value. Relevance theory helps compare various interpretive options an audience might consider. An audience’s understanding of the warning to “not harm the trees” will be affected by their awareness of the effects of storms, locust plagues, imperial deforestation, siege tactics, and prophetic use of these topics to expose the effects of human sin against creation. Paratextual aids in the translation of these passages will help modern audiences become more aware of these cognitive effects. Using different words to translate the Greek terms δένδρον (used to refer to earthly trees that other creatures are dependent on) and ξύλον (used for the symbolic “Tree” of Life) further emphasizes the earthly and ecological concern of the Seer’s visions. View Less

The urgency of the ecological crisis has come too late for the West to change significantly the language of its Bible translations. Yet in many “ecological hotspots,” first Bible translations are being made. Previously I argued for minority-language Bibles that are “green to the core,” taking account of the contemporary ecological crisis. These would involve a careful choice of vocabulary and paratextual materials to help the audience understand texts that impact the earth in their first context and in the contemporary world, in an effort to demonstrate that care of the earth is part of the “normal Christian life.” This paper examines passages from Revelation to help frame them in these terms for the translator and suggest relevant translation choices and places where notes might prove helpful. The aim is to provide a model for an “Ecological Guide to Translating the Bible.” View Less

Many critics have blamed the current ecological crisis on an interpretation of the biblical text that legitimates human abuse of the earth’s resources, through a misconstruction of the human relationship with the rest of the created order. The Hebrew text of Hosea 4.1-6 documents a tacit knowledge of the consequence of human action on the ecosystem, evidence that has been eclipsed in various English translations due to the contextual gap between the text and the English recipient. This paper attempts a reconstruction of the Hebrew text, and undertakes a fresh translation that exposes the cosmological underpinnings of the text. The passage is then interpreted from an ecocentric perspective in a synchronic reading with other passages. This reveals an awareness of an intricate relationship among humanity, the earth, and non-human inhabitants of the earth, a relationship that Hosea describes with the terms אמת‎, חסד‎, and דעת אלהים‎. View Less