Featured So You Want to Be a Bible Translator!

Your solution is easy: start your own thread. Don't sidetrack mine. There, obstruction removed!

 

That's a very good question, but it happens more than you'd think. H. D. Williams, a KJV-Only author, wrote a book on Bible translation, Word-For-Word Translating of The Received Texts, in spite of the fact that he has never translated, was fluent in no foreign language, and did not know the original languages of Scripture (a classic wannabe ). In it he gave seven illustrations of translating the NT, and no fewer than four of the seven examples are strictly about problems of textual criticism, not translation, and another is partly about textual criticism.

 

So, then, judging by your posts, you would say that knowledge of the target language is needed, but not fluency, correct?

 

I'm not familiar with that work, but I like the title!

 

My exchange with RighteousnessTemperance brings up the thought, does one have to be conversant in textual criticism to be a Bible translator? Thoughts?

 

Got it, thanks.

This is very true. Having said that, input from or partnership with a native speaker is absolutely essential to getting the nuances right: semantic range, idioms, transferring metaphors, etc.

 

My view is a little different. My position is that a translator should simply choose the source text (TR, Byzantine, UBS, depending on the skopos, meaning translation goals), and there is no need to engage in textual criticism.

The typical translator may have read a lot on textual criticism, but will still not be capable of making text critical decisions, which is a very specialized process.

 

Thank you. So it's an interlinear. I see that the OT is the LXX. I've not been able to use the LXX (in my software) much, though I've occasionally consulted it; it's too spotty in its renderings.

 

One more qualification is the spiritual gift of the "interpretation of languages" (1 Cor. 12:10). This goes along with the "gift of languages," occurring right after it in the chapter. Even if someone knows fluently more than one language, they may not find translating to their liking. It's a separate discipline.

In my own case, I had no idea that I was any good in languages until I obeyed the call of God to be a missionary. I had taken Latin in high school, and the usual Greek and Hebrew in college and seminary, but I never thought of myself as particularly good at languages.

When we reached Japan, I studied under a tutor first, while I waited for a place to open at the prestigious Tokyo School of the Japanese language. Then I would travel two hours one way, including car, Tokyo rush hour trains, and walking the last leg. I absolutely loved it! I reveled in it! Those were the two best years of my life, in spite of the hardships. Then, when the opportunity came to join a translation effort, I jumped at the chance.

The point is, God gifts who He will as Bible translators. Those who God gifts will love languages and revel in translating. Language ability and translation ability are gifts I don't deserve, given directly by God, but I am delighted at the gifts. (Maybe you haven't caught that from my posts.... )