David Koberstein
Member
Every few months or so, a new Bible translation marches across Christian book stores shelves. The English Standard Version......
the International Standard Version......the New International Version......the Revised Standard Version......the Modern Revised Version.......
and on and on and on. Why are there so many Bibles? Why can't we have one final, best translation and call it a day?
You might assume there's a conspiracy going on, but a major reason why we haven't settled on a single Bible translation actually
comes from the aspect of language that most of us don't know about. When you speak, you "paint" in a sense. You chose from a
list of words in your language that have the hues and overtones you're looking for and you blend them into sentences to express
what you mean. Each language is a finite amount of colors. When you try to paint a scene in a different language, the same words
carry different shades of meaning, so the result is never exactly the same. This is especially true when translating between Hebrew
and English, and less so with Greek. Greek and English have relatively close palettes because both languages grew out of the same
Indo-European roots, and many English words originally came from Greek. Hebrew, however, reflects a very different Afro-Asiatic
heritage. It is ringed by the desert browns and burnt umbers of a Semitic, earthy tribe who trekked through parched wastelands,
ate manna, herded sheep, and slung stones at their enemies.
Hebrew also contains a smaller set of "pigments" than English----about eight thousand words, in comparison to one hundred
thousand or more in our language. Martin Luther noticed this from his work in Bible translation. He commented:
The Hebrew tongue, above other languages, is very plain, but withal it is majestic and glorious: it contains much in few and simple
words, and therein surpasses all other languages.
You could say that Hebrew expresses truth by splashing on bold colors with a broad brush, like van Gogh. Even though the details
are quite rough, you mentally fill them in, inferring them from the context. Your mind is used to figuring out meaning from context.
Even in English we sketch out a scene with a few "word strokes" and let listeners figure out the rest. Instantly we recognize the difference
between getting a run in baseball, getting a run in your stocking, and getting a run in after work.
Imagine yourself as a Bible translator is "repainting" a scene into English. If you aim to translate word-for-word, you can only use one
stroke of your brush to portray each stroke in the original. But you have to trade your wide Hebrew "brush" for a fine tipped English
"brush," and your color palette isn't quite the same. English may have more hues to choose from, but each stroke can pick up only one
overtone within the original swath of color.
What will you do?
Most likely, the result of your efforts will show people the overall scene but it won't quite capture the atmosphere of the original.
Another translator would bring out different shades and overtones from the exact same text. Certainly, some renderings will be better
than others, but it simply isn't possible to perfectly reproduce a painting with a different palette and different brushes. That is why there
will never be one solitary, "best" translation of the Bible that replaces all others.
What's a person to do, then, to get the truest sense of the original text?
Rather than clinging to one translation, you'll actually get a clearer idea if you read from more than one version and then compare them.
Read from a few translations that aim to be more word-for-word and then look at some that are more thought-for-thought. When you
see the range of ways that artists "paint" the same passage, you'll start to get a better sense of the colorful hues within the original.
Shalom שלום
the International Standard Version......the New International Version......the Revised Standard Version......the Modern Revised Version.......
and on and on and on. Why are there so many Bibles? Why can't we have one final, best translation and call it a day?
You might assume there's a conspiracy going on, but a major reason why we haven't settled on a single Bible translation actually
comes from the aspect of language that most of us don't know about. When you speak, you "paint" in a sense. You chose from a
list of words in your language that have the hues and overtones you're looking for and you blend them into sentences to express
what you mean. Each language is a finite amount of colors. When you try to paint a scene in a different language, the same words
carry different shades of meaning, so the result is never exactly the same. This is especially true when translating between Hebrew
and English, and less so with Greek. Greek and English have relatively close palettes because both languages grew out of the same
Indo-European roots, and many English words originally came from Greek. Hebrew, however, reflects a very different Afro-Asiatic
heritage. It is ringed by the desert browns and burnt umbers of a Semitic, earthy tribe who trekked through parched wastelands,
ate manna, herded sheep, and slung stones at their enemies.
Hebrew also contains a smaller set of "pigments" than English----about eight thousand words, in comparison to one hundred
thousand or more in our language. Martin Luther noticed this from his work in Bible translation. He commented:
The Hebrew tongue, above other languages, is very plain, but withal it is majestic and glorious: it contains much in few and simple
words, and therein surpasses all other languages.
You could say that Hebrew expresses truth by splashing on bold colors with a broad brush, like van Gogh. Even though the details
are quite rough, you mentally fill them in, inferring them from the context. Your mind is used to figuring out meaning from context.
Even in English we sketch out a scene with a few "word strokes" and let listeners figure out the rest. Instantly we recognize the difference
between getting a run in baseball, getting a run in your stocking, and getting a run in after work.
Imagine yourself as a Bible translator is "repainting" a scene into English. If you aim to translate word-for-word, you can only use one
stroke of your brush to portray each stroke in the original. But you have to trade your wide Hebrew "brush" for a fine tipped English
"brush," and your color palette isn't quite the same. English may have more hues to choose from, but each stroke can pick up only one
overtone within the original swath of color.
What will you do?
Most likely, the result of your efforts will show people the overall scene but it won't quite capture the atmosphere of the original.
Another translator would bring out different shades and overtones from the exact same text. Certainly, some renderings will be better
than others, but it simply isn't possible to perfectly reproduce a painting with a different palette and different brushes. That is why there
will never be one solitary, "best" translation of the Bible that replaces all others.
What's a person to do, then, to get the truest sense of the original text?
Rather than clinging to one translation, you'll actually get a clearer idea if you read from more than one version and then compare them.
Read from a few translations that aim to be more word-for-word and then look at some that are more thought-for-thought. When you
see the range of ways that artists "paint" the same passage, you'll start to get a better sense of the colorful hues within the original.
Shalom שלום