So You Want to Be a Bible Translator!

[John of Japan]

It is the closest thing to the gift of tongues that I have seen. I am so happy that God gives the gift of learning languages to some of his children so that they can interpret. It is not my gift, but I fully support it both with my verbal support as well as my financial support. By the way, Wycliffe needs more young people to join them and keep working on translations. The past generation is nearing retirement age. This is an urgent need.

I actually believe it is the Biblical gift of tongues. The Greek word glossa (γλωσσα) refers to (1) that thing in your mouth, and (2) actual languages. I've never found in my research that it can mean ecstatic utterances. Unfortunately, the KJV adds the word in italics "unknown," but I believe that is a wrong rendering. It should have simply been "tongue," which meant "language" in 1611.

 

[Van]

To translate is to carry across something such as the intended meaning, derived from words or grammar the receptor does not understand or fully understand, and bring the meaning, as at least understood by the translator, to the receptor. When we interpret God's word and derive its meaning, we translate into our understanding the message, or our understanding of that message.

So in final analysis every bible believer is a translator to a degree.

Now people earning money by translating from one language to another might try to define their occupation as the only thing called translation, but that is provincialism.

And when two or more professional translators rending the same original text into two or more very different messages, the receptors might use some of the skills of a professional translator to discern the best (most accurate) translation available.

 

[George Antonios]

I keep thinking this would be a fun topic, so here we go. This will be about how to become a Bible translator, assuming you either want to be one or you would just like to discuss the matter.

First of all, I can't abide wannabes. A wannabe is someone who aspires to a task or profession, but just doesn't have what it takes to make it. Back when I taught Kung Fu in college, two boys came to a class I was teaching, and said they were followers of Bruce Lee and his method, Jeet Kune Do (pr. jeet coon dough). They wanted to spar me and show off their "Jeet Coon Knee Do." They had been training on their own, I suppose with one of Lee's books.

I corrected their pronunciation, and squared off with one of them. At one point I threw a round house kick at his head, stopping before I connected, of course, since this was non-contact sparring. He said, "What was that??!?" Really? Every beginner in my class knew that technique, yet they claimed to be expert in JKD and didn't know it. They were wannabes, not real martial artists.

So, what is the absolute minimum of skill and/or knowledge one needs to be a Bible translator? Anyone?

To start off, humility.

 

[Van]

John 3:16 (NKJV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Now this is a relatively new translation into English, but other modern translations provide a different message.

God loved humanity in this way, He gave His uniquely divine Son, so that everyone believing into Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Now all you professional translators out there, which one is most accurate and why?

Bonus question, did the believing second and third soils of Matthew 13 obtain everlasting life? Why not?

 

[John of Japan]

Bearing in mind the absolute minimum requirement for being a Bible translator of knowing two languages, is it possible nowadays to do a good job of translating the Bible without knowing the original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)? (This was not possible for many centuries.). If so, how?

 

[John of Japan]

John 3:16 (NKJV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Now this is a relatively new translation into English, but other modern translations provide a different message.

God loved humanity in this way, He gave His uniquely divine Son, so that everyone believing into Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Now all you professional translators out there, which one is most accurate and why?

Bonus question, did the believing second and third soils of Matthew 13 obtain everlasting life? Why not?

This is off topic. Please refrain from side tracks.

Question: Do you know more than one language, or just English? (This is more in line with the OP.)

 

[John of Japan]

Cambridge definition of a translator:

"someone who changes the words of one language into the words in another language that have the same meaning."
translator

Therefore, by definition a translator must know two languages. This is the absolute minimum requirement.

 

[Deacon]

A old college friend of mine now lives in Europe and is employed as a translator of religious teaching material.

Occasionally, as he visits, he attends the mens bible study.
Once as we were taking turns reading a passage of Scripture, I noticed that his ”version” was different from any I was familiar with.
I glanced over and realized he was reading from a French language version, translating as he was reading.

Rob

 

[John of Japan]

A old college friend of mine now lives in Europe and is employed as a translator of religious teaching material.

Occasionally, as he visits, he attends the mens bible study.
Once as we were taking turns reading a passage of Scripture, I noticed that his ”version” was different from any I was familiar with.
I glanced over and realized he was reading from a French language version, translating as he was reading.

Rob

Impressive!

 

[Ziggy]

A. T. Robertson was known to preach while translating directly from the Greek New Testament in his hand.

 

[Aaron]

I keep thinking this would be a fun topic, so here we go. This will be about how to become a Bible translator, assuming you either want to be one or you would just like to discuss the matter.

First of all, I can't abide wannabes. A wannabe is someone who aspires to a task or profession, but just doesn't have what it takes to make it. Back when I taught Kung Fu in college, two boys came to a class I was teaching, and said they were followers of Bruce Lee and his method, Jeet Kune Do (pr. jeet coon dough). They wanted to spar me and show off their "Jeet Coon Knee Do." They had been training on their own, I suppose with one of Lee's books.

I corrected their pronunciation, and squared off with one of them. At one point I threw a round house kick at his head, stopping before I connected, of course, since this was non-contact sparring. He said, "What was that??!?" Really? Every beginner in my class knew that technique, yet they claimed to be expert in JKD and didn't know it. They were wannabes, not real martial artists.

So, what is the absolute minimum of skill and/or knowledge one needs to be a Bible translator? Anyone?

As far as cognitive skills are concerned, literacy is the absolute minimum. Any literate individual can begin translating, and the high degree of linguistic expertise required to complete the task can be gained while doing the work.

Hudson Taylor was still struggling with the Chinese language when he began his work of translation.

But the indispensable prerequisite is a pure heart and a right spirit. One must be a true believer, and a good theologian.

 

[John of Japan]

As far as cognitive skills are concerned, literacy is the absolute minimum. Any literate individual can begin translating, and the high degree of linguistic expertise required to complete the task can be gained while doing the work.

As long as you say literate in two languages.

Hudson Taylor was still struggling with the Chinese language when he began his work of translation.

Taylor did his translation work in a dialect. I've always been intrigued by the fact that he translated, but there is little information about it, even in the two volume biography.

But the indispensable prerequisite is a pure heart and a right spirit. One must be a true believer, and a good theologian.

In general I agree, but there are liberals who translate the Bible also. And oftentimes a missionary translator will begin with a lost translation helper until the Lord raises up a person of peace to help or even become a co-translator.

 

[John of Japan]

Bearing in mind the absolute minimum requirement for being a Bible translator of knowing two languages, is it possible nowadays to do a good job of translating the Bible without knowing the original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)? (This was not possible for many centuries.). If so, how?

What I was getting at with this post is that there are a ton of helps now in the English language for translation work, in particular software. I use PowerBible, e-sword, and BibleWorks. The last is a more high end package, but it parses every word in the OT & NT original languages (except some words in the LXX), and has a bunch of lexicons. e-sword is the best free software out there, and has BDB for the OT Hebrew, which is good, and for the NT has Thayer's, which is somewhat out of date, but also Mounce (the definitions from his analytical lexicon, I believe). In hard copy, I use the analytical lexicons of Robinson and the Fribergs, which are very helpful.

So, a translator who does not know the original languages can translate from English but still get reasonable semantic accuracy by consulting resources like these. Syntactical accuracy is a different matter. For someone not trained in the original languages, it takes some work to learn the syntax of Greek and Hebrew.

Bob Patton translated into the Sranantongo language of Surinam, and did a good job using such helps, though he didn't know the original languages. He tells his story in his book, Thoughts About Translation. Unfortunately, being without training in the Greek, he mixes up translation and textual criticism a number of times in the book. Still, if you like translation it's worth a read to find out how someone does it without original language training.

 

[37818]

. . . (except some words in the LXX), . . .

You might find Charles Van der Pool's Apostolic Bible Polyglot Greek-English Interlinear useful. He ceated a modified Strong's numhering set.

 

[Aaron]

As long as you say literate in two languages.

Actually, one can start and learn the language he's translating to at the same time.

 

[Van]

This is off topic. Please refrain from side tracks.

Question: Do you know more than one language, or just English? (This is more in line with the OP.)

Such a petty dodge, but no answer to my questions. Guess JOJ does not want to be a translator, just a dictator.

Here is the post JOJ falsely claimed was off topic:

John 3:16 (NKJV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Now this is a relatively new translation into English, but other modern translations provide a different message.

God loved humanity in this way, He gave His uniquely divine Son, so that everyone believing into Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Now all you professional translators out there, which one is most accurate and why?

Bonus question, did the believing second and third soils of Matthew 13 obtain everlasting life? Why not?​

This post provides the reason I want to "translate" the message of the text into my understanding, thus answering the OP directly.

 

[John of Japan]

Actually, one can start and learn the language he's translating to at the same time.

Not impossible, I'll grant you, but extremely difficult to do.

Our church has an outreach to the Rohingya, a Muslim people group with many in Milwaukee. Our linguistics prof and some of the students are involved, and we plan to translate the NT into their language. We we have a student in our MA in Bible Translation about to take the course "Greek and Hebrew Issues in Translation," and she wants to do her Greek project (translating 25 verses from Romans and annotating the work) in that language. To me, this will be a test about whether or not one can do what you propose.

 

[John of Japan]

Such a petty dodge, but no answer to my questions. Guess JOJ does not want to be a translator, just a dictator.

Thanks for the belly laugh. I am already a translator, having translated the complete NT from Greek into Japanese. About 100,000 Gospels of John or "John and Romans" have been distributed already. The entire NT has been printed, and the workers are collating it now. The team has started work on the OT, and I am personally working on the poetic books of the OT. Other team members are working on Genesis. At this point there are no wannabes on the team.

Here is the post JOJ falsely claimed was off topic:

John 3:16 (NKJV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Now this is a relatively new translation into English, but other modern translations provide a different message.

God loved humanity in this way, He gave His uniquely divine Son, so that everyone believing into Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

Now all you professional translators out there, which one is most accurate and why?

Bonus question, did the believing second and third soils of Matthew 13 obtain everlasting life? Why not?​

This post provides the reason I want to "translate" the message of the text into my understanding, thus answering the OP directly.

The topic is not "How to Translate," or, "The Van Bible Translation," but, "So You Want to Be a Bible Translator!!" meaning, "What does it take to be a translator??"

 

[John of Japan]

Folks, here is a good definition of a wannabe:

"One who aspires, often vainly, to emulate another's success or attain eminence in some area." (Definition of wannabe | Dictionary.com). Unfortunately, we get them right here on the BB.

 

[Van]

Thanks for the belly laugh. I am already a translator, having translated the complete NT from Greek into Japanese. About 100,000 Gospels of John or "John and Romans" have been distributed already. The entire NT has been translated, and the workers are collating it now. The team has started work on the OT, and I am personally working on the poetic books of the OT. Other team members are working on Genesis. At this point there are no wannabes on the team.


The topic is not "how to translate," or, "The Van Bible Translation," but, "So You Want to Be a Translator," meaning, "What does it take to be a translator??"

ROFLOL...

You do not win today's ball game with yesterday's home run.

I asked for a discussion of a specific translation. I get incompetence, with no one even able to discuss the question.

Recall Solomon's plan to split the baby? Does the translator think God had several possible word meanings in mind when He inspired the text, or is it best to try and discern the meaning intended and translate that meaning with clarity?