Software Use in Bible Translation

[John of Japan]

I'm going to share some screenshots of using PowerBible in a simple word study.

First of all, I click on the interlinear mode and I get this:

 

[John of Japan]

When I click on the Greek word I want (in the English alphabet), I get a list of all the places it occurs in the NT:

 

[John of Japan]

I can then examine all the different ways it is translated in the KJV. That allows me to make decisions of how I will translate in each of those places.

This is one case where the Greek word has the same meaning in every case, though translated a little differently in different places in the KJV. No problem. I can then make the subjective decision on how to translate. (Does AI make subjective decisions? )

 

[John of Japan]

Oops, in Post 22 I gave the screenshot of the Strong's definition for the word I had chosen to research. Here is a screenshot for the PowerBible list of all the NT verses that have that word:

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

You actually have to immerse yourself in the culture and live there. One cannot understand a culture without interacting with its people.

I have read that it takes about ten years to learn an Asian culture. After we had been in Japan for about ten years, one day I said to my wife, "I think I understand Japan now." And she said the same thing to me. That was after speaking with Japanese for ten years!

Very true, but getting them to explain their own culture may not be so easy, for them or for you. They may have to think about things they’ve never had to think about before. It will be best if you are very observant, insightful, yet inoffensive.

You may even teach them a few things about their own culture they didn't know.

 

[John of Japan]

Another useful low end program is Online Bible. You can download it free here: https://onlinebible.net/

I have used this program, but never consistently, since I had other programs I was used to which worked for me, and also it has no Japanese module. (We may be able to give them our NT in the future if they wish it.) However, the fact that it has endured for so long speaks well for it. The very first version was offered in 1987! That's an incredibly long life for software. Kudos to Larry Pierce, the original author, who is still working on it.

 

[John of Japan]

Very true, but getting them to explain their own culture may not be so easy, for them or for you. They may have to think about things they’ve never had to think about before. It will be best if you are very observant, insightful, yet inoffensive.

You may even teach them a few things about their own culture they didn't know.

This is all very true, especially about the language. Their educational system is famous for its quality, but it lacks in several areas, not the least of which is their Japanese language training.

There is a grammatical form that I was taught in Japanese language school called the "te form." Some grammars list it as a participle, but it has serious differences with the participle in the other languages I've learned. I have a Japanese "quick guide" type of grammar for Japanese high school students to review their Japanese language, but it neglects this form altogether.

 

[John of Japan]

By the way, it is quite easy to fact check Internet errors about the Bible with PowerBible. Yesterday I read a website that said that Ethiopia occurred 50 times in the Bible. A quick word search including "Cush" (the Hebrew word) showed that it occurred only 30 times. Pretty handy, considering some of the stuff we read here on the BB. Just sayin'.

 

[John of Japan]

By the way, PowerBible and other low end Bible programs usually include some old, public domain commentaries (out of copyright) which are helpful. Few of those out of date commentaries are considered authoritative any more, but PowerBible has A. T. Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament. I'll attach a screen shot.

Word studies have gotten a bad rap in recent years, probably due to the switch to context-based meaning by authors such as Nida, Moises Silva, and others. But there are times when nothing but a word study will get the job done for a translator. In such a case, the word study is used to show all of the uses of a particular word in each context!

PowerBible has some other great features, but I'll let you discover them on your own if you are interested.

 

[John of Japan]

One low end free software package that I recommend to my students all the time, and use over and over myself is e-sword. You can download it for free here: e-Sword: Free Bible Study for the PC.

It has some great stuff for being free, and it is very easy to use regarding the original languages of the Bible. For the Old Testament it has the classic Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon for free. BDB is excellent but not up to date in some ways, so I usually double check with Holladay's Hebrew Lexicon, which is much more up-to-date. I have my hard copy at home for that, but I usually consult it through BibleWorks, about which I'll write more later.

e-sword also has for free the classic "Keil and Delitzsch" technical commentary on the Hebrew of the OT. I have the hard copy in my office at work, but usually just used e-sword to consult it if I'm not writing lecture notes or something else technical.

In the NT it has A. T. Robertson's Word Pictures for free, and various other commentaries. For the Greek meanings it has Thayer's for the die hard type, but a much more modern shorter lexicon in Mounce. So e-sword is very helpful for the NT translator to get meanings. All you have to do is click on the Strong's number by the word in the KJV+ module, and you get the meaning. Kudos to Dr. Maurice Robinson for doing the awesome morphology for this!

I'm going to give you some screen shots next of e-sword being used as I translate.

 

[John of Japan]

Here is a screenshot of my Ecclesiastes 10:9. The problem is with the word "tree" which I have bolded and enlarged for you to see. You might think that's a no-brainer, but there is a hitch. I originally went with 丸太 (maruta), or "log," because that's what you split with an ax. But then I checked out the online dictionary I use, and it had two shocking idioms that I had obviously never heard of (don't faint when you read them):

 

[John of Japan]

So, I went to BDB in e-sword and got the definition just to be sure, and then went back to the simple word for "tree" which you see in my rendering. I also have a window open for K&D, as you can see:

 

[Deacon]

By the way, it is quite easy to fact check Internet errors about the Bible with PowerBible. Yesterday I read a website that said that Ethiopia occurred 50 times in the Bible. A quick word search including "Cush" (the Hebrew word) showed that it occurred only 30 times. Pretty handy, considering some of the stuff we read here on the BB. Just sayin'.

Which is not necessarily wrong. The differences of count occur when one uses different canons of Scripture.

Example #1: The book of Esther in some canons has 16 chapters, adding to the count.
Example #2: Additions also occur when one includes the Apocrypha.​

Rob

 

[John of Japan]

Which is not necessarily wrong. The differences of count occur when one uses different canons of Scripture.

Example #1: The book of Esther in some canons has 16 chapters, adding to the count.
Example #2: Additions also occur when one includes the Apocrypha.​

Rob

Point noted.

Caveats:
I can only find Ethiopia/Cush in 4 places in Esther including the Apocryphal version.

I can only find it in Judas and 1 Esdras in the rest of the Apocrypha. (Bible Search: Ethiopia)

Granted, this search could be incomplete.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

Which is not necessarily wrong. The differences of count occur when one uses different canons of Scripture.

Example #1: The book of Esther in some canons has 16 chapters, adding to the count.
Example #2: Additions also occur when one includes the Apocrypha.​

Rob

Good point. But what would matter most to me is the point being made about the count.

If it were only 30 instead of 50, or if it were 70 instead of 50, would that really matter regarding the point being made?

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

View attachment 8288

Here is a screenshot of my Ecclesiastes 10:9. The problem is with the word "tree" which I have bolded and enlarged for you to see. You might think that's a no-brainer, but there is a hitch. I originally went with 丸太 (maruta), or "log," because that's what you split with an ax. But then I checked out the online dictionary I use, and it had two shocking idioms that I had obviously never heard of (don't faint when you read them):
View attachment 8289

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted,” (Titus 1:15).

Hang around worldly people long enough and you will find that they can find a way to imply perversion in whatever wording is used. Just because a word has been used in such a way does not mean it can no longer be used properly. One needs more than a dictionary to make such decisions.

 

[John of Japan]

Good point. But what would matter most to me is the point being made about the count.

If it were only 30 instead of 50, or if it were 70 instead of 50, would that really matter regarding the point being made?

Well, I don't know. My original point was, the search engine on PowerBible is very good, and can help determine facts.

 

[John of Japan]

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted,” (Titus 1:15).

Hang around worldly people long enough and you will find that they can find a way to imply perversion in whatever wording is used. Just because a word has been used in such a way does not mean it can no longer be used properly. One needs more than a dictionary to make such decisions.

33 years as a missionary to Japan gave me the insight, hopefully, to identify and avoid what linguists call "taboo words." Even so, Uncle Miya sometimes had to clue me in. But that particular dictionary is an excellent resource.

 

[John of Japan]

A nice feature of e-sword is that if you hover over a Strong's number, it gives you the original language word, Strong's definition and other information, like how many times the Greek word occurs. If you click on the number you get the definition in your chosen lexicon down below. Here's a screenshot:

 

[John of Japan]

Now, these low end programs can be quite useful, as I've shown, but there comes a time when the translator needs what a high end program can do. My son uses Accordance, which is probably the best one out there. Here is their website, where you can get a 90 day trial version, then pay only $19.95 for the basic version: Home - Accordance. Then the fun begins, because there are many modules that cost money! "Dr. Paul" swears by it, though, and recommends it to his students.