Translation Philosophies: Formal Or Functional
The goal of translation is to reproduce the meaning of a text in one language into another . How best to do this? The primary issue concerns whether to translate according to the form of a text or according to its meaning . Formal equivalence, also known as literal or word-for-word translation, seeks to follow the form of the original text as much as possible. This relates both to words and to grammatical structures. For example, the Greek word logos is most commonly translated as word. A formal equivalent version will seek to consistently render it this way. In terms of grammar, a formal equivalent version will seek to replicate the grammatical forms of the original. For example, the Greek prepositional phrase en t oikia would be translated as a prepositional phrase in English, in the house and the Greek infinitive elthein as an English infinitive, to come.
Translating from Hebrew or Greek to English is no different. Matthew 1:18 in the Greek says that Mary was en gastri echousa, literally, having in belly. This Greek idiom means she was pregnant. Translating literally would make a text that was clear and natural to its Greek readers into one that is strange and obscure to English ears. Compare the following biblical idioms translated formally in one version and idiomatically in another:
Joshua 10:6
RSV Do not relax your hand from your servants
NIV Do not abandon your servants
2 Sam. 18:25
NRSV The king said, If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth.
Bible Translations Into English
Partial Bible translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 100 complete translations into English have been written.
In the United States, 55% of survey respondents who read the Bible reported using the King James Version in 2014, followed by 19% for the New International Version, with other versions used by fewer than 10%.
Archaeological And Historical Research
Biblical archaeology is the archaeology that relates to and sheds light upon the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures . It is used to help determine the lifestyle and practices of people living in biblical times. There are a wide range of interpretations in the field of biblical archaeology. One broad division includes biblical maximalism which generally takes the view that most of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible is based on history although it is presented through the religious viewpoint of its time. It is considered to be the opposite of biblical minimalism which considers the Bible to be a purely post-exilic composition. Even among those scholars who adhere to biblical minimalism, the Bible is a historical document containing first-hand information on the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and there is universal scholarly consensus that the events of the 6th century BCE Babylonian captivity have a basis in history.
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The Scholars Who First Translated The Bible Into English
Today, many versions of the Bible exist in English. But for centuries, the ability to read the Bible was only in the hands of the educated few who were literate and understood Latin. In Medieval England, the church acted as arbiters of what their members learned about the Bible and offered up its own interpretations of God’s teachings. This was not a time of religious tolerance. In fact, anyone who opposed or questioned the church faced being labeled a heretic . And the church often dealt out vicious punishments to heretics.
Risking their own lives, some learned scholars stepped up to make the Bible more widely accessible. John Wycliffe and later William Tyndale, who lived in different times in English history, used their incredible language skills to create English translations of the Bible. Both men made discoveries about what they saw as differences between the church’s teachings and the actual text of the Bible. Wycliffe became an outspoken critic of the church, while Tyndale paid the ultimate price for his work.
Bible Translation And Bible Versions Timeline
Bible Translation and Bible Versions Timeline is something a christian must know.
Many Bible versions have written this in their first pages as the Preface but some have twisted it to campaign for the use and authorization of their Bible version.
I am not going to give you Bible Translation and Bible Versions Timeline as found in your Bible preface but a clear and summarized view.
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Who Translated The Bible From Its Original Language
Often, history fails to recognize the brilliance of a true pioneer, glorifying those who profit from his innovation while conveniently forgetting its source. What was William Tyndales name in 1494?? Among those forgotten pioneers is the Greek and Hebrew translator, who translated the Bible into English from the original Greek and Hebrew texts in 1536.
How The Bible Entered English
The first translation of portions of the Bible into English occurred much earlier than most people realize. Metrical paraphrases of the Bible were reportedly written in Old English in the 8th century, and Bede allegedly translated the Gospel of John into English in the 9th century, but no copies of these works have survived.48Ibid, 445 Our Earliest surviving manuscripts of biblical texts in English are the West Saxon gospels dating from around the 10th century,49Ibid, 447 which is still startlingly early for an English biblical text. We also possess manuscripts of an 11th Century English translation of the Hexateuch, .50http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/englishhex.html, . One such copy includes over 400 illustrations which were added to further aid average people in understanding the text. In time, as the English language changed, however, such early translations fell into disuse.
While we often call the Elizabethan English of the King James Version Old English, it is actually an early form of modern English. These early translations were in the much early Anglo-Saxon or true Old English. To better understand how the language has changed since the Old English of the 10th century, here are a few lines from the Lords prayer in the West Saxon Gospel of Matthew:
Fæder üre þu þe eart on heofonum Si þin nama gehalgod to-becume þin rïce gewurþe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum, .
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Summary Descriptions Of Versions Of The Bible
See also:Indexes to Books of the Bible
This page is intended to describe briefly the versions of the Bible included in the tables that complete this document. As well as theoriginal Hebrew and Greek texts, there have been many translations of the Bible. Many languages, such as English, have many versions, aswell as a long history of translations. This page, however, is intended to provide a brief history and description of only the versions coveredin the accompanying tables: the Authorized Version , the Hebrew text, the Septuagint, the Greek NewTestament, the Latin Vulgate and the Douai-Rheims.
Hebrew text | | Greek New Testament | Latin Vulgate | Douai-Rheims
The Septuagint
- The Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures made for the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, ca. 3rd centuryB.C. Alexandria had a large Jewish population whose primary language was Greek.
A legend contained in the Letter of Aristeas claimed thatPtolemy Philadelphus commissioned a translation to be made into Greek by six men from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, sent by the highpriest in Jerusalem. These 72 scholars purportedly came up with identical translations. Scholars generally discount the legend, but the name”Septuagint” — from the Latin word for seventy “septuaginta” — became the traditional name for this translation.
TheChristian Church, at first largely speaking Greek, adopted the Septuagint as its “official” version of the Old Testament. Afterwards it wasabandoned by Jews.
How Many Different Languages Has The Bible Been Translated Into
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek are the languages from which the Bible has been translated. According to September 2020 statistics, the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages, while the New Testament has been translated into 1,551 languages and Bible portions or stories have been translated into 1,160 languages.
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Why Did William Tyndale Translate The Bible Into English
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Hereof, when did William Tyndale translate the Bible into English?
The Tyndale Bible generally refers to the body of biblical translations by William Tyndale . Tyndale’s Bible is credited with being the first English translation to work directly from Hebrew and Greek texts.
Additionally, how was the Bible translated to English? Although John Wycliffe is often credited with the first translation of the Bible into English, there were in fact many translations of large parts of the Bible centuries before Wycliffe’s work. 639709) translated the complete Book of Psalms and large portions of other scriptures into Old English.
Similarly, why did Tyndale translated the Bible into English?
Tyndale’s translation was the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to use Jehovah as God’s name as preferred by English Protestant Reformers, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, and first of the new English Bibles
How did William Tyndale smuggle Bibles into England?
Tyndale’s Bible in EnglandWilliam Tyndale arranged for these Bibles to be smuggled into England. They discovered that Catholic priests had taught them doctrines which were not in the Bible. During the next few years 18,000 copies of this bible were printed and smuggled into England.
Religious And Political Impact
Meanwhile, back in England, the bitter religious disputes that had motivated the new Bible translation would spiral by the 1640s into the English Civil Wars, which ended in the capture and execution of King Jamess son and successor, Charles I.
If James had hoped to quash any doubt of his divine right to power, he clearly hadnt succeeded. Meyers points out that the King James Bible gave people access to passages that were not ordinarily read in churchpassages that limit the power of secular rulers like James. As an example, she cites Deuteronomy 17, which reads, One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. But it also suggests that the king should not acquire too many horses, wives or silver and gold for himself and that he, like anyone else, should be subject to the laws of God.
King James wanted to solidify his own reputation as a good king by commissioning the translation, Meyers says. Maybe he didn’t know about those passages about the limits of the king’s powers, or think making them available to all might threaten his divine right as king.
A copy of the King James translation of the Bible seen in the Bible Baptist Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
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The Beginning Of Translations
Around 200 BC a remarkable event illustrated how God prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah. That event was the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language. Although the exact details are unknown, the king of Egypt desired a copy of every known literary work for inclusion in the famed Library of Alexandria. To secure a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, he invited 72 scribes from Israel to undertake the work of translation. Tradition states that each of the scribes was housed in a separate house to complete the task. Tradition also states each scribe completed his work in seventy days, and all the copies were exactly the same!
The knowledge of the Word of God in an accessible language paved the way for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ years later.
Although the account of the translation has undoubtedly been exaggerated, we should not overlook the fact that for the first time the Word of God had been translated into another language. This translation was called the Septuagint, a word that means 70 in the Greek language. It became the Bible of the early church, and many New Testament authors quoted from it rather than from the Hebrew text. For example, the book of Hebrews uses the Septuagint to quote from the Old Testament.
The Bloody History Of Bible Translators
LET ME BEGIN with my own heresy. I recently published a book called Poets of the Bible: From Solomons Song of Songs to Johns Revelation. There are poems lurking everywhere in our two Testaments and yet, the iniquity is in collating the whole Bible into one concise poetry anthology. Poetry is often concealed in prose, as we know think of Whitman, who found his paradigm for free verse in scripture. There were many before him of course, including John Milton, and many after, like Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas. Poems abound in the Bible like spring blooms. My task, as I saw it, was to liberate hundreds of them from Genesis to the astounding Revelation. I was thrilled to try to turn so much beauty, tale, and thought into English verse. Tip off the inquisitors, but a holy tree and poetry resides in Eden:
So the lord God casts a deep sleep on the manAnd he sleeps. Then he takes one of his ribsAnd closes up the hole with his flesh,
And the rib the lord God takes from the manHe makes into a woman and brings her to the man.And Adam says, She is the bone of my bones.
Yes, today, alas, my bones will not be dug up and burned. So be it. I pray instead for the translators and poets who came before me and who allowed the poetry in the Bible to breathe and see light.
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Reaction Of The Catholic Church And Execution
Tyndale’s translations were condemned in England by Catholic authorities, where his work was banned and copies burned. Catholic officials, prominently Thomas More, charged that he had purposely mistranslated the ancient texts in order to promote anti-clericalism and heretical views. In particular they cited the terms “church”, “priest”, “do penance” and “charity”, which became in the Tyndale translation “congregation”, “senior” , “repent” and “love”, challenging key doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.
Betrayed to church officials in 1536, he was defrocked in an elaborate public ceremony and turned over to the civil authorities to be strangled to death and burned at the stake. His last words are said to have been, “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.”
Challenges To Catholic Doctrine
Tyndale’s translation of the Bible had notes critical of the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church had long proclaimed that the only true Church was the Catholic Church.
The word church in Catholic teaching can only be used of the Catholic Church, and there was no other organized religion in England at that time.
Some radical reformers preached that the true church was the “invisible” church, that the church is wherever true Christians meet together to preach the word of God. To these reformers, the Catholic Church was unnecessary, and its very existence proved that it was in fact not the “true” Church.
When Tyndale translated the Greek word as congregation, he was thereby undermining the entire structure of the Catholic Church.
Many of the reform movements believed in the authority of scripture alone. To them it dictated how a “true” church should be organized and administered. By changing the translation from church to congregation Tyndale was providing ammunition for the beliefs of the reformers. Their belief that the church was not a visible systematized institution but a body defined by believers, however organized, who held a specifically Protestant understanding of the Gospel and salvation was now to be found directly in Tyndale’s translation of Scripture.
Tyndale’s translation of the Greek word to mean elder instead of priest also challenged the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
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The Deathbed Translation Of Bede
But the English world, such as it was back then, did not have to wait long for an actual translation. That came with the Venerable Bede, born in 672 or 673, around the time of Caedmons death. Bede is remembered as the author of a monumental history of the English and a giant of English theology in the early Middle Ages.
The last work of his life was his translation of the Gospel of John. Bede labored on this until the very moment of his death. As the ailing saint drew near to the end, he was told by the scribe to whom he had been dictating the translation that one chapter remained. Go on quickly I do not know how long I shall hold out and whether my Maker will not soon remove me, Bede told the scribe, according to one account.
It came down to one last sentence. All is finished, Bede said to his companion. He rested his head on the floor of his monastic cell, calling upon his heavenly Father to take him home, as the monks around him sang the Glory Be. That was in 735.
List Of The Best Translations Of The Bible
The best translations of the Bible are mostly well-known, but there are also a few that are not so well-known. Scholars regard Word-for-Word as most accurate translation method that leaves the least room for error.
Thought-by-Thought and Paraphrase are much more readable, but they have been criticized because these translations can begin to interpret the Bible rather than only translating it.
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The Translations Of The Bible
The many translations are necessary for spreading the word of God without any obstacles in communication. However, this should not diminish the significance of the original languages of the Bible, the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, and the language of the era when the books of the Scriptures were written. The study of the original languages is imperative for the correct understanding of the meaning of the Bible. The knowledge of the original languages is also imperative in order to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular. The knowledge of the original language is especially necessary for the doctrinal teaching of the Bible.
The individual Christian is urged to read the Bible in his own language for his spiritual enrichment, but not to use the translation in arriving at personal conclusions. One should read the Bible against the background of the interpretation given it by the Church as a whole, not on one’s own interpretation. It is profitable, however, for one who studies the Bible to use short commentaries of the Church and to leave the dogmatic and systematic teaching to the Church, which is the authoritative and infallible body. Taking a Biblical verse out of context often is misleading and is the basic cause of the Christian Church being separated into many parts, each interpreting according to their own opinions and thoughts.
The Need to Know the Original Languages
The Translation of the Bible into English