Wow, this could be a long subject to talk about............................. :air_kiss: Thank you!
It is well known that the Bible is the most translated book in the world. In 1994 the United Bible Societies recorded that, of the estimated 3,000 languages in the world, 341 had complete Bibles, 822 some parts of the Bible, and that Bible translation was in progress in an additional 1,000 languages. The lack of ability to speak the languages in which the Bible was originally written and continual changes in the languages we speak have created the need to translate the Bible. Therefore, throughout the years, there have been many who have translated or tried to translate the Bible.
However, translating the Bible is not an easy task, since there are many problems inherent in Bible translation. If we think how hard it is to translate modern languages into English, then how much more difficult it must be to translate 3,000-year-old Hebrew and 2,000-year-old Greek!
One basic problem inherent in Bible translation is that we do not have the original manuscript of the Bible, but copies of copies of copies... and this causes many problems because translators do not know which of all these copies is correct and which is not, since none of them are identical. The differences are not very significant in the Old Testament, but they are in the New Testament. According to research, "about 3 per cent of the Bible's texts varies across all the manuscripts. Nowadays, we have about 1,500 complete or partial manuscripts of the New Testament."
Bible Translation
There are two main approaches to solving this problem. The more common one is called the ecletic approach. Scholars put together a text from all the available manuscripts using various rules to sort out differences.
But this approach is not accepted by many people, for it gives too much scope to human judgment.
Another approach that has been used in the past is that of Ivan Panin. In 1890 Ivan Panin, after his conversion from atheism, discovered that the entire Bible was full of hidden numerical patterns largely based on the number seven. This discovery had two major implications. First, it gave striking proof of the inspiration of the Scripture. Every sentence, every word and even every letter had the divine seal upon it. The patterns could never have been placed there by human wit. Second, it gave him a method of deciding in every instance which was the correct text; and this numerical theory even enabled Panin to resolve ambiguities of punctuation (ibid). However, Ivan Panin's work has been almost entirely ignored by academics.
Most people know, the Bible in its original untranslated form is a collection of ancient writings; the New Testament in Greek (though parts may have been previously written in Hebrew or Aramaic and then translated into Greek), the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic, some passages of the Old Testament, mostly in Daniel, spanning many cultures and more than a thousand years. The 66 books into which the Bible is divided represent "a greater variety of literary styles e.g. historical narrative, prophecy, poetry, instructions and exhortation etc.
Another problem that many translators face in Bible translation is that the Bible is addressed to a huge variety of people, e.g. theologians, adults, children, believers and non-believers, etc. The Bible is written for different uses, i.e., for both readers and listeners. Thus, we could say that it is very difficult for a translator to translate the Bible since s/he must 'reproduce' an equivalent text in the Target Language, which can be 'used' for the same purposes as that of the Source Language.
One must point out that "since no two languages are identical, there can be no absolute correspondence between languages. Hence, there can be no fully exact translations. The total impact of a translation may be reasonably close to the original, but there can be no identity in detail.
No one English word is exactly equivalent to it. It can mean a word, a thought, a saying, a discourse, a narrative, a matter and many other things. The translator must choose the best equivalent in each situation. To illustrate grammatical problems we can consider tenses. English has two present tenses whereas most other languages only have one. Εσθίω in Greek or ich esse in German can mean 'I eat' or 'I am eating'. Pronouns are also full of problems. Hebrew has four words for you distinguishing between masculine and feminine and singular and plural. English has only the one. In the Song of Solomon, in the Hebrew it is always clear from the gender whether the bride or bridegroom is speaking, but some English versions lose the distinction.
Another problem inherent in Bible translation is comprehension of the intended meaning. Here, in fact, there are at least three problems. First, there is the problem of understanding the ancient languages in which the Bible was written. No one who spoke those languages is around to tell us what they mean. We all know that languages continually change over time. New words are always being added and others take on different or added meanings.
Second there is also the problem of cultural understanding. With an imperfect knowledge of ancient cultures it is not always possible to understand references of various kinds. Bible scholars are continually learning things about ancient Israel and the Near East that can help us understand the historical and cultural context out of which the Bible emerged.
The third and most important problem in understanding the Bible is the spiritual problem. "The natural mind does not receive things of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2:14). Anyone who knows God has had the experience of reading a Bible passage a hundred times and then suddenly seeing what it means. As we grow in spiritual understanding, the Bible continually reveals its deeper meanings. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth. Who then would claim to understand every word of the Bible? Hidden gems may well lie beneath the surface of its every sentence.
To conclude, we should admit that the task of the Bible translator is not an easy one since there are many problems inherent in Bible translation. The Bible is a book that was written long ago in three ancient languages, which are unfamiliar to present-day laymen. It involves a greater variety of literary styles than can be encountered in any other piece of literature in the history of the mankind.
The Bible is addressed to a huge variety of people and was written for different 'uses' e.g. listening, reading etc. This makes the Bible hard to translate since it is very difficultfor some people impossibleto transfer all these features from the Source Languages into the Target Language. Because of all the above-mentioned problems (as well others which were not mentioned in this essay) inherent in Bible translation, we have many dozens of Bible translations today.
Nevertheless, no one translation (for instance, The King James Version) can be declared the 'correct' one, since each of them has contributed to our knowledge and understanding of the Bible. Finally, it should be added that in the future we should expect more translations, for languages continually change and Bible scholars are continually learning from archeological findings and newly discovered documents that help translators understand the ancient Greek and Hebrew better. It is certain that there will always be a need for new translations of the Bible because we still have a lot to learn about it.
Some other links of interest.
Index
Translators Tools
Bible Resource Center
