The Bible Translator

The Revised Jewish Publication Society translation of the Hebrew Bible (RJPS, 2023), an adaptation of the meaning-based English version known as NJPS (1985, 1999), has changed many renderings of the personal noun אִישׁ‎ (usually glossed as “man; person”). This article explains the cognitively based, communication-oriented thinking behind seventy new renderings. In these cases, singular אִישׁ‎ appears in construct with a group name (most often יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ “Israel”) and refers to a specific plurality of persons regarded as a single body. The analysis views אִישׁ‎ as a situating noun, that is, its use profiles its referent in terms of the depicted situation. The proposed motivation for singular collective usage is to make a pragmatic contrast with אֲנָשִׁים‎ (the standard plural of אִישׁ‎) to situate the participant in the bigger picture. This situation-oriented approach readily yields coherent and informative texts while solving interpretive cruxes. Principles for translating a situating noun are also briefly discussed.

Daniel 9.24-27 is addressed as a case study for testing a widely accepted list of formal criteria for diagnosing where a passage gravitates toward within the prose/poetry continuum. A close reading of the passage reveals a dense condensation of lineated discourse markers corroborated by linguistic opposition with its immediate context. Taking Berlin’s “perceptibility” principles into account (proximity, similarity, quantity, expectation), such a convergence of poetic features favors a lineated discourse reading over its alternative, “elevated prose.” Bible translators would have sound exegetical grounds for printing or performing Dan 9.24-27 in other creative ways for promoting the perception and appreciation of this highlighted line-crafted revelatory discourse.

The societal and cultural significance of the Bible and the interpretations and applications thereof mean that the legitimacy of Bible translations and translation strategies are extensively debated. However, creativity in Bible translation has not often been specifically addressed. In the last century, much of the discourse around Bible translation has been shaped by the work of Eugene Nida. This paper approaches the topic of creativity within Bible translation by examining Nida’s work with a particular concern for this topic. Bonnie Lewis’s Timshel: An Idiomatic Bible Translation is then discussed as a case study. Lewis’s work is an explicitly creative rendering of sections of the Bible in English, inspired by the Jewish tradition of midrash, a reading between the lines, and including extra-biblical content. Examination of Lewis’s project provokes questions about the role of creativity in Bible translation, translation vs. preaching, and who is permitted to translate the Bible.

The Chinese New Living Translation (CNLT, 2012) is a daughter translation of the American NLT (1996), a very popular Bible translation in the English-speaking world. By its own account, it follows the style and the character of the American “mother version” with its lively, easy-to-understand and easy-to-read contemporary language, coupled with exegetical accuracy. The interesting question that arises in this paper is how to methodically study the purposes and specifics of a daughter translation such as CNLT. A multi-step method is proposed with the aim of evaluating CNLT with a view to its self-imposed goals. As a short example, the method is applied to a passage in Ps 23 to illustrate the approach. The specific problems of CNLT as a daughter translation such as error propagation and the acceptability problem are addressed in a final hermeneutical and missiological reflection.

In the last three years, the field of Bible translation has seen a growing interest in oral Bible translation. While this has been seen as an advantage in bringing the Bible to cultures where orality is the norm, surprisingly, the oral nature of the biblical text in the Hebrew Bible has received less attention. Usually, indigenous translators have worked from Bible translations that have been produced for written language, making the text more difficult to translate into their languages in an oral way. In this article I advocate for a closer exploration of the Hebrew text, its characteristics, and its oral forms, as a means of facilitating the work of translators in oral Bible translations.

More than one hundred years of Bible translation in Malawi with a primary focus on the production of written versions has left behind those who have an oral orientation, negatively affecting Bible engagement in most rural communities. This study reports on a survey that was done in rural congregations of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Nkhoma Synod, in Malawi, on the levels of Bible engagement and the viability of oral Bible translation. Before presenting the results of the survey, the study appraises the history of Bible translation in Malawi for the purpose of highlighting the communication gap left by written Bible translations. A discussion of both scholarly and biblical materials establishes the need for oral Bible translation.

Cluster checking is the most frequently used form of consultant checking in one area of East Africa. This kind of checking is primarily exegetical checking. In this paper, the negative and positive aspects of cluster checking will be discussed, with a special focus on the checking of three translations of Exodus in October 2022. In preparation for this cluster-checking session, many notes were prepared for each team. The impact of these notes on the translations will be examined. Despite the fact that cluster checking may not be the best form of consultant checking, the interaction between the teams in such a checking session often leads to improvements in the translations that probably would not have happened in a comprehension-style checking session with one team.