The Word: On the Translation of the Bible

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There are doctrines concerning the nature of Christ that may not have been developed had New Testament authors read the Old Testament in Hebrew. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. The Bible is a “sacred text”; actually, all source texts are sacred: “À la Recherche du temps perdu” (say) is unalterable (unless a new/improved manuscript source is uncovered) but you can have any number of translations; the most famous (Scott Moncrieff) may not always be strictly “accurate” (dangerous term, say “adequate”). Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.

Fascinating exploration of translation of the Bible, quite pluralistic, surprisingly open to the Message, but full of tidbits on the many difficulties of translation. He brings some of the most recent opinions together and provide an important overview of the Bible's translation history, He successfully situates it in the discipline of Translation Studies. A key to her falling out with her family was orchestrated by Jim Bob, who introduced her to missionary Derick Dillard.I'd say, however, that while the reading is accessible, it is very much written by an academic and I suspect that it would be found most interesting - and accessible - by those who have an academic background.

This Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was especially important in the establishment of Christian theology. It may be that the Hebrew of scripture had become the learned language of bookish specialists; an extempore rendering into the Aramaic lingua franca of the Persian period Levant was necessary for public comprehension. EXHILARATING”, says the cover blurb — and, amazingly, it is: scholarly intelligence, a readable style, and insights at every turn, with no language but English needed. For example he at one point gave an example of a bad translation of a verse and said that it was of course wrong, but he didn't provide a correct translation. He quotes a billboard outside a Baptist church in North Carolina that says: “Are you tired of hearing your pastor correct the preserved word of God (the Authorised King James Version) with the Greek or other translations?

This book examines how saints, scholars and interpreters from antiquity to the present have negotiated the difficult task of producing usable versions of the Bible in their own language while remaining faithful to the original. John Barton’s excellent new volume The Word: On the Translation of the Bible details the history, theoretical bases, difficulties and implications of biblical translation. Barton begins with a distinction which is both useful and problematic, that of the difference between functional translation and formal translation.

The chapters detailing shifts in meaning of words with changing world views over the time period in which the Bible was written I found particularly insightful. A translator friend once grumped to me that parts of the novel he was translating were deliberately badly written, and he had to decide how to render that in an un-gauche fashion.Even though she was an adult, Jill’s parents and the show continued to expect more of the young couple. But that would be to miss a fine piece of scholarship (eminently approachable) that goes well beyond its apparent remit: touching on faith, the complex unfolding of the Biblical canon, Jewish-Christian relations, the role of The Book in the lives of believers, the importance of community to the Christian life, the challenges of translation in general, what textual criticism can achieve and so on. I know my understanding of the specifics of The Word was only partial, but I also found that partial understanding very worthwhile. He is the author of numerous books on the Bible, co-editor of The Oxford Bible Commentary and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation . The gospels (which show knowledge of the fall of the Jerusalem Temple in AD70) were written at least two decades after Paul’s epistles.

His bestselling A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize for History, won the Duff Cooper Prize and has been translated into more than ten languages. Its contents date from the beginning of the tenth century BC to the beginning of the second century AD, and it contains archaic genres such as prophecy. Problems arise when interpreters try to impose orthodox religious beliefs on its text: “The extreme diversity of the material in the Bible is not to be reduced by extracting essential principles, but embraced as a celebration of variety. Sceptics, indeed, might find in his magisterial overview of the history of the Bible clear evidence that orthodox religions are grounded in the beliefs of communities rather than in a single authoritative text that records the word of God. Barton's purpose here is to survey the kinds of decision-making translators have to do and offer chapters focused on the complexities of these.It was also a chance to become wealthy, but Jill, who was dedicated to following the rules, didn’t question where the money went. Well, it turns out that it does, in the person of John Barton, whose “The Word” is an unparalleled and elegant masterpiece of scholarship, that should be required reading for anyone who has an interest in religion… or translation. For much of the history of Judaism and almost the entirety of Christianity, however, believers have overwhelmingly understood scripture not in the languages in which it was first written but rather in their own - in translation. Barton does an excellent job here of demonstrating that the formal/functional spectrum is only one of several important features of the translational process.