Translation

Some people feel every Greek word should be translated with an English word. There are, of course, notable exceptions; ὅτι introducing a direct quote is translated with quotation marks. But it is argued that inspiration requires every word to be translated one way or another.

I am not convinced this is an accurate way of thinking. Yes, Scripture is the Word of God, and all of it comes from the mouth of God (2 Tim 3:16). But how does Greek communicate? How does any language communicate? I suggest that authorial intent is discovered more at the phrase level (in most cases) than at the word level, and style is part of the communication process.

After all, if I wrote as a first grader, or in Yoda-speak, in a colloquial style, or in an extremely formal style, style is one of the tools I am using to communicate Is there a difference in meaning between answering the phone “It is I” and “It is me,” “yeh,” or “Me it is”? Is there a difference in saying “With whom should I speak?” and “Who should I speak to?”? Of course there is.

This blog is purely on translation and not directly on Greek, but I have been thinking about this a lot lately so thought I would share it.

Most people say there are two translation camps, formal equivalent and functional equivalent (or dynamic equivalent). The longer I am in translation work, the more I see how simplistic this division is. There actually are five methods on translation with three sub-categories for the handling of gender language.

Translations are all on a continuum, overlapping one another, and hence it is misleading to picture them as different points on a line. I am guessing, but for example, about eighty percent of the ESV and the NIV are the same, once you account for different translations of individual words.

1. Literal. The most accurate meaning of the word “literal” when it comes to translation work is “word-for-word.” The only “translations” that do this consistently are interlinears. (I quote the word “translations” because interlinears are not properly translations.) The word “literal” should never be used of any other form of translation since all of them, every single one, despite their marketing, rarely translate word-for-word. They will say they translate word-for-word unless it does not make sense or misinforms, but that is a red herring argument. They are never consistently word-for-word, unless you can find a translation that translates John 3:16 as, “in this way for loved the God the world so that the Son the only he gave in order that each the believing into him not perish but have life eternal.” No Bible on the market is “literal.”

Psalm 27 in one of my favorite Psalms. David starts by asserting his faith. “The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?” His belief is held in the face of wickedness seeking to destroy him (vv 2–3).

This morning in church the pastor read Acts 27 out of the NLT, and I was bothered. I understand that the NLT’s policy to to make the text readable and understandable, and I applaud the desire.

No matter how word-for-word a translation tries to be, there will always be some confusing sentence that requires interpretation. Sometimes, the more word-for-word translations just leave it confusing, but other times even the NASB and ESV (for example) feel the need to interpret.

A friend asked me this question the other day, and I thought I would take this opportunity to flesh out what I think the answer is.

It is a well-known fact that Greek sentences tend to be longer than English, and therefore a translator will regularly turn a long Greek sentence into two of more English sentences.

This is one of the more interesting questions that is answered in each translation’s “Philosophy of Translation.”

I came across a couple interesting verses. My comments are not so much about grammar as they are about translation, but thought it would be fun to look at the LXX a little.

Please understand a bit of obscurity, but I am not in a country where I cannot be too specific, but I have been having an incredible experience with language and wanted to share it with you.