tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Aug 23 01:41:06 1994

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Re: How to translate the bible???



>From: Heidi Wessman <[email protected]>
>Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 08:14:00 -0600 (MDT)


>Okay.  So let me get this straight, not only for myself, but perhaps for 
>another:

>The KBTP is using the KJV simply because it is a piece of literature, 
>and one of the most-recognized translations in North  America.  If they 
>were translating the bible as a religious work, there are older, more 
>accurate versions which would serve a better purpose.

I thought the KBTP was using the Revised Standard Version?  Or was it
another?  I left Kevin's letter at home someplace.  Kevin, can you clarify?
Or have I mistaken two names for the same translation?  This is possible; I
know that some of the translations get renamed as they get tweaked.
Basically, my understanding is that we're trying to find a fairly
well-known and reasonably accurate translation, since not everyone can go
from the original (though it's notable that the editors and the
co-ordinator [me, Jonathan VanHoose, and Kevin Wilson] *are* versed in the
respective original languages [me in Hebrew and Aramaic, Jon in Coine
Greek, and Kevin in both], and that at least Nick Nicholas, another
translator, is also knowledgable in Greek).

Not that it's possible to translate without interpreting anyway.  Languages
simply don't do that.  There are always ambiguities in one language that
another doesn't reproduce and vice-versa.  A translator walks a very narrow
line.  You can't be too free, or you're not being faithful.  But too much
faithfulness and you're writing nonsense, which also isn't faithful.

>Does this statement read correct?

>------------------
>chuQun


~mark



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