Translation – What Does This Mean?

Encore Post: The Bible, it’s stories, phrases, poetry and images are so woven into our culture we don’t even notice it. Even more so it is a part of our worship, prayers and teaching that it is a natural part of our faith. So it is easy too forget that God’s word was not originally spoken and written in English, but in two or three eras of the Hebrew language, Aramaic and the everyday Greek of the Roman empire. The King James Version was so well done that it had a staying power of nearly 500 years and influences all of our modern translations. Yet even it loses some of the meaning moving across languages, culture and time period. That is why Lutheran pastors have been traditionally taught to read the Hebrew and Greek of the original texts.

One way to see that is to try to translate from English to English. Think of the word “Excellent.” What word would you use in its place if you could not use the word “Excellent?” Does the word you picked mean exactly “excellent?” Not really. Some shades of meaning are lost — like when you see a picture in black-and-white instead of color.

So, when you are trying to understand a passage, consider the original language. If you never learned them, there are tools you can use to get at the original. With the advice of your pastor, select two to four different translations for your study. Pick ones that are somewhat different in approach. When you study, read them together. If they say virtually the same thing, you know the original is not difficult to translate. If they are very different, check the notes of a study Bible or ask your pastor what is going on behind the translations.

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Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Encore Post: 1600 years ago, a respected, old monk lived in a cave in Bethlehem said to be the birthplace of Jesus. We know him as Saint Jerome, the father of translation, one of the greatest scholars of church history, standing only in the shadow of his contemporary, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. We give thanks for him and all translators on September 30. In medieval times, the church assigned him to the role of patron saint of libraries. His symbol in Christian art is the lion, after the legend that he pulled a thorn out of the paw of a lion cub, who followed him the rest of his life. A large version of the classical painting of him in his study hangs opposite my desk in the Walther Building of the Wayne and Barbara Kroemer Library Complex.

Jerome is said to have written the latin pun: translatio traditio est. It means both: “Translation is Tradition” and “Translation is Treason.” It captures perfectly the two forces that pull at faithful translators. You can either perfectly rewrite the meaning of the text in the new language or reproduce each word with the one or two words in the new language that are closest to the original. If you do the first, the result is more a commentary — what the scholar believes from his or her theological viewpoint. If you do the second, people reading the translation have a very hard time understanding what it means.

Most translations lean towards one or the other, but try to do both. If they succeed — like St. Jerome’s Vulgate, Luther’s German Bible and the King James Version — generations will come to love the language of these version and at the same time hear God’s Word. It passes down the faith to the next generation. When they do not, it distorts God’s word at best and betrays it at worst. So, translation is both tradition and treason. For those of us who speak English, we are blessed with dozens of translations. Taken together, they open to us the treasures of Holy Scripture. For this reason, we thank God for Jerome — and all translators!

Tag: Translation

Rule #7: Respect the Original Languages

Translation is Tradition — Treason?