Scripture Engagement

I often get asked, 'So, why don't you use Google translate? Or, worse, 'I suppose these days you just use Google translate (GT) to translate the Bible.' Here are several good reasons not to use GT: 1. Most minority languages are not on GT. The one we worked on only became available fairly recently, after the Bible was already translated. 2. GT uses a statistical method, relying on having lots of texts available in the language, and lots of translations of those texts into other languages. It then compares the two and guesses the translation. For minority languages, those don't yet exist in books, let alone online. 3. If you do use it it requires heavy checking and editing of the translation afterwards, which takes time, so you haven't gained anything. This is because it guesses the translation. Google does not, as far as I know employ real translators. The only way of improving the quality of Google translations is for many many people to click 'improve tra...

The phrase 'for him who has ears, let him listen' occurs frequently in the New Testament (Mat 11.15; 13;9 ... Rev 2.7... ). You will hear scholars say it is a Hebraism, but where is it from in the Old Testament? In Hebrew the phrase is actually in the negative: אָזְנַיִם לָהֶם וְלֹא יַאֲזִינוּ  'They have ears but do not listen.' Psalm 135.17 cf. Ezekiel 12.2*  אָזְנַיִם לָהֶם לִשְׁמֹעַ וְלֹא שָׁמֵעוּ 'They have ears to hear but do not hear', which is even closer to the NT version. It's important to know that in Hebrew 'to hear' also means 'to listen, pay attention, obey' in Hebrew. So this phrase could be translated, 'They have ears to hear but they do not listen/obey.' In Exodus 15.26 we find the word 'to hear/listen' repeated for emphasis: אִם־שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע לְקוֹל יְהוָה 'If to listen you listen to the voice of the LORD.' This means 'if you listen carefully' or 'if you listen and obey' to the vo...

The good thing about working as an exegete and translation adviser with translators is that you don't have to solve all the exegetical problems: Numbers in the Old Testament Whether manna was light blue or a kind of whitish colour Who wrote the books of the Bible Whether or not there were different 'sources' of a given book etc. We simply translate what is there and leave others to sort the problems out 😄. But , and it is a big but, there are problems we do need to solve: What 'righteousness' means in the Old Testament, and in Romans/Galatians (actually it's more about how the respective Hebrew and Greek terms sadaqah and dikaiosune are used ) What does 'the righteousness of God' mean? Is it God's righteousness (as in his honour), or the moral righteousness i.e. innocence he imparts to us? What does 'lord' mean when it refers to Jesus in any given instance? LORD God? Or lord/sir? Why was a given verse/passage/book written? W...

Any translation goes through several stages before it is published: Drafting Team check Exegetical check Test & Review Lastly a consultant meets with the team and discusses any translation issues, making suggestion for changes before it is published. I'm now going to unpack why each stage is needed and what happens during each stage. Draft: the translator studies the passage, preferably in the original language, but if not, s/he compares several different versions in several different languages, and makes an oral draft (or sometimes they listen to several different audio versions instead). They do this by closing all their books, if they have any open, then speaking the passage into a recording device (like a smartphone). At least 2-3 verses are drafted at a time, then the translator listens to their recording, and checks they haven't left anything out. They might then keyboard it into their computer, using a program called ' Paratext '. Why do we dr...

We are used to talking about Bible translation in terms of communication. Missiologists talk often talk about 'bridges' used for sharing the good news, which is also a communication metaphor - we have something we want to communicate, but we need a bridge, a way of expressing it, some kind of packaging for it, so that it communicates correctly (or hides whats inside the package, if we interpret the metaphor literally). This is a misunderstanding for two reasons: It is a false assumption that we have 'correctly' understood the good news. Unfortunately we have only understood a representation of the good news for our own culture . It doesn't matter how we package it, this will be misunderstood or irrelevant to the receptor culture (the primary audience in question). For instance, those in the minority world often explain the good news in terms of our guilt before a just God who has to punish sin, and that He, in Christ, took that punishment on our behalf to make us...

Here, just for fun, are some idioms containing the phrase 'son of' in Hebrew: בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים   – ‘sons of the god(s)’ (Gen 6:2) i.e. heavenly beings  cf  Psa 29:1 וְנֹחַ בֶּן־שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה   – ‘Noah was son of six hundred years’ (Gen 7:6) i.e. he was six hundred years old בְנֵי־קֶדֶם   –  ‘sons of the East’ (Gen 29:1) i.e. eastern peoples אֶת־בֶּן הַבָּקָר  – ‘son of the herd’   (Lev 1:5) i.e. one [animal] of the herd וּבְנֵי בְלִיַּעַל   –  ‘son of worthlessness’ (1Sa 10:27; 1Ki 21:10, 13  cf  Dan 11:14) i.e. troublemakers, scoundrels הָאָדָם   בְּנֵי   –  ‘sons of man’ (1Sa 26:19) i.e. men, humans לִבְנֵי־חַיִל   – ‘sons of strength’ (2Sa 2:7; 13:28; 17:10…) i.e. brave בְנֵֽי־עַוְלָ֖ה   – ‘sons of injustice’ (2Sa 3:34; 7:10  cf  Hos 10:9) i.e. criminals בֶן־מָוֶת  – ‘son of death’ (2Sa 12:5) – i.e. someone who deserves to die אֶחָד מִבְּנֵי הַנְּבִיאִים –...