My heart I offer: Translating the Bible

It was not that long ago that I would joke about the abbreviation of the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) standing for "Nearly Inspired Version." Funny, that, but I was certainly speaking from ignorance (and arrogance?). The theory behind the joke is that the NIV's dynamic equivalent translation philosophy was by default inferior to the English Standard Version's (ESV)- aka "English Superior Version"- formal equivalence translation philosophy. The first tries to capture idea for idea what the text says, while the latter tries to capture the meaning word for word. What I've discovered in the last two weeks of translating 1 John is that these categories, while helpful, are not absolute, and the idea that the formally equivalent versions are always and in toto superior for every purpose is a fallacy. (As an aside, I've not yet read any of the 2011 NIV, but that is somewhat beside the point).

During our two week class Dr. Agan tried to drill into our heads that the question, "What is the best version of the Bible?" should be met with the answer, "For what purpose?" Are you hoping to look into the sentence structure of the Greek, but don't know Greek? The NASB might be a good bet. Are you hoping to read the Bible publicly, but leave some exegetical questions ambiguous (perhaps ones you plan to address in Sunday School or a Bible study)? Give the ESV a turn. Do you want to have some insight into the differences in different Greek manuscripts, but don't know how to use the apparatus in a Greek text? Try one of the two just mentioned and a NKJV. Do you want to read large passages of Scripture and have more of the interpretive issues answered for you? The NIV is great for that.

There are many other variables as well. The sorts of questions that I just reviewed would likely be issues that a person who is a fairly serious student of the Bible might ask. But different versions work well for different types of people. The best version for Jr. High student is probably (though not necessarily) different from the version a college student would use. A child will use a different version from her parents. An older person, especially in the South, will likely prefer a KJV.

Jorge Luis Borges once quipped, "The original is unfaithful to the translation." George Borrow said, "Translation is at best an echo." The author Umberto Eco said of translation that "Translation is the art of failure." What these men are getting at is that you always loose something in the translation. If you a capture a verbs aspect well, you may loose its tense. If you get its tense, you may loose mood. When writing a simple translation (non-annotated) it is difficult to convey every single thing that the original says in every instance. It just cannot be done.

But what is lost in translation? Without getting into modern language theory, the simple answer is nuance. It is like a piece of music. Whoever can read music is able to play a song if they have a notes on a page. Think of a hymnal. It's just a key signature, notes, and words. If you can read music, your in good shape. But in truly excellent music played by competent musicians there will be more on the page than just notes. The music contains something called dynamic marks. These tell the musician or conductor how loudly to play, how quickly to play, and the style in which to play. It is the nuance of the music. This last bit is what is lost in translation.

Obviously, you can understand a piece of music without the dynamics. Our English Bible's capture the meaning of the Bible, and capture it rather brilliantly. In fact, this was one of the major themes of the Protestant Reformation. In my own church's confession this is made explicit. In Chapter 1 section 8 the Assembly at Westminster wrote, "...because these original tongues [languages] are not known to all the people of God, who have right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar [common] language of every nation unto which they come that, the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship Him in an acceptable manner; and, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, may have hope."

We are fortunate to speak one of the world's most used languages. The number and quality of our English language translations is enviable. There have been many faithful and careful translators who have made the Bible accessible. But if we do not understand how difficult it is to translate anything from one language to another, we will fail to be generous to these outstanding translations. Some people fall into the arrogant, ignorant attitude that I embraced all too recently. We as Christians should never give someone reason to doubt that the Bible they hold is the Word of God. If they are using a faithful translation (which would exclude things like the New World Translation) we should encourage others to read it and receive the Spirit through it.

May we all take the advice of the childlike voice that lead to Augustine's conversion, "take up and read" in whichever version you prefer.

(In the next few days or so, I plan to look into this topic again, namely to evaluate the question, "should pastors take the time and money to learn the original languages if our English translations are so good?" In that post I will write a few more details about how some of these Bibles translate the same Greek passage in different ways).