Translation Principles - gryphonshafer/Bible GitHub Wiki

Translation of the Bible is not easy. Any work to do so is filled with complexities. It is impossible to translate the Bible without making choices about source material and interpretation of that material. The goal of this project is to translate as accurately as possible with the least interpretation as possible. However, it is impossible to be ultimately successful. What follows are findings and principles of this translation project.

Findings

What follows are what could be called "findings of fact" with regard to any project that attempts a Bible translation.

Translation is Inexact

The act of translation is inexact. Words and phrases in one language do not always have an exact meaning in another language. Phrases in one language could be a local or cultural idiom that when literally translated are meaningless or misleading. There are times when there is no literal translation for a word or phrase.

Language is Not Static

Language changes over time. It is not static. Compare Chaucer (12th century), Shakespeare (15th century), and Chesterton (early 20th century). Hebrew and Greek are both older than English and have also evolved over time.

Local Meanings

An author writes for an audience, attempting to convey meaning. If the author knows the intended initial audience will understand a symbol, an idiom, or a euphemism, the author may resort to deploying such in an attempt to more easily and accurately convey complex meaning. When translating this content centuries later, care must be taken to understanding these deployments.

Interpretation is Bad but Inevitable

When translating, interpretation is bad in that it necessarily means one person or a small group of people are attempting to understand the source texts and are applying meaning through updating the inexact nature of the translation all whilst maintaining their biases of faith. However, interpretation in many cases is unavoidable, which means the biases, backgrounds, and beliefs of the translators becomes entwined as part of the outcome.

Principles

What follows are principles to be adopted and promoted as part of this translation project.

Interpret as Little as Possible

In so much as it is possible, limit interpretation. If there is a strict, literal word translation option, try to use it unless doing so would cause a reader to infer a different meaning than what is directly and obviously observable in the text. If the source text itself is confusing, do not attempt to interpret its meaning, but rather attempt to translate as close to literally as possible.

Clearly Identify Interpretations

When an interpretation is required, attempt as best as possible to label the interpretation and offer alternate interpretations as footnotes.

Careful Crossreferencing and Footnoting

Many Bible readers (non-scholars) will interpret crossreferences and footnotes to be on par with verse content in terms of Divine authority. While this is clearly not true, it is never the less incumbent upon the translators to limit crossreferences to verses that have similar phraseology or are clear and unambiguous references to events. Crossreferences to verses that convey similar theological meanings but do not use similar phraseology should be avoided.

Footnotes should purely provide information, not interpretation, whenever possible. The exception to this is when an interpretation of the source material is unavoidable, in which case a footnote should label the interpretation and offer alternate interpretations.

Reordering of Words but not Phrases

When translating, changing the order of words to bring about a more clear reading of the text is permissible (and usually required). However, reordering of phrases should be avoided as much as possible. While reordering of phrases will usually not change the meaning of the material, it distorts and often destroys a poetic pattern contained within the source material.

Minimalist Addition of Words

It will become required in certain cases to add words to the source material to improve the readability of the text. All additions should be clearly marked as such by the convention of putting the added words in italics.