Communication can't be done by one person. Often when people evaluate Bible translations they look at the text in front of them and they look at original language and then evaluate whether it has accurately reflected the meaning.
That is important, but it misses out about half of the point of translation. The really important thing to know is what does it mean to the people who will be reading the translation. You as translator (or as evaluator of the translation) may think it has communicated clearly to "all English speaking people" or the like. But that is a rather large assumption.
For this reason, I'm very interested in talking to people about what are their reactions to various Bible versions, and asking which ones they use and why. It's also why I'm interested in websites like this. Where people (like David J. Stewart in this rather extreme case) rant and rave (I don't think that's too strong a term) about the errors in a particular version. People like Stewart tell me what people expect from a Bible, which very important when translating.
I don't intend for readers of this blog to "rant", but I am interested in people's preferences, and finding out what underlies those preferences.
So if you're out there, and you happen to stumble upon this blog:
What Bible translation do you prefer to read and why?
Hi, Donna. I'm the WoundedEgo from "BetterBibleBlogs." Nice to meet you.
ReplyDelete>>>...What Bible translation do you prefer to read and why?
I might read other translations just for giggles, but for me, these are the ones I take seriously:
* Anchor Bible
* NET Bible
* KJV
I wouldn't miss any of the others if they all mysteriously got sucked off the shelves tomorrow.
Hi there, thanks for the comment. I also like the NET Bible, KVJ I admire for what it is, but it doesn't speak to me on a deep level.
ReplyDeleteI'm less familiar with the Anchor Bible but I'll take a all pretty literal I guess.
Why do you like those? For their syntactic and lexical accuracy?
I love the Anchor series because:
ReplyDelete* the people who do the translation of each book are experts ON THAT BOOK.
* the translations take into account textual corruptions, rather than putting all their eggs into the MT (11th Century) basket;
* every translation decision is documented. "I didn't go with x because of y..." (KUDOS to the NET Bible for trying to do the same...)
* I can read the translated text in my own language. It makes a truckload of sense.