Musings... Dr. Black's BLOG
Comments on Translation Issues Affecting the ISV®
[Introductory Thoughts]
[The ISV Heritage: Where We Got our English Bible]
[The Poetry of the International Standard Version]
[Zechariah 12:10 — Look Upon Me Whom They Pierced]
[The Disciple Whom Jesus Kept on Loving?]
[John 3:16 — God Loved the World So Much!?!]
[John 18:4 — Whom Sweet Whom]
[John 21:15-17 — Sloppy Agape]
[Acts 2:38 — Baptism for Forgiveness?]
[1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — An Ode to Love]
[Ephesians 5:32 — Mustering Mystery out of Musterion]
[Philippians 1:27-30 — Good Citizens]
[1 Timothy 3:2 — "Teachable" or "Able to Teach"]
[Titus 1:12 — On Poets & Liars: When is Poetry Poetry?]
[Hebrews 1:1 — Alliteration in the Bible]
[Hebrews 6:1 — "Press on" or "Be Carried Along"?]
[Hebrews 12:1-2 — Too Much Lettuce?]
[James 1:17 — Good Giving?]
[James 2:14 — Can Faith Save?]
God Loved the World So Much!?!
All translation is necessarily
interpretation. Translation is never just a matter of exchanging a word in one language
for its equivalent in another language.
While living in Switzerland, I once made a
phone call in response to an advertisement for an apartment. When I asked to speak with
the lady who placed the ad, the response was "Sie ist am Apparat."
Oh, I though to myself, the lady must be
exercising on some kind of apparatus. I therefore asked that she be called to the phone,
whereupon the person on the other end of the line burst forth in gales of laughter. You
see, the words "Sie ist am Apparat," though literally, "she’s on the
apparatus," is the German equivalent to the English expression "speaking."
What the dear lady meant was "I’m on the phone speaking to you."
When translating, then, it is necessary to be
as faithful to the source text as is humanly possible.
To take a
final New Testament example, the first clause of John 3:16 reads "God so
loved the world." The NEB translates this as, "God loved the world so much."
But this is impossible. The word translated "so much"
"houto"
is an adverb, not of degree, but of manner. To remove all possibility of
ambiguity, the ISV rendered the clause thus: "This is how God loved the
world."
Dear friend, as you read your ISV New
Testament, the most important thing you can do is to believe what God says in John
3:16—that he loves and cares for you deeply. He was even willing to sacrifice his Son
to save you from sin, and he wants to give you eternal life and a home with him in heaven.
No translation of the Bible is worth very much unless you take this fundamental message to
heart.
In the ISV you will hear God speaking to you
in clear, understandable English. Our prayer is that as you read the Scriptures you will
come to know—in a profoundly personal way—the God who is its great Author and
Subject. |
