HCSB - Bible Translation: Navigating the Horizons in Bible Translations

Top Highlights

“Just as Gentiles who joined the church were not required to be circumcised, they were not expected to learn Hebrew. Consider the miracle God granted at Pentecost: Was the diverse crowd given the ability to understand Hebrew? No, the disciples were given the ability to proclaim the gospel in the native languages of all the pilgrims in Jerusalem. So from the very beginning days of the church, accommodation was the accepted practice, and translation was the key to evangelism.” (source)

“In Babylon the Torah had been translated into Aramaic—at least orally—beginning in the 5th century BC (Neh 8:8).” (source)

“First, do the English words do well at representing the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek originals?” (source)

“Thiselton points out that we and the biblical texts and authors occupy two horizons. Moses, Elijah, David, Jeremiah, and each of the apostles were limited by their own horizons. And we can understand what they wrote and said only to the extent that we understand their world and culture—the world of the text—in addition to their language.” (source)

“Translation is a process by which a text (oral or written) in one language is transformed into an equivalent text in another. Paraphrase, on the other hand, means to transform a text from one style into a text in another style, but in the same language.” (source)