Monday, October 3, 2011

A Look into the Process of Translation (ESV-style)

Just getting back from two senior retreats at the high school, thus the small amount of blog content over the past week. As I get back into the daily routine, I thought I would post this Youtube video which examines a particular translation decision that the ESV Committee had to decide in regards to the word "slave". The debate about how to translate "slave" in this instance is fascinating, but more importantly this clip gives you a quite a bit of insight into the world of Bible translations. (Thanks to Louis at Baker Book House Blog for posting.)

6 comments:

Leonardo said...

Hi,

thanks for this incredible video. It is very interesting to see the scholars working together, facing the challenges we endure while reading the Bible.

Matt said...

This is actually quite terrifying. Imagine all of changes in meaning that get voted on by people who are not properly disposed to do so. It effects a lot of people who are reading their translations. I don't mean just the ESV, btw.

Leonardo said...

Hi,

comment to Matt, without the intention to make an argument, but only to express my point of view.

I think that everybody has to make his own voting, internally, to try find the meaning of the content of the Bible. That process is carried with the help of many persons, and finally with maybe the help of God.

best regards.

Francesco said...

I don't see what was wrong with the discussion shown in the video. The job the committee had was to take an ancient concept and translate it into English for modern readers. Unless everyone is supposed to learn ancient Greek and Hebrew, something like this is going to happen every time a translation is made.

And we can't just translate once and for all: the meaning of words change and so we need new translations or at least revisions of old translations.

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