Reading the Bible as a translated text

There is an Italian phrase that in English reads “to translate is to betray.” The idea is that moving something from one language into another inevitably means losing something from the original. There are plays on words that don’t convert and jokes that need knowledge of the original culture to land. It must also be said that some words or phrases are simply untranslatable.

And yet, where would we be without translations? We could not read the Bible without knowing Hebrew and Greek. How would we read Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey or Dante’s Divine Comedy or Dostoevsky’s novels if we could not understand the authors’ native tongue? Conversely, do Shakespeare’s plays or Mark Twain’s writings have the same effect when translated into another language? I wonder how Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address comes across in a different language.

Most Presbyterian seminary students are required to take Hebrew and Greek as well as some exegesis courses which assume an acquaintance with those two languages. I must admit that 40 years after my graduation, there is little that I have retained of those languages. However, I believe it was an important part of my seminary education for two reasons. First, it provided me with an opportunity to have a working acquaintance with the original languages of Scripture so that I could try to read Scripture as it was originally written. Second, and more important, I think, it made me aware that Scripture as we know it is a translation. That is not to denigrate what we have in English. On the contrary, I am profoundly grateful for those scholars who took such time and care in trying to render in English the language and the spirit of the text.

Understanding Scripture as an act of translation can change our understanding of it. In his book The Bible in English, David Daniell writes, “The history of the Bible is a story of translation.” In leading Bible studies for a group in the last congregation I served, I was helped immensely by commentaries written by biblical scholars. I became aware, for example, of play on words in the original Hebrew or Greek that simply did not come across in the English translation. Also, some psalms are acrostic psalms — each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That detail might or might not affect the meaning of the psalm, but it is a literary device (in part, perhaps to aid memorization) that isn’t evident in most translations.

Understanding Scripture as an act of translation can change our understanding of it.

The choices that translators made are also important. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul’s well-known and powerful commentary on the resurrection, there’s an interesting choice translators have made that, in my view, contributes to the power of the English rendering. In verse 52, the KJV, the RSV, the NRSV and the New English Bible read, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” The Greek word that is translated as “twinkling” is ripae and literally means “blinking.” While some might see little difference between “twinkling” and “blinking,” I suggest that the translator(s) would have known what Mark Twain meant when he said that the difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. Read that phrase now with each of those words. The literal translation reads “in the blinking of an eye” (Eugene Peterson keeps this in The Message), while without losing the spirit of the meaning, the translators chose “in the twinkling of an eye.” Which is the lightning bug, and which is the lightning?

Some years ago, I spent a night in a hotel in Munich, Germany. On the wall by the light switch was a piece of paper that had instructions on what to do in case of a fire. It was written first in German, and beneath the German was the following English translation:

Dear guest,

We please you in the interest of your own safety to pay attention to the following directions:

1. 1. Do not smoke in bed.
   2. Do not throw away careless your butts.
   3. When you notice fire, inform the reception right away in dialing number 11 and locate the scene of the conflagration.
   4. Should the evacuation of the hotel be necessary, you will be informed by time.
   5. In any case, do not use the lift!
   6. Impress you exact our site.
   7. Keep calmness – avoid panic!

Thank you!

Clearly, the person responsible for offering an English translation of the German instructions had only a limited acquaintance with English and, no doubt, had a German- English dictionary in front of him or her. It was a noble effort, and an important point was made, but it directs us to some of the challenges of literal translations.

That also leads us to similar challenges in reading Scripture literally. First, reading everything in the Bible literally loses sight of the fact that all of it is a translation and there may be much in the original that gets lost in translation. Second, part of the responsibility of the translator is to try, as much as one can, to capture the sense or the spirit of the original text. For instance, when Jesus says, “if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you” (Matthew 18:8) and “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you” (Matthew 18:9), is it the spirit of what Jesus says means that those words should be taken literally? Even if that’s what the Greek text says, most would say that Jesus is speaking hyperbolically. Translation necessarily involves interpretation.

Translation necessarily involves interpretation.

One of my favorite words in my very limited Hebrew vocabulary is hesed. The NRSV often translates it as “steadfast love.” However, it is a rich word that can also be rendered as “love,” “lovingkindness,” “faithfulness,” “unmerited mercy,” “loyalty,” or “devotion,” none of which truly captures its full meaning. Furthermore, it is a word that is more than a noun or an adjective. It is an action word. Some point to Naomi’s decision to stay with Ruth, her mother-in-law, as an example of hesed. Why is it translated one way in one passage and a different way in another passage? In Psalm 103 the word is translated “steadfast love” several times throughout (verses 4, 8, 11 and 17). Eugene Peterson translates hesed in those verses as simply “love.” In Hosea 4:1 the word is translated in the NRSV with two words – “faithfulness or kindness.” In The New English Bible, that verse is translated more expansively as “good faith or mutual trust.” The sense is clear, I suppose, but the point is that translators must make decisions, and at stake is capturing the spirit and richness of a word or phrase. Sometimes a literal translation is either not possible or makes no sense.

The matter of translation can be taken in different directions. Preaching can be taken as a kind of translation or interpretation. Theology can be considered as a kind of translation or interpretation. Writing a church’s history might be thought of as a translation based on the evidence available. Indeed, how one lives one’s life can be seen as a person’s translation of his or her understanding of the Christian faith.

Is the Italian phrase right — “to translate is to betray”? Perhaps the answer is yes and no. Translations cannot always capture the richness and nuances that the original language may possess. However, when done carefully, translations can capture the spirit of the original writer’s intent. What’s required both by the translator/interpreter and the reader of translations, whether the Bible, a novel, or any other writing, is a large dose of humility while, at the same time, valuing the importance of having the translation itself.