Program / Course 5: Biblical Languages / Lesson 5.2
What you will learn
- Describe the main stages in the history of Bible translation from the Septuagint to modern English versions.
- Explain how individual, committee and church sponsored translations differ.
- Identify the authorizing body and purpose of a translation you use.
- Describe, fairly, how Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish communities have approached translation.
The big idea
Every Bible translation has a maker and a purpose. Some were the work of a single scholar, such as Jerome or Tyndale. Some were made by committees appointed by a king, a church or a publishing body. Others came from missionary societies working in new languages. The makers’ beliefs, goals and audiences shape the result. Knowing who translated a Bible, for whom and under whose authority is part of reading it well, and it implies no suspicion of any translation.
Key terms
- Vulgate
- The Latin Bible translated largely by Jerome in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. The name means common or widely used.
- Vernacular
- The ordinary spoken language of a people, as opposed to the language of learning or liturgy.
- Targum
- An Aramaic translation or paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures, used in Jewish worship and study.
- Authorized version
- A translation approved by an authority for public use. The name is used chiefly for the King James Version of 1611.
- Imprimatur
- A Latin word for let it be printed. In the Catholic Church it is an official statement that a book is free of doctrinal or moral error.
- Bible society
- A body that publishes and distributes Scripture, often across denominations.
Background
The Bible has been translated for as long as it has existed. Greek speaking Jews translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Jews who spoke Aramaic used Targums. Christians translated the Scriptures into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Gothic, Ethiopic and many other languages in the first centuries. Missionaries of the Eastern church, Cyril and Methodius, are credited with creating a script and translating Scripture into the Slavic language of the ninth century.
Translation is not only a technical task. It is also an act of a community. A translation is made by people who hold particular beliefs about Scripture, who aim at particular readers and who work under particular authorities. These facts do not make a translation untrustworthy. They are part of its history, and a careful reader should know them.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The early and medieval period
Jerome, a priest and scholar, was asked around the year 382 by Pope Damasus to revise the Latin Gospels, and he went on to translate most of the Old Testament from Hebrew with the help of Jewish teachers. His work became the Vulgate, which was the main Bible of western Europe for a thousand years. Some of his contemporaries, including Augustine, worried that departing from the Greek Septuagint might unsettle the churches, and there was lively debate over the use of the Hebrew.
In the Greek and Slavic east, the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament remained central. The Syriac Peshitta and the Coptic and Armenian versions served churches in their own languages. In the English speaking world, there were Old English renderings of parts of the Bible, and in the late fourteenth century the followers of John Wycliffe produced English translations from the Latin.
Step 2: The Reformation and after
Printing, the revival of Greek and Hebrew and the Reformation brought a wave of vernacular translations. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1522, and the whole Bible appeared in 1534. William Tyndale, working from Greek and Hebrew, produced an English New Testament in 1526 and was executed in 1536 for his work. Much of his wording passed into later versions. The Geneva Bible of 1560 was made by English exiles and had study notes. In the Catholic tradition, English translations were made in the sixteenth century at continental colleges, and the Church approved vernacular versions with notes.
The King James Version of 1611 was the work of about forty seven scholars in six companies, appointed under King James I of England. They were told to follow the earlier Bishops’ Bible and to use older English translations where they were better. The result became the standard Bible of English Protestantism for centuries. Its authority came from the Church of England and the crown.
Step 3: The modern period
The nineteenth century brought the Revised Version, the work of church committees, and the twentieth the Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible and many others. The modern period has three main kinds of sponsor. Denominational or interdenominational committees, such as those behind the New Revised Standard Version, include scholars from many traditions. Publishing bodies and societies, such as the groups behind the New International Version and the English Standard Version, draw translators from a range of evangelical churches. Church sponsored versions, such as the New American Bible, produced with the approval of the Catholic bishops of the United States, and the Orthodox Study Bible, serve their communities directly.
Missionary and Bible society translators have also produced Scripture in hundreds of languages, often with a trained local partner. Their work has shaped many languages and raised questions about how to translate terms like God, spirit and grace into languages with different concepts.
Step 4: What difference the maker makes
A committee can bring a range of skills and check each member’s work, but it also compromises. An individual translator can offer a clear voice and a consistent view, but may be idiosyncratic. A church sponsored translation may follow the church’s canon and its approved wording. A translation for a broad readership may avoid doctrinal terms that divide.
Differences show up in specific choices. The list of books varies. The text used varies. Terms for church offices, for baptism or for the divine name may reflect the tradition. A reader who is told that a translator wished to serve a certain readership can interpret these choices. The preface is the best place to look.
- Who made this translation, and under whose authority?
- For whom was it made, and for what use?
- Which books does it include, and on what basis?
- Does it come from an individual, a committee or a church body?
- Where might the maker’s tradition appear in its choices?
- How would a reader from another tradition judge these choices?
Examples
A scholar and his teachers
Jerome learned Hebrew late in life and relied on Jewish teachers to translate the Old Testament into Latin. His case shows that a Christian translation of the Hebrew text could depend on Jewish scholarship. He also took criticism from others who preferred the Greek text.
A committee of scholars
The King James translators worked in six companies, two at Westminster, two at Oxford and two at Cambridge, each assigned a portion of the Bible. The work was then reviewed by others. The process was meant to check any one person’s errors.
A church sponsored edition
A Catholic Bible printed with an imprimatur has been read by an official examiner who has declared it free of doctrinal or moral error. An Orthodox Bible may follow the Septuagint for the Old Testament. Each edition serves a community that holds it as Scripture.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catholic Church has held that translations should be faithful to the original texts, and that official versions should be approved and annotated. The twentieth century saw encouragement of Bible reading among the faithful, and many approved translations exist in English and other languages.
Orthodox
The Orthodox Church has translated Scripture and the liturgy into many languages, beginning with Slavic, Georgian, Coptic and Syriac. It values translations that serve worship, and keeps the Septuagint and the Greek text as the standard from which the Old and New Testaments are rendered.
Protestant
Protestants gave great weight to translation into the vernacular, because of the belief that all believers should have access to Scripture. Translations are made by individuals, committees and societies, and the tradition has produced the largest number of English versions.
Jewish
Jewish translation has a long history, in the Targums, in the Greek versions and in modern vernacular translations such as those published by the Jewish Publication Society. The communities treat the Hebrew as the authoritative text and translations as aids.
Scholarly
Historians of translation stress that every version reflects its time, and that the history of the English Bible is a history of competing audiences and authorities. They urge readers to look at the circumstances of each version.
Why it matters
The knowledge of who made a translation helps a reader weigh differences fairly. It guards against two mistakes: treating one’s own translation as neutral, and treating others as suspect. All translations are works of human hands, made for communities, and they can be read with respect and care.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The King James Version was the first English translation.
Correction: It came after many earlier English versions, including those of Wycliffe’s followers, Tyndale and the Geneva Bible, and it drew on them.
Misunderstanding: Translation committees invent the text.
Correction: They work from ancient manuscripts and editions and explain their choices. Their disagreements are real but concern details of the text and its rendering.
Misunderstanding: A church translation is just propaganda.
Correction: A church sponsored translation reflects its community’s view, but it is also the work of scholars. Readers from other traditions may find differences, and they can compare with other versions.
Misunderstanding: Jerome made the Latin Bible alone from nothing.
Correction: Jerome revised older Latin translations and worked from Hebrew with the help of Jewish teachers. The Vulgate as it stands contains some older Latin material.
Knowledge check
Who was Jerome, and what did he produce?
Jerome was a priest and scholar of the late fourth century who revised the Latin Gospels at the request of Pope Damasus and translated most of the Old Testament from Hebrew. His work became the Vulgate, the main Bible of western Europe for about a thousand years.
How was the King James Version made?
About forty seven scholars worked in six companies at Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge, under the authority of King James I. They used earlier English translations as well as Hebrew, Greek and Latin sources, and the work was reviewed. It appeared in 1611.
What are the three kinds of sponsor behind modern English Bibles?
Committees of scholars from several traditions, such as those behind the New Revised Standard Version. Publishing bodies and societies drawing on evangelical scholars, such as those behind the New International Version. And church sponsored versions, such as Catholic and Orthodox editions, which serve their own communities.
Why does the maker of a translation matter to a reader?
Makers have beliefs, audiences and purposes, and these shape decisions about text, wording and which books to include. Knowing them helps a reader understand differences between versions and weigh them fairly, without treating any translation as neutral or as suspect. The preface usually explains the maker’s aims.
Think it through
- What do you know about the maker and purpose of the translation you read most?
- Why might Augustine have worried about a new Latin translation from the Hebrew?
- How should a reader treat a translation made by a church they do not belong to?
- What would make you trust a committee more than a single translator, or the reverse?
Independent assignment
A short history of one Bible
In your own notebook, write 350 to 500 words. Choose the English Bible you use most and find, from its preface or introduction, who made it, under whose authority, from which texts and for what readers. Place it in the history of translation described in this lesson. Then do the same for a second translation from another tradition and compare. Write what you learned and what remains unclear. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Council of Trent (1545-1563), Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Read the decree on the edition and use of the sacred books for the Catholic position of the sixteenth century.
- Martin Luther, The Small Catechism Notice the biblical wording of a vernacular teaching text.
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions For a reader’s own account of languages and Scripture.
- Origen, On First Principles (De Principiis) For an early scholar’s concern with the text of Scripture.
- Nehemiah 8:8 Ezra’s public reading with explanation of the sense.
- Acts 2:6 Each hears in his own language.
- Revelation 7:9 People of every nation and tongue.