The Huffington Post recently published an article, Five Mistakes in Your Bible Translation.
Was it heresy?
An attack on the Christian faith?
Neither.
In actuality, it is a great reminder of the evolution of language and the importance of meaning.
Here were the five mistakes:
1. The 10th Commandment
The tenth commandment, Thou shalt not covet, shows how internal structure or etymology can be misleading. Like the English words host and hostile. The look very similar, but mean two different things. In breaking down the Hebrew, they have found the translation of Thou shalt not covet translates more directly into Thou shalt not take.
2. The Jubilee Year
The translation “Jubilee year” results from a mistaken application of cognates (similar words in different languages). In the original Hebrew, the year was called the “year of the horn,” or, in Hebrew, “the year of the yovel.” The Latin for yovel is iobileus, which just happens to sound like the Latin word iubileus, connected to the verb iubilare, “to celebrate.” The English “Jubilee year” comes from the Latin. (A similar Latin coincidence gave rise to the notion that the fruit in the Garden of Eden was an apple.)
3. The Meaning of “Virgin”
When the Hebrew Bible was translated into the Greek, words like love, mercy and compassion are often mixed up. This was the case for virgin which also means young women.
4. The Image of a Shepard
Metaphors are particularly difficult to translate, because words have different metaphoric meanings in different cultures. Shepherds in the Bible were symbols of might, ferocity and royalty, whereas now they generally represent peaceful guidance and oversight. So the image of the Lord as shepherd in Psalm 23 originally meant that the Lord was mighty, fierce and royal. The impact was roughly the same as “the Lord is a man of war.” But in most English-speaking cultures, “the Lord is my shepherd” conveys a wholly different, and therefore inaccurate, image.
5. The Song of Solomon
Often times the Bible uses terms of kinship — brother, sister, father — to convey meaning of power structure oppose to relation.
So, the next time you’re reading the Song of Solomon and it’s referring to “sister,” it’s portraying the equality of the relationship, not his actual sister.
Conclusion
Getting caught-up in direct translation is foolish. As I go through the process of learning a second language, often times direct translation of a word is the worst! Words are symbols used to convey meaning, and it is the meaning that holds supremacy in communication, not definition.
Here’s what I think about the five translation “mistakes:”
- Why would the Ten Commandments say, Thou shalt not steal and then say, Thou shalt not take? I think the direct translation takes away the meaning, here.
- The Jubilee Year translation is “whatever” for me, I could care less.
- There are other places in the story of Jesus’ birth that supports the virgin (meaning “no sex”) birth.
- The translation of Jesus as a Shepard is awesome! I love it!
- Okay. I already knew the Song of Solomon wasn’t talking about his sister. That’s just “eww.” However, pointing this out in relationship of the equality of the relationship is really cool. I dig it.
What do you think?
[via Huffington Post | Image via Dave Gilbert]
sdesocio says
Interesting read, but I’m not sure I’d ever take my theology from the Huffington Post, without some serious examination first.
What do you mean “Getting caught-up in direct translation is foolish”?
Dustin W. Stout says
I think Eric means “Getting caught up [exclusively, without incorporating context] is foolish.” I could be wrong though.
Eric Dye says
Exactly.
Frank Gantz says
Eric, pretty sure most Hebrew scholars would not agree with his take/covet discussion. He bases this on the root of the word, but the root is best defined as “to delight in.” The author of the Huffington Post piece is a Hebrew scholar, but seems to be on his own in this case.
His article is worth discussing. Thanks.
Eric Dye says
Exactly. In fact, it seems like a bunch of smoke and no fire.
Steven Rossi says
Without looking too hard, it looks like there’s a good chance that this guy’s Jewish (i.e., not Christian), thus there’s a good chance he doesn’t believe Jesus is the Messiah. That might inform his interpretation a little bit, though perhaps not. I may be wrong about all of that, though–I didn’t look very hard.
Anyway I’m no textual scholar, but on the virgin/young woman issue, for example, yes the word can mean young woman but it also can mean virgin. Articles are written in the defense of “virgin,” so I wouldn’t take this article as canon (being on HuffPo doesn’t help its credibility, but I digress). But I agree that translation work is essential, and certainly his assertions have some weight behind them.
Eric Dye says
Well said, Steven.
Jacob Gillespie says
Interesting read – I’d clarify that statement “Getting caught-up in direct translation is foolish,” though… You actually seem to imply in the following that an accurate translation is very important, which means that we would need a direct translation of the original meaning of the word. After all, how can you know meaning without knowing definition!
So, for example, if word X originally meant Y, then we should be caught up in the direct translation of X into the word meaning Y in english. While a translation of today’s meaning of a Hebrew word directly into english might not be helpful (assuming the Hebrew meaning has changed), a direct translation of the original Hebrew word is highly important.
You do have to keep context in mind, obviously, as a direct translation of X when taken by itself might be different than a translation of X in a phrase (original meaning), but again, you are trying to directly translate the original phrase into English as closely as possible.
Anyway, I agree that the meaning of the text is the most important part – thanks for sharing!
P.S. stuff like this always makes me want to start a website where all the common internet objections, “flaws,” etc. concerning Christianity are answered from a biblical perspective – there’s a lot of misinformed and inaccurate statements about Christianity out there on the internet and it would be nice to have a linkable resource to explain some basic biblical doctrine – perhaps I’ll start such a site someday. 🙂
Eric Dye says
Great idea, Jacob!
As for the direct translation statement, it means context (culture, tradition, history), and as you said, changed meaning, need to be kept in mind. I personally believe it becomes a balancing act between these elements. I know some people who hold on to their Hebrew dictionary with a death grip. I think that’s foolish.
Hope that helps!
Dustin W. Stout says
Thanks for this Eric! I hadn’t heard about the HuffPost article. Very fun stuff!