Bible translations
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The
The Old Testament, written in Hebrew (with some sections in the book of Daniel in the Aramaic language) was translated into Aramaic (the so-called Targums, originally not written down), Greek and Syriac.
The New Testament, written in Greek, was first translated into Syriac, Latin and Coptic - all before the time of Emperor Constantine.
By the year 500, the Bible had been translated into Ge'ez, Gothic, Armenian and Georgian. By the year 1000, a number of other translations were added (in some cases partial), including Old Nubian, Sogdian, Arabic and Slavonic languages, among others.
Jerome's 4th-century Latin Vulgate version, a revision of earlier Latin translations, was dominant in Western Christianity during the Middle Ages. The Latin-speaking western church led by the Pope did not translate the Scriptures or liturgy into languages of recently converted peoples such as the Irish, Franks or Norsemen. By contrast, the Eastern Orthodox Church, centred in Constantinople, did, in some cases, translate the Scriptures and liturgy, most successfully in the case of the Slavonic language of Eastern Europe.
Since then, the Bible has been translated into
Textual variants in the New Testament include errors, omissions, additions, changes, and alternate translations. In some cases, different translations have been used as evidence for or have been motivated by doctrinal differences.
Original text
Hebrew Bible
The
New Testament
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek[3] reporting speech originally in Aramaic, Greek and Latin (see Language of the New Testament.)
The autographs, the Greek manuscripts written by the original authors or collators, have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text from the manuscripts that do survive. The three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type, the Byzantine text-type, and the Western text-type.
Most variants among the manuscripts are minor, such as alternative spelling, alternative word order, the presence or absence of an optional definite article ("the"), and so on. Occasionally, a major variant happens when a portion of a text was missing or for other reasons. Examples of major variants are the
The discovery of older manuscripts which belong to the Alexandrian text-type, including the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, led scholars to revise their view about the original Greek text. Karl Lachmann based his critical edition of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier, to argue that the Textus Receptus must be corrected according to these earlier texts.
Early manuscripts of the Pauline epistles and other New Testament writings show no punctuation whatsoever.[4][5] The punctuation was added later by other editors, according to their own understanding of the text.
There is also a long-standing tradition owing to Papias of Hierapolis (c.125) that the Gospel of Matthew was originally in Hebrew.[6] Eusebius (c.300) reports that Pantaenus went to India (c. 200) and found them using a Gospel of St Matthew in Hebrew letters.[7] Jerome also reports in his preface to St Matthew that it was originally composed "in Hebrew letters in Judea" not in Greek[8] and that he saw and copied one from the Nazarene sect. The exact provenance, authorship, source languages and collation of the four Gospels is unknown but subject to much academic speculation and disputed methods.
History
Ancient translations
Aramaic Targums
Some of the first translations of the
Greek Septuagint
By the 3rd century BC,
The translation now known as the Septuagint was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians.[11] It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew (Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a legend (primarily recorded as the Letter of Aristeas) that seventy (or in some sources, seventy-two) separate translators all produced identical texts; supposedly proving its accuracy.[12]
Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books not included in the Masoretic texts of the
Late Antiquity
Christian translations of the Old Testament also tend to be based upon the Hebrew, though some denominations prefer the
The Christian New Testament was written in Koine Greek,[a] and nearly all modern translations are to some extent based upon the Greek text.[citation needed]
2nd century
In the 2nd century, the Old Testament was translated into Syriac translation, and the Gospels in the Diatessaron gospel harmony. The New Testament was translated in the 5th century, now known as the Peshitta.
In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the New Testament was translated into various Coptic (Egyptian) dialects. The Old Testament was already translated by that stage.
3rd century
In 331, the
4th century
The Bible was translated into Gothic (an early East Germanic language) in the 4th century by a group of scholars, possibly under the supervision of Ulfilas (Wulfila).[14][15]
The canonical
Jerome's Vulgate Latin translation dates to between AD 382 and 405. Latin translations predating Jerome are collectively known as Vetus Latina texts. Jerome began by revising these earlier Latin translations, but ended by going back to the original Greek, bypassing all translations, and going back to the original Hebrew wherever he could instead of the Septuagint.
There are also several ancient translations, most important of which are in the Syriac dialect of Aramaic (including the Peshitta).
4th to 6th century
The
Between the 4th to 6th centuries, the Bible was translated into
In the 5th century,
In the 6th century, the Bible was translated into Old Nubian.
By the end of the eighth century,
Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they wrote notes on the margins of the page (marginal glosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. See textual criticism. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions, additions, and variants (mostly in orthography).
There are some fragmentary Old English Bible translations, notably a lost translation of the Gospel of John into Old English by the Venerable Bede, which is said to have been prepared shortly before his death around the year 735. An Old High German version of the gospel of Matthew dates to 748. Charlemagne in c. 800 charged Alcuin with a revision of the Latin Vulgate. The translation into Old Church Slavonic was started in 863 by Cyril and Methodius.
High Middle Ages
The provincial
The complete Bible was translated into Old French in the late 13th century. Parts of this translation were included in editions of the popular Bible historiale, and there is no evidence of this translation being suppressed by the Church.[18] The entire Bible was translated into Czech around 1360.
Late Middle Ages
During the Late Middle Ages, translation, particularly of the Old Testament was discouraged in some regions.[citation needed]
In England, a group of
The Hungarian
Many parts of the Bible were printed by William Caxton in his translation of the Golden Legend (1483), and in the loose paraphrase Speculum Vitae Christi (The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ), which had been authorized into English around 1410.
Reformation and Early Modern period
The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament appeared in 1516 from the
During 1517 and 1519
In 1521,
The first complete Dutch Bible, partly based on the existing portions of Luther's translation, was printed in Antwerp in 1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt.[20]
The first printed edition with critical apparatus (noting variant readings among the manuscripts) was produced by the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The Greek text of this edition and of those of Erasmus became known as the Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it as the text nunc ab omnibus receptum ("now received by all").
The use of numbered chapters and verses was not introduced until the Middle Ages and later. The system used in English was developed by Stephanus (Robert Estienne of Paris) (see Chapters and verses of the Bible)
The churches of the
The first complete French Bible was a translation by
The first English translations of Psalms (1530), Isaiah (1531), Proverbs (1533), Ecclesiastes (1533), Jeremiah (1534) and Lamentations (1534), were executed by the Protestant Bible translator George Joye in Antwerp. In 1535 Myles Coverdale published the first complete English Bible also in Antwerp.[22]
By 1578 both Old and New Testaments were translated to Slovene by the Protestant writer and theologian Jurij Dalmatin. The work was not printed until 1583. The Slovenes thus became the 12th nation in the world with a complete Bible in their language. The translation of the New Testament was based on the work by Dalmatin's mentor, the Protestant Primož Trubar, who published the translation of the Gospel of Matthew already in 1555 and the entire testament by parts until 1577.
Following the distribution of a Welsh New Testament and Prayer Book to every parish Church in Wales in 1567, translated by William Salesbury, Welsh became the 13th language into which the whole Bible had been translated in 1588, through a translation by William Morgan, the bishop of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.[23]
Samuel Bogusław Chyliński (1631–1668) translated and published the first Bible translation into Lithuanian.[24]
In 1660,
Nova Vulgata
The
The purpose was to achieve more precision and clarity in the texts, and to remove the errors and obscure passages that were present in the version of Jerome of Stridon,[25] known as the Vulgate.
Modern translation efforts
| Year | Full Bible | New Testament | Portions | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 308 | 764 | 1014 | 2086 |
| 2006 | 426 | 1114 | 862 | 2402 |
| 2010 | 457 | 1211 | 897 | 2565 |
| 2011 | 513 | 1276 | 1015 | 2804 |
| 2012 | 518 | 1275 | 1005 | 2798 |
| 2013 | 513 | 1309 | 1028 | 2850 |
| 2014 | 531 | 1329 | 1023 | 2883 |
| 2015 | 554 | 1333 | 1045 | 2932 |
| 2016 | 636 | 1442 | 1145 | 3223 |
| 2017 | 670 | 1521 | 1121 | 3312 |
| 2018 | 683 | 1534 | 1133 | 3350 |
| 2019 | 698 | 1548 | 1138 | 3384 |
| 2020 | 704 | 1551 | 1160 | 3415 |
| 2021 | 717 | 1582 | 1196 | 3495 |
| 2022 | 724 | 1617 | 1248 | 3589 |
| 2023 | 736 | 1658 | 1264 | 3658 |
The Bible is the most translated book in the world. The United Bible Societies announced that as of 31 December 2007
In 1999, Wycliffe Bible Translators announced Vision 2025—a project that intends to commence Bible translation in every remaining language community by 2025. It was realised that, at the rates of Bible translation at that point, it would take until at least 2150 until Bible translation began in every language that was needing a translation. Since the launch of Vision 2025, Bible translation efforts have increased dramatically, in large part due to the technology that is now available. Due to the increase, at current rates, Bible translation will begin in every language by 2038, thus being 112 years faster.[27]
As of September 2023, they estimated that around 99.8 million people spoke those 1,268 languages where translation work still needs to begin. This represents 17.1% of all languages (based off an estimate of 7,394 total languages) and 1.3% of the human population (based of a global population of 7.42 billion).
In total, there are 3,736 languages without any Bible translation at all, but an estimated 1,148 of these (with a population of 9.6 million people) are likely to never need a Bible because they are very similar to other languages, or spoken by very few speakers where the language will die out very soon.[1]
Bible translation is currently happening in 3,283 languages in 167 countries. This work impacts 1.15 billion people, or about 15.5 percent of all language users, who have (or will soon have) new access to at least some portions of Scripture in their first language.[1]
Differences in Bible translations
Modern critical editions incorporate ongoing scholarly research, including discoveries of Greek papyrus fragments from near Alexandria, Egypt, that date in some cases within a few decades of the original New Testament writings.
Critical editions that rely primarily on the Alexandrian text-type inform nearly all modern translations (and revisions of older translations). For reasons of tradition, however, some translators prefer to use the Textus Receptus for the Greek text, or use the
Dynamic or formal translation policy
A variety of linguistic, philological and ideological approaches to translation have been used. Inside the Bible-translation community, these are commonly categorized as:
- Dynamic equivalencetranslation
- Formal equivalence translation (similar to literal translation)
- Idiomatic, or paraphrastic translation, as used by the late Kenneth N. Taylor
though modern linguists, such as Bible scholar Dr. Joel Hoffman, disagree with this classification.[29]
Other translation approaches include:
- Literary translation, where the reader's experience of the piece as literature is prized, as used used in the Knox Bible
- Metrical translation, where prose is rendered in a rhythmic form, as represented by Old English and Middle English texts
- Prose translation, where no attempt is made to render the lyrical aspect of some poem or song, as King Alfred's prose translation of the first fifty Psalms.[30]
As
For instance, in the
Translations like the New International Version and New Living Translation sometimes attempt to give relevant parallel idioms. The Living Bible and The Message are two paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original meaning in contemporary language.
The further away one gets from word-for-word translation, the easier the text becomes to read while relying more on the theological, linguistic or cultural understanding of the translator, which one would not normally expect a lay reader to require. On the other hand, as one gets closer to a word-for-word translation, the text becomes more literal but still relies on similar problems of meaningful translation at the word level and makes it difficult for lay readers to interpret due to their unfamiliarity with ancient idioms and other historical and cultural contexts.
Doctrinal differences and translation policy
In addition to linguistic concerns, theological issues also drive Bible translations. Some translations of the Bible, produced by single churches or groups of churches, may be seen as subject to a point of view by the translation committee.
For example, the
A number of
Other translations are distinguished by smaller but distinctive doctrinal differences. For example, the
See also
- Ancient and classical translations
- Targum and Peshitta (Aramaic)
- Greek versions of the Bible
- Vetus Latina and Vulgate (Latin versions)
- Syriac versions of the Bible
- Coptic versions of the Bible
- English translations
- Other languages
- Bible translations by language
- Difficulties
- Gender in Bible translation
- Texas sharpshooter fallacy#Translation and interpretation
- Translation#Fidelity and transparency
- Others
- Bible version debate
- Byzantine text-type
- Bible concordance
- Exegesis
- Hermeneutics
- Institute for Bible Translation
- List of languages by year of first Bible translation
- Skopos theory
- Textus Receptus
- Textual variants in the New Testament
- Translation
- Bible names in their native languages
Notes
- ^ Some scholars hypothesize that certain books (whether completely or partially) may have been written in Aramaic before being translated for widespread dissemination. One very famous example of this is the opening to the Gospel of John, which some scholars argue to be a Greek translation of an Aramaic hymn.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b c "2023 Global Scripture Access". wycliffe.net. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
- ^ a b Menachem Cohen, The Idea of the Sanctity of the Biblical Text and the Science of Textual Criticism Archived 2011-03-10 at the Wayback Machine in HaMikrah V'anachnu, ed. Uriel Simon, HaMachon L'Yahadut U'Machshava Bat-Z'mananu and Dvir, Tel-Aviv, 1979.
- ISBN 9780674362505. Harvard University Press, 1956. Introduction F, N-2, p. 4A
- ^ "Greek Language and Linguistics - Ancient Greek, mostly Hellenistic". 13 April 2023. Archived from the original on 9 September 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
- ^ http://www.stpaulsirvine.org/images/papyruslg.gif%7C[permanent dead link] shows an example of the text without punctuation
- ^ See also the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis.
- ^ which also could be Syriac.
- ^ "Jerome, Letter to Pope Damasus: Beginning of the Preface to the Gospels". www.tertullian.org.
- ISBN 978-1-56563-517-3.
- ^ The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, chapter by Sundberg, page 72, adds further detail: "However, it was not until the time of Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) that the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures came to be called by the Latin term septuaginta. [70 rather than 72]
Jerome began by revising the earlier Latin translations, but ended by going back to the original Greek, bypassing all translations, and going back to the original Hebrew wherever he could instead of the Septuagint.
The New Testament and at least some of the Old Testament was translated into Ethiopic and Georgiantranslations. In his City of God 18.42, while repeating the story of Aristeas with typical embellishments, Augustine adds the remark, "It is their translation that it has now become traditional to call the Septuagint" ...[Latin omitted]... Augustine thus indicates that this name for the Greek translation of the scriptures was a recent development. But he offers no clue as to which of the possible antecedents led to this development: Exod 24:1–8, Josephus [Antiquities 12.57, 12.86], or an elision. ...this name Septuagint appears to have been a fourth- to fifth-century development."
- ISBN 1-84227-061-3 (Paternoster Press, 2001). The as of 2001[update]standard introductory work on the Septuagint.
- ^ Jennifer M. Dines, The Septuagint, Michael A. Knibb, Ed., London: T&T Clark, 2004.
- ^ The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, pp. 414–15, for the entire paragraph.
- ISBN 978-3110334692.
- from the original on 2015-05-01. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
- ^ "Bible v. Sogdian Translations". Encyclopaedia Iranica online.
- ISBN 978-90-272-8418-1.
- ^ Sneddon, Clive R. 1993. "A neglected mediaeval Bible translation." Romance Languages Annual 5(1): 11–16 [1] Archived 2011-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Полная биография Георгия (Доктора медицинских и свободных наук Франциска) Скорины, Михаил Уляхин, Полоцк, 1994
- ISBN 2-503-51411-1, p. 120.
- ISBN 2-503-51411-1, pp. 134–35.
- ISBN 2-503-51411-1, pp. 143–45.
- ^ J. Davies, "Hanes Cymru". 1990, p. 236
- ^ S. L. Greenslade, The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West, from the Reformation to the Present Day. 1995, p. 134
- ^ a b "Nova Vulgata. Praefatio ad lectorem" (in Latin). Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
- United Bible Society (2008). "Statistical Summary of languages with the Scriptures". Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ^ Creson, Bob. "Bible Translation as We Approach 2025 What's Been Accomplished and What Remains". Mission Frontiers. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- Papyrus 52.
- ^ "Formal Equivalence and Dynamic Equivalence: A False Dichotomy". October 5, 2009. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
- )
- ^ Is the New World Translation Accurate?
- ^ New World Translation appendix, pp. 1564–66. When discussing "Restoring the Divine Name," the New World Bible Translation Committee states: "To know where the divine name was replaced by the Greek words Κύριος and Θεός, we have determined where the inspired Christian writers have quoted verses, passages and expressions from the Hebrew Scriptures and then we have referred back to the Hebrew text to ascertain whether the divine name appears there. In this way we determined the identity to give Kyʹri·os and The·osʹ and the personality with which to clothe them." Explaining further, the Committee said: "To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have been most cautious about rendering the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures as a background. We have looked for agreement from the Hebrew versions to confirm our rendering." Such agreement from Hebrew versions exists in all the 237 places that the New World Bible Translation Committee has rendered the divine name in the body of its translation.
Further reading
- Wills, Garry, "A Wild and Indecent Book" (review of David Bentley Hart, The New Testament: A Translation, Yale University Press, 577 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 2 (8 February 2018), pp. 34–35. Discusses some pitfalls in interpreting and translating the New Testament.
- Sharma, Sandeep (2018). "Chichewa and Hindi Back Translations of the Bible: A Comparative Check of Translation Techniques". Journal of Translation. 14 (1): 42–47. .
External links
- Bible translations at Curlie
- Repackaging the Bible by Eric Marrapodi, CNN, December 24, 2008
- Bible Versions and Translations on BibleStudyTools.com
- Huge selection of Bibles in Foreign Languages – bibleinmylanguage.com
- BibleGateway.com (has many translations to select)
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