Africa Study Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 39
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rendering of Proverbs 26:27 is: “He who digs a
pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it
will come back on him.” We have rendered it:
“If you set a trap for others, you will get caught
in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead.”
We should emphasize, however, that all masculine nouns and pronouns used to represent
God (for example, “Father”) have been maintained without exception. All decisions of this
kind have been driven by the concern to reflect
accurately the intended meaning of the original texts of Scripture.
Lexical Consistency in Terminology
For the sake of clarity, we have translated certain original-language terms consistently, especially within synoptic passages and for commonly repeated rhetorical phrases, and within
certain word categories such as divine names
and non-theological technical terminology
(e.g., liturgical, legal, cultural, zoological, and
botanical terms). For theological terms, we
have allowed a greater semantic range of acceptable English words or phrases for a single
Hebrew or Greek word. We have avoided some
theological terms that are not readily understood by many modern readers. For example,
we avoided using words such as “justification”
and “sanctification,” which are carryovers from
Latin translations. In place of these words, we
have provided renderings such as “made right
with God” and “made holy.”
The Spelling of Proper Names
Many individuals in the Bible, especially the
Old Testament, are known by more than one
name (e.g., Uzziah/Azariah). For the sake of
clarity, we have tried to use a single spelling for
any one individual, footnoting the literal spelling whenever we differ from it. This is especially
helpful in delineating the kings of Israel and
Judah. King Joash/Jehoash of Israel has been
consistently called Jehoash, while King Joash/
Jehoash of Judah is called Joash. A similar distinction has been used to distinguish between
Joram/Jehoram of Israel and Joram/Jehoram
of Judah. All such decisions were made with
the goal of clarifying the text for the reader.
When the ancient biblical writers clearly had a
theological purpose in their choice of a variant
name (e.g., Esh-baal/Ishbosheth), the different
names have been maintained with an explanatory footnote.
For the names Jacob and Israel, which are
used interchangeably for both the individual
patriarch and the nation, we generally render
it “Israel” when it refers to the nation and “Jacob” when it refers to the individual. When our
rendering of the name differs from the underlying Hebrew text, we provide a textual footnote,
which includes this explanation: “The names
‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ are often interchanged
throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation.”
The Rendering of Divine Names
In the Old Testament, all appearances of ’el,
’elohim, or ’eloah have been translated “God,”
except where the context demands the translation “god(s).” We have generally rendered the
tetragrammaton (YHWH) consistently as “the
Lord,” utilizing a form with small capitals that is
common among English translations. This will
distinguish it from the name ’adonai, which we
render “Lord.” When ’adonai and YHWH appear together, we have rendered it “Sovereign
Lord.” When ’elohim and YHWH appear together, we have rendered it “Lord God.” When
YH (the short form of YHWH) and YHWH appear together, we have rendered it “Lord God.”
When YHWH appears with the term tseba’oth,
we have rendered it “Lord of Heaven’s Armies”
to translate the meaning of the name. In a few
cases, we have utilized the transliteration, Yahweh, when the personal character of the name
is being invoked in contrast to another divine
name or the name of some other god (for
example, see Exodus 3:15-16; 6:2-3).
In the Gospels and Acts, the Greek word
christos has normally been translated as
“Messiah” when the context assumes a Jewish audience. When a Gentile audience can
be assumed (which is consistently the case in
the Epistles and Revelation), christos has been
translated as “Christ.” The Greek word kurios
is consistently translated “Lord,” except that it
is translated “Lord” wherever the New Testament text explicitly quotes from the Old Testament, and the text there has it in small capitals.
Textual Footnotes
The New Living Translation provides several
kinds of textual footnotes, all designated in the
text with an asterisk:
When for the sake of clarity the NLT renders a difficult or potentially confusing phrase