Africa Study Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 38
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Sometimes, when the actual meaning of a
name is clear, that meaning is included in parentheses within the text itself. For example,
the text at Genesis 16:11 reads: “You are to
name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’),
for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.”
Since the original hearers and readers would
have instantly understood the meaning of the
name “Ishmael,” we have provided modern
readers with the same information so they can
experience the text in a similar way.
Many words and phrases carry a great deal
of cultural meaning that was obvious to the
original readers but needs explanation in our
own culture. For example, the phrase “they
beat their breasts” (Luke 23:48) in ancient
times meant that people were very upset, often in mourning. In our translation we chose
to translate this phrase dynamically for clarity: “They went home in deep sorrow.” Then
we included a footnote with the literal Greek,
which reads: “Greek went home beating their
breasts.” In other similar cases, however, we
have sometimes chosen to illuminate the existing literal expression to make it immediately
understandable. For example, here we might
have expanded the literal Greek phrase to read:
“They went home beating their breasts in sorrow.” If we had done this, we would not have
included a textual footnote, since the literal
Greek clearly appears in translation.
Metaphorical language is sometimes difficult for contemporary readers to understand, so at times we have chosen to translate
or illuminate the meaning of a metaphor. For
example, the ancient poet writes, “Your neck
is like the tower of David” (Song of Songs
4:4). We have rendered it “Your neck is as
beautiful as the tower of David” to clarify the
intended positive meaning of the simile. Another example comes in Ecclesiastes 12:3,
which can be literally rendered: “Remember him . . . when the grinding women cease
because they are few, and the women who look
through the windows see dimly.” We have rendered it: “Remember him before your teeth—
your few remaining servants—stop grinding;
and before your eyes—the women looking
through the windows—see dimly.” We clarified
such metaphors only when we believed a typical reader might be confused by the literal text.
When the content of the original language
text is poetic in character, we have rendered
it in English poetic form. We sought to break
lines in ways that clarify and highlight the relationships between phrases of the text. Hebrew
poetry often uses parallelism, a literary form
where a second phrase (or in some instances
a third or fourth) echoes the initial phrase in
some way. In Hebrew parallelism, the subsequent parallel phrases continue, while also furthering and sharpening, the thought expressed
in the initial line or phrase. Whenever possible,
we sought to represent these parallel phrases
in natural poetic English.
The Greek term hoi Ioudaioi is literally
translated “the Jews” in many English translations. In the Gospel of John, however, this term
doesn’t always refer to the Jewish people generally. In some contexts, it refers more particularly to the Jewish religious leaders. We have
attempted to capture the meaning in these
different contexts by using terms such as “the
people” (with a footnote: Greek the Jewish people) or “the Jewish leaders,” where appropriate.
One challenge we faced was how to translate accurately the ancient biblical text that
was originally written in a context where
male-oriented terms were used to refer to humanity generally. We needed to respect the
nature of the ancient context while also trying to make the translation clear to a modern
audience that tends to read male-oriented
language as applying only to males. Often the
original text, though using masculine nouns
and pronouns, clearly intends that the message be applied to both men and women. A
typical example is found in the New Testament
letters, where the believers are called “brothers” (adelphoi). Yet it is clear from the content
of these letters that they were addressed to all
the believers—male and female. Thus, we have
usually translated this Greek word as “brothers
and sisters” in order to represent the historical
situation more accurately.
We have also been sensitive to passages
where the text applies generally to human beings or to the human condition. In some instances we have used plural pronouns (they,
them) in place of the masculine singular (he,
him). For example, a traditional rendering of
Proverbs 22:6 is: “Train up a child in the way
he should go, and when he is old he will not
turn from it.” We have rendered it: “Direct your
children onto the right path, and when they are
older, they will not leave it.” At times, we have
also replaced third person pronouns with the
second person to ensure clarity. A traditional