Translation Theory Traddutore, traditore! Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., copyright 1998, all rights reserved. Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania Note: This document was created using Arial (headings) and Palatino (text) fonts.

Terminology  Donor language, the language from which a translation is made (= the text being translated)  Receptor language, the language into which a translation is made  Gloss, a useful translation equivalent (often of the unmarked meaning of the word) (see BAGD)

Terminology  Meaning  The sense of a word that can be expressed in a definition (see LSD)  Some words can be defined apart from a referent, though they may have a referent in a particular context  E.g., twelve” can be defined as a number indicating a specific quantity, but there is no referent unless it is used in a context that mentions, e.g., “the Twelve” = the disciples)

Terminology  Referent  to what (or whom) the word points (some words are only referential, e.g., “Paul,” and cannot be defined)

Differences between languages  Vocabulary  Semantic domains, words in various languages have varying ranges of meaning, the specific semantic domain of one word (e.g., filevw, which includes love, like, kiss) does not exactly overlap with the semantic domain of its closest equivalent in another language (e.g., “love,” which does not normally include the more general term “like” and never means “kiss”).

Vocabulary  Quantity of words, languages have different size vocabularies, which points out quite clearly that there can be no word-for-word translation, else how could we translate koine Greek (vocab. of about 5,500 words) into Hebrew (which has only about 4,000)?

Differences  Morphology/inflection, languages have different systems of inflection which impinge on translation as to how word function is indicated, etc.  Syntax, varies widely from language to language; a strict formal equivalence, maintaining the same word order, results in nonsense:

Differences  Verbal system, Hebrew and Greek do not grammaticalize temporal reference (English does).  Culture-related terms: weights, measures, dates, currency, calendars, time; how do you translate when the “scales” of each language are so very different?

Basic Resources  John Beekman and John Callow. Translating the Word of God. Grand Rapids: Zondervan,  D. A. Carson. The Inclusive Language Debate: A Plea for Realism. Grand Rapids: Baker,  Jan de Waard and Eugene Nida. From One Language to Another: Functional Equivalence in Bible Translation. Nashville: Nelson,  Jack Lewis. The English Bible: From KJV to NIV. Grand Rapids: Baker,  Louw, Johannes P., ed. Meaningful Translation: Its Implications for the Reader. New York: United Bible Societies,  Bruce Metzger, “Theories of the Translation Process.” BibSac 150 (1993):140– 50.  Mark Strauss. Distorting Scripture? The Challenge of Bible Translation and Gender Accuracy. Downer’s Grove: IVP,  Robert J. Williams, “The Science of Translating the Greek New Testament into English.” Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1968.