The subtitle of Leland Ryken’s outstanding book, “Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translations” may not immediately excite you, but I confess that I was astonished by just how readable and gripping it was. I could hardly put it down!
You would expect the myriad Bible translations in English to improve our understanding of the Scripture, but the result has often been confusion rather than greater clarity. Leland Ryken acknowledges that his expertise is not as a translator but as a literary critic and he served as a literary stylist for the English Standard Version. That experience, he writes, led to “a deep-seated distrust of how dynamic equivalent translations treat the biblical text”.
Of course, a translation cannot be absolutely literal if it is to comply with normal English syntax, and certain idioms need to be rendered in a manner comprehensible to the reader. But he contends that, as far as possible, the author’s own words should be reproduced, figurative language should be retained and stylistic features and quirks of the author should be allowed to stand. In a translation we want to read what the author actually wrote, not another person’s rewrite of the same material. A paraphrase of Scripture may be useful at different times and in different circumstances, but the best translation will always be the one closest to the original text.
Ryken cites some classic examples to make his point. John Donne wrote a famous sonnet with the opening lines:
Death, be not proud, though some have called
Thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.
Who would prefer to read this “dynamically equivalent” translation?:
Don’t be proud, death. You’re not as great as
some people think you are.
Clearly, if you had an interest in the author and his work, you would want to read what he actually wrote. Isn’t that also true for any serious lover of the Bible? Let me read, as far as is possible in a translation, what the Holy Spirit inspired, not an overly simplified and paraphrased rewrite.
“The Word of God in English” is a splendid book, shining a clear light on both the motivation behind many modern versions of the Bible and also the dubious, even offensive, assumptions that guide the translation process. If you were ever unsure of the right approach to translation, this book will settle the matter for you, once and for all.
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