Bible Question: Please discuss what advantages there may be in each: a "literally accurate" translation and an "equivalent" translation which uses a certain amount of paraphrase. Is one more reliable than the other? --Hank |
Bible Answer: Good question, Hank! All translations are interpretive to some degree; none can or should be completely literal. All good versions intend to make the thought of the original text clear and understandable in the language of the target reader. They differ chiefly in the degree to which the translators choose to replicate the formal features of the original language such as grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in the process of translating the thought. More literal or "formally equivalent" versions seek to preserve as much of the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of the original as the target language and good communication in it will permit. More idiomatic or "dynamically equivalent" translations focus on conveying the thought of the original, without regard for preserving formal features of the original text. The NKJV, ASV (1901), NASB, RSV and NRSV are examples of standard translations, as are the older KJV and Douay-Rheims (DR) translation. The NIV stands close to them, though more influenced by dynamic equivalent translation theory. For careful, detailed study they are preferable to the more idiomatic or paraphrasing ones. They facilitate the discernment of themes and support more accurate tracing of thought between units. They also allow the vernacular reader limited but helpful access to rhetorical aspects of the original text, those artistic uses of language by which writers enhance communication. More idiomatic or paraphrased renderings are excellent for rapid reading, for general survey, or for use as commentaries of sorts. But they are less suitable for detailed study. The Message, The Living Bible, The Amplified Bible, TEV, Good News, NEB, REB, and Phillips' translations are among the most popular modern paraphrases and idiomatic or "dynamic equivalent" translations. The NAB, The Jerusalem Bible (JB) and (NJB) stand somewhere in between these two groups of texts but toward the idiomatic side, as far as their freedom in translation is concerned.. We could visualize it this way: (Standard Formal Equivalence) NASB KJV, DR, NKJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV NIV (Dynamic Equivalence) JB, NJB, NAB NEB, REB TEV (Paraphrasing Translations) LB, Phillips, Message (Taken from pages 22-24 of the book "Bible Study that Works" by David L. Thompson) |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Bible general Archive 1 | Author | ||
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Makarios | ||
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Makarios | ||
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taby815 | ||
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scotth68 | ||
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Hank | ||
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Hank | ||
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Makarios | ||
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Hank | ||
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Hank | ||
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melchizedekau | ||
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melchizedekau |