I am still interested in presenting some more examples involving the issue of utilising up-to-date resources for Bible translation. Last post I mentioned the issue of using the recent BDAG lexicon (dictionary) over its older 1979 edition (BAGD). Another kind of up-to-date 'resource' I wish to discuss is that of translation theory.
I have recently started reading widely on translation theory within the broader field of translation studies. Whenever I do this, I am shocked at how poor is the field of Bible translation (in regard to theory) when compared with the variety of translation theory discussed within Translation Studies.
If and when I can, I would like to discuss some examples of such differences along with any practical translation points arising.
I have previously noted how modern Bible Prefaces are not a good source of up-to-date information concerning translation theory or the history of Bible translation. For example, the kind of English used in the Bibles of Tyndale (1526) and the Geneva Bible (1560) is evidently much more contemporary to the spoken English of their times than that used in the 1611 King James Version, by which time English had continued to evolve, yet the choice was made not to use up-to-date contemporary language in the KJV but rather to use language that sounded decades older, as
we never thought from the beginning that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one ... but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one ... (from the 1611 KJV preface).Yet many Bible prefaces instead portray the KJV as though it were a modern-language translation in its time. For some examples of contemporary language avoidance see, Alistair McGrath,“The Story of the King James Bible,” in D. G. Burke (eds), Translation that Openeth the Window: Reflections on the History and Legacy of the King James Bible. (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), 3-20. This picks up a note from my earlier post http://bibletranslationtheory.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/first-english-bibles-in-modern-speech.html.
Likewise the information given in Bible prefaces is demonstrably not up with the wider discipline of Translation Studies (though Bible translators themselves are evidently not ignorant of many of the same kinds of translation issues).
In coming weeks I would like to discuss further Translation Theory within Translation Studies.
