Wednesday, May 02, 2018
Faithfulness in Translation
Luther A. Weigle, "English Versions since 1611," The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West, from the Reformation to the Present Day, ed. S.L. Greenslade (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1963), pp. 361-382 (at 371-372):
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The revisers' ideal of 'faithfulness' in translation was a meticulous word-for-word reproduction of the Greek text in English words, using the same English word for a given Greek word whenever possible, leaving no Greek word without translation into a corresponding English word, following the order of the Greek words rather than the order natural to English, and attempting to translate the articles and the tenses with a precision alien to English idiom. The result is that the Revised Version is distinctly 'translation English'. It was unnecessary, for example, to change the third petition of the Lord's Prayer to read, 'Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth'. Or to change the statement concerning Jesus in Mark i.28, 'And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee', to read, 'And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about'.Mark 1.28:
καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἡ ἀκοὴ αὐτοῦ εὐθὺς πανταχοῦ εἰς ὅλην τὴν περίχωρον τῆς Γαλιλαίας.