Bibliotheca Sacra 150
(July-September 1993): 273-84
Copyright © 1993 Dallas Theological
Seminary; cited with permission.
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS
CONFRONTING
BIBLE
TRANSLATORS*
Bruce M. Metzger
The
work involved in making a translation of the
Bible
is both exhilarating and exhausting. It is exhilarating
when
translators consider the benefits, both spiritual and liter-
ary,
that the rendering will provide to their readers; it is exhaust-
ing
when they confront various problems, some of them beyond
the
possibility of solution. Problems involved in translating the
Scriptures
are many. Some result from the presence of variant
readings
among the manuscripts of the Old and New Testa-
ments.
Others have to do with the meaning of rare words as well
as
the uncertainty of punctuation of the Hebrew and the Greek
texts.
Still others relate to the appropriate renderings in English
or
any other receptor language and bear on the choice of the liter-
ary
level and style of phraseology. This article considers exam-
ples of these kinds of problems.
VARIANT
The first problem facing Bible translators is
the differences
in
wording among manuscripts of the Scriptures. These differ-
ences
have arisen because, even with the strongest determination
to
copy a text without error, a scribe copying a text of considerable
length
will almost inevitably introduce changes in the wording.
It
is understandable that mistakes can arise from inattentive-
ness
brought on by weariness. For example instead of the correct
reading,
"Is a lamp brought in to be put under a bushel, or under a
Bruce
M. Metzger is Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Emeri-
tus, Princeton Theological Seminary,
*
This is article three in the four-part series, "Translating the Bible: An
Ongoing
Task,"
delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at
ological Seminary,
274
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September
1993
bed,
and not on a stand?" (Mark
manuscripts
read "under the stand." This is obviously a scribal
error
in repeating the preposition "under" in the third phrase.
Sometimes a scribe's error of judgment works
havoc with the
text.
One of the most atrocious blunders of this kind is in the mi-
nuscule
Greek manuscript no. 109, dated to the 14th century. This
manuscript
of the four Gospels was transcribed from a copy that
must
have had Luke's genealogy of Jesus (
columns
of 28 lines in each. Instead of transcribing the text by
following
the columns in succession, the scribe of MS 109 copied
the
genealogy by following the lines across the two columns.
In addition to such transcriptional blunders,
which can usu-
ally
be detected and corrected, occasionally a scribe deliberately
introduced
into the copy a change that seems to clarify the sense or
eliminate
a difficulty. For example the older manuscripts of
Mark
1:2-3 attribute to the Prophet Isaiah the evangelist's com-
posite
quotation from both Malachi and Isaiah, whereas later
manuscripts
(followed by the King James translators of 1611)
read,
"As it is written in the prophets," an obvious amelioration of
the
earlier text.
By comparing the surviving manuscript copies,
scholars
seek
to determine what should be regarded as the original word-
ing,
and which reading or readings are secondary. Two kinds of
considerations
are taken into account. One concerns external ev-
idence;
this has to do with the age of the manuscripts that present
the
several different readings, as well as the geographical spread
of
the witnesses (and these include early versions in other lan-
guages)
that support each reading. In general, the older
manuscripts
are, in the nature of the case, separated from the
original
text by fewer stages of copying and recopying than more
recently
copied manuscripts. Likewise, the more widespread the
witnesses
for a given reading, the more impressive is their testi-
mony.
From considerations such as these one can
appreciate why the
discoveries
in the 20th century of much earlier copies than those
previously
available are so important. Scrolls and fragments of
each
book of the Hebrew Bible, except Esther, hidden for centuries
in
caves by the
are
at least 900 years older than previously known copies. Simi-
larly
the acquisition of Greek papyrus manuscripts of various
books
of the New Testament now provides evidence for the word-
ing
of these texts that antedates what was previously available.
Besides external evidence, scholars also take
into account
what
is called internal evidence of the variant readings. This is
Persistent Problems Contronting Bible
Translators 275
of
two kinds, involving transcriptional probability and intrinsic
probability.
Transcriptional considerations have to do with the
habits
of scribes. When a scribe was confronted with divergent
wordings
in two or more manuscripts, it was likely that, rather
than
choosing one and discarding the other, he would sometimes
produce
a composite reading that embodied both. In such cases the
longer
reading may be suspected as secondary. For example in
the
account concerning Stephen in Acts 6:8 some manuscripts de-
scribe
him as "full of grace" and others as "full of faith." The
sixth-century
Greek and Latin manuscript of Acts known as
Codex
Laudianus (E) conflates the two and says that Stephen was
"full
of grace and faith."
In other cases scribes amplified and rounded off
phrases by
the
addition of natural complements and similar adjuncts. A
good
example of a "growing" text is Galatians
liest
form of the text reads, "I carry the marks of Jesus branded on
my
body." In later centuries scribes expanded the simple and un-
adorned
mention of "Jesus" with various additions, producing
"the
Lord Jesus," or "the Lord Jesus Christ," or "our Lord Jesus
Christ."
Intrinsic probability has to do with
considerations of what the
author
is likely to have written. Naturally attention should be
given
to such considerations only after all other kinds of evi-
dence
have been canvassed and evaluated. At that stage, one is in
a
position to test the validity of tentative conclusions as to the orig-
inal
reading. If a reading is contrary to the immediate context
and/or
is out of harmony with the usage of the author elsewhere,
serious
doubt is cast on the originality of that reading, despite the
weight
of the external evidence. In some cases, therefore, opin-
ions
will differ on the original wording.
Obviously all such decisions as to textual
variants have been
made
by editors of the original texts, and translators generally
depend
on the expertise of those who have produced the printed edi-
tions
of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek New Testament.
The
most widely used printed editions at the end of the 20th cen-
tury
are the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
(1977; ed. sec. emen-
data,
1983) and the United Bible Societies' Greek
New Testament,
prepared
by an interconfessional and international committee
(1966;
third edition corrected 1983; a fourth edition is shortly to ap-
pear).
Translators, however, may give further consideration to
the
evaluation of textual evidence and occasionally will adopt a
reading
different from that in the printed text. In 1 Thessaloni-
ans
2:7 Greek manuscripts are divided; some read "gentle,"
some "infants." The difference in Greek is
only one letter, h@pioi
276 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September 1993
and nh<pioi.
The last letter of the previous word in the Greek is “n,”
and so no one can say whether scribes wrote “n” twice instead of
once,
or once instead of twice. "Infants" is found in many good
manuscripts
(and is printed in the United Bible Societies' Greek
New Testament), but
"gentle" makes better sense,1 and
is adopted
by
most translators (RSV, NIV, REB, NRSV) who otherwise follow the
UBS
text.
THE
MEANING OF HEBREW AND GREEK WORDS
After translators have decided which wording of
the Hebrew
or
Greek text should be taken as the basis of the English render-
ing,
the next problem has to do with ascertaining the precise
meaning
of the words. Lexicographers are constantly attempting
to
learn more exactly the meaning of ancient Hebrew and Greek
terms
and expressions. The Hebrew Bible contains about 300,000
words,
comprising 8,674 different words, of which, according to
one method of calculation, about 1,500 occur only
once.2 In many
cases
a similar word occurs in the literature of other Semitic peo-
ples,
notably in Arabic, Assyrian, Eblaic, and Ugaritic. By com-
parative
linguistics and archaeological finds scholars are able
in
some cases to define more precisely the meaning of rare He-
brew
words. One such Hebrew word, which has never been found
in other Semitic literature, is MyPi (1 Sam.
context
the King James translators took this word to mean "a
file,"
used by blacksmiths to sharpen hoes and other agricultural
tools.
In the first part of the 20th century, however, archaeologists
discovered
at various places in
used
for business transactions, each bearing a Hebrew word. One
of
these, weighing almost two and two-thirds ounces, is marked
MyP and so translators now
know this was the amount that the
blacksmiths
charged for sharpening various tools.
Even when the meaning of individual Hebrew words
can be
determined
with a degree of certainty, there is sometimes also the
problem
as to how they are to be understood in relation to each
other
in the sentence. What has been called the most obscure verse
in
the Book of Proverbs (26:10) involves a whole nest of problems.
Many
combinations of the words have been made, along with at-
1 Two of the five members
of the United Bible Societies committee (Allen Wik-
gren and the present writer) have expressed their
preference for the reading
"gentle" (Bruce M. Metzger, ed., A Textual Commentary on
the Greek New Testa-
ment [
2
For a
discussion of such words, see Frederick E. Greenspahn, Hapax Legom-
ena in Biblical Hebrew (Chico, CA: Society of Biblical Literature,
1984).
Persistent Problems Confronting Bible
Translators 277
tempts
at emendation. Because the meaning of more than one
word
in the verse is subject to various interpretations, at least 10
different translations of it have been proposed.3
In comparison with the difficulties of
ascertaining the mean-
ing
of words in the Hebrew Bible, the Greek New Testament is
much
easier, at least with regard to the number of lexical prob-
lems.
According to statistics collected by an assiduous re-
searcher,
the Greek New Testament contains 137,328 words, com-
prising
a total of 5,436 different words, of which 1,934 occur only
once.4 The great majority of
these hapax legomena
occur also in
other Greek sources,5 and so the meaning
of most of them is not
often
in dispute. The meaning, however, of a word in the Lord's
Prayer
as recorded in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3 has often been
debated.
Does "Give us this day our e]piou<sion bread" mean
"daily
bread"
or "bread for tomorrow"? Except in subsequent quotations
of
the prayer, no other piece of Greek literature is known to con-
tain
this word. The only time it seems to have turned up was in
1889
when A. H. Sayce edited a fragmentary Greek papyrus con-
taining
a householder's account-book listing the purchase of pro-
visions.
Here, according to Sayce, in one of the broken lines of the
list was e]piou<si--, with the end of the
word defaced. It is most un-
fortunate,
however, that scholars who wish to double-check this
information
are unable to do so, for the papyrus fragment has
disappeared
and cannot be found. Furthermore its loss is particu-
larly
distressing because Sayce (whose shortcomings as a deci-
pherer
of Greek papyri were generally recognized) may have
misread
the householder's list.6 And in any case, even if Sayce
did
correctly read the word, lexicographers do not know much
more
about its meaning than was known before, namely, that the
expression
signifies either "daily bread" or "bread for tomor-
row."
In such cases when a word is susceptible of two equally le-
3 See the list in C. H.
Toy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on the Book of
Proverbs (Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clark, 1899), 476, note. For a more recent assessment
of the verse, see D. C. Snell, "The Most
Obscure Verse in Proverbs," Vetus
Testa-
mentum 41
(1991): 350-56.
4 See Robert
Morgenthaler, Statistik des
Neutestamentlichen Wortschatzes
(Zurich: Gotthelf-Verlag, 1958), 25.
5 According to
information kindly supplied by Frederick W. Danker (letter, De-
cember 10, 1989), only two dozen words (not including
proper names) have not been
found elsewhere.
6
For
further information see the chapter entitled, "How Many Times Does e]pi-
ou<sioj occur outside the
Lord's Prayer?" in Historical and
Literary Studies, ed.
Bruce
M. Metzger (Leiden: Brill, 1968), 64-66. After this chapter was published a
search has been made in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
but without discovering
any other occurrence of the word.
278
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September
1993
gitimate
renderings, translators have no choice except to place
one
in the text and the other in a footnote.
THE PUNCTUATION OF THE
TEXT
Once translators have decided which form of text
to translate
and
what the Hebrew and Greek words mean, the problem of
punctuation
arises. In antiquity it was customary to write Hebrew
and
Greek manuscripts with few, if any, marks of punctuation.
The
beginning of a sentence was not identified by a capital letter.
Not
until the eighth or ninth century A.D. did Greek scribes begin
to be more or less systematic in the use of
punctuation marks.7
Though
exegetes can learn something concerning the history of
the
interpretation of a passage by considering the punctuation in
the
manuscripts, translators need not feel bound to adopt the
punctuation
preferred by either the scribe or the editor of the
printed
text. Furthermore, since there are no quotation marks in
any
of the manuscripts, the decision of where to insert these in the
translation
is totally in the hands of the translators.
Naturally the opinions of translators as to
appropriate punc-
tuation
will sometimes differ. There is no infallible rule to fol-
low;
judgments must be based on what seems to provide the fullest
and
most appropriate sense in the context. The beginning of a di-
rect
quotation can usually be determined without any trouble
when
it is indicated by a verb such as "said," "asked,"
"replied,"
or
the like. But problems can arise concerning the close of a quo-
tation,
especially when it is the final sentence of a series of com-
ments
of a conversation. It is uncertain, for example, whether the
last
statement. made by Jesus to Nicodemus is intended to end at
John
The position of a comma within a sentence can
totally alter
the
sense. In Revelation 5:1 the traditional punctuation describes
the
scroll held in the right hand of God as "written on the inside
and
on the back, sealed with seven seals." The Greek text, how-
ever,
may also be understood in a different way, resulting in the
translation
given in the NRSV footnote on this verse, "written on
the
inside, and sealed on the back with seven seals."
Changing the position of a comma can sometimes
expand the
sense.
The third petition in the Lord's Prayer in the King James
Version
reads, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"
(Matt.
ently,
"Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven." The principle
7 See Bruce M. Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to
Greek Palaeography (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1981), 31-32.
Persistent Problems Confronting Bible
Translators 279
translators
follow is to use the punctuation that provides the best
and
fullest sense. In this case the second way of punctuating is
better,
for it permits the phrase "on earth as in heaven" to be taken
with
all three preceding petitions, thus enlarging the scope and
meaning
of the prayer.
A theological point is involved in the placing
of a comma in
Luke
23:43. According to the traditional way of understanding
the
passage, the repentant robber asked Jesus on the cross to re-
member
him when Jesus entered His kingdom. To this request
Jesus
responded, "Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in
paradise."
In the interest of supporting the doctrine of "soul sleep"
held
by Jehovah's Witnesses, the translators of the
Translation
of the Christian Greek Scriptures have moved the
comma
so that the verse reads, "Truly I tell you today, You will be
with
me in
was
speaking to him that day, and so the correct punctuation is
that
of traditional translations.
Sometimes a sentence in the Greek New Testament
can be
construed
as either a statement or as a question. This ambiguity
accounts
for the change at Romans 8:33 between the RSV, "Is it
Christ
Jesus, who died. .." and the NRSV, "It is Christ Jesus, who
died
..." (the latter returns to the interpretation of the King James
translators).
At Mark 15:2, in response to Pilate's question, "Are
you
the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered with a statement, "You
say
so." It is possible, however, to understand the Greek here as a
question, "Do you say so?"8
Modern translators occasionally find that an
exclamation
mark
brings out most appropriately the force of the original. The
awe and wonder of the scene described in Revelation
4:1-2 is then
disclosed
in the RSV: "After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an
open
door! ... At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in
heaven,
with one seated on the throne!" In the Old Testament,
particularly
in the Psalms, the RSV translators were overzealous
in
their use of exclamation marks, and in the NRSV many of them
have
been replaced with a period (as in the King James Version).
TO
TRANSLATE OR TO TRANSLITERATE?
Yet another problem confronting translators
arises when a
Hebrew
or a Greek word can be either translated or transliter-
ated.
What should be done with proper names that can also be used
as
common nouns? For example, MdAxA is both a common noun
8 This punctuation is
given by Westcott and Hort in the margin of their edition
(1881).
280
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September
1993
meaning
"a man" and the proper name "Adam." In translating
Genesis
the question soon arises at what point in the narrative
one
should begin to use "Adam" rather than "man." On this mat-
ter
there has been wide disagreement among translators. Some
versions
make the change at Genesis 2:7 (Targum), others at
(Septuagint),
and still others at
The traditional rendering of Psalm 84:6 in the
King James
Version
is, "Who passing through the
well." Since, however, xkABA means "a balsam tree," the New Jeru-
Balsam,"
and the New American Bible has, "When they pass
through
the valley of mastic trees." Since, however, the similarly
pronounced word hkABA means "to
weep," the American Standard
Version
reads, "Passing through the
A similar problem in the New Testament concerns
the Greek
word Xristo<j, which can be
transliterated "Christ" or translated
"anointed
one," or "Messiah." Several modern translations
(e.g.,
in
earlier renderings of the Gospels (e.g., KJV, ASV, NASV) with
"Messiah."
The reason for making the change arises from the
recognition
that it was only after the message of the early follow-
ers of Jesus was addressed to Gentiles that the
word Xristo<j as a
title
(Jesus the Messiah) would come to be
understood as a proper
name
(Jesus Christ). The transfer of
understanding was total
when,
still later, the expression Christ Jesus is sometimes used in
the
Epistles and in the Book of Revelation.
The word "Hades" in Greek (%!dhj) was originally a proper
noun,
the name of the god of the underworld. In time the word
came
to denote a place or state, and in the King James Version it
is
usually rendered "hell," and once "grave" (1 Cor.
RSV
the word is usually transliterated, but in Matthew
rendered
"[powers of] death," where the NRSV transliterates.
Besides proper names other words are sometimes
translated
and
sometimes transliterated. The Greek verb bapti<zw
has tradi-
tionally
been transliterated "baptize." About 1885 the American
Baptist
Publication Society of Philadelphia issued the New Tes-
tament
in two forms, one that used the traditional rendering,
"baptize"
and the other that translated the verb with the word "im-
merse."
"John the Baptist" became "John the immerser."
The Greek words presbu<teroj
and presbute<rion,
usually
translated
"elder" and "council of elders," can also be translit-
erated "presbyter" and "presbytery."
The Greek word e]pi<skopoj
means "overseer" but is often
transliterated (through the Old En-
Persistent Problems Confronting Bible
Translators 281
glish "bisceop") as "bishop." Also dia<konoj, which means "ser-
vant,"
is transliterated "deacon."
STYLISTIC PROBLEMS
Since the Bible is a source of both information
and inspira-
tion,
translations must be both accurate and esthetically felici-
tous.
They should be suitable for rapid reading and for detailed
study,
as well as suitable for reading aloud to large and small
groups.
Ideally they should be intelligible and even inviting to
readers
of all ages, of all degrees of education, and of almost all
levels of intelligence--all without sacrificing
accuracy, in either
matter
or manner. Besides the several problems already consid-
ered
as to text, meaning of words, punctuation, and the like, the
following
are illustrations of some of the more delicate stylistic
problems
that confront Bible translators.
1. Not only the choice of English words but also
the order in
which
they are arranged often makes a difference in meaning.
In
the words of the institution of the Lord's Supper, the rendering
in
the King James Version, "Drink ye all of it" (Matt. 26:27),
leaves
it uncertain whether Jesus meant all who drink or all of
the
contents of the cup. Since the Greek text here uses the plural
form
of the word "all," the English translation should be some-
thing
like, "Drink from it, all of you."
Although E. J. Goodspeed's translation of the
New Testament
(1923)
usually employs American idioms, here and there one
finds
curious slips in sentence arrangement. Hebrews 10:1
reads,
"The same sacrifices . . . cannot wholly free those who
come
to worship from their sins." In Hebrews 9, where Goodspeed
uses
"chest" and "agreement" in place of "ark" and
"covenant,"
verse
4 reads, "the ark that contained the agreement, entirely
covered
with gold." The ark, not the covenant, was gold-covered.
The
New Revised Standard Version corrects several mis-
leading
RSV renderings. Instead of Moses leaving "Pharaoh in
hot
anger" (Exod. 11:8), it now reads "in hot anger he left
Pharaoh,"
and instead of "Joshua was standing before the angel,
clothed
in filthy garments" (Zech. 3:3), the NRSV reads, "Joshua
was
dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel."
2. Translators must pay attention to what can be
called the
color
or tone of their rendering. For example, though the verbs "to
dwell"
and "to live" are more or less synonymous, translators
need
to be sensitive to the context in which one word is more ap-
propriate
than the other. Translators generally agree that "dwell"
is
to be preferred in contexts that speak of God in heaven, such as
the traditional rendering of Isaiah 57:15 (which is
retained in the
282
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September 1993
NRSV),
"I dwell in the high and holy place." On the other hand the
word
"live" is certainly more appropriate in matter-of-fact state-
ments,
such as "Jabal ... the ancestor of those who live in tents"
(Gen.
4:20, NRSV), where earlier versions continued with the King
James
rendering "dwell."
3. Care must be taken in choosing words that are
susceptible
of
being understood in the wrong way. Modern English versions
avoid
the King James rendering of Matthew 20:17, which says
that
Jesus "took the twelve apostles apart in the way." Though
James
Moffatt struck off many happy phrases in his translation,
occasionally
one finds an ambiguous rendering. The wording in
his
1913 translation spoke of two men in one bed (Luke
his
1934 revision reads "two men in bed" (i.e., not a double bed).
The
RSV in 1 Kings 19:21 says of Elisha, "Then he arose and went
after
Elijah"; this is modified in the NRSV to read, "Then he set out
and
followed Elijah." The earlier rendering of Psalm 50:9, "I
will
accept no bull from your house," is altered to read in the NRSV,
"I
will not accept a bull from your house."
Also under the category of words that can be
misunderstood
are
homophones, that is, words that have the same sound but differ
in
spelling and meaning, such as "there" and "their." To
prevent
possible
ambiguity during oral reading, the statement "because
there
God had revealed himself' (Gen. 35:7, RSV) was altered in
the
NRSV to "Because it was there that God had revealed himself."
Another
kind of oral ambiguity can arise when one hears Luke
"`Nothing."'
The NRSV renders the second sentence, "They said,
`No,
not a thing"' to prevent hearers from thinking the sentence
read,
"They said nothing."
4. The maxim of the committee that produced the
New Re-
vised
Standard Version is that the version was to be "as literal as
possible,
as free as necessary." Though, as expected, there would
be
differences among the members as to when to reject a literal
rendering,
they agreed that expressions that reflected ancient
ideas
of psychology should be replaced by modern terms. Both the
Old
and New Testaments contain references to one's kidneys as
the
seat of affections and emotions. Because the King James
translators
used the older English word "reins," which meant
kidneys,
most readers of that translation today have no idea or, at
any
rate, a wrong idea of the meaning of such passages as, "My
reins
also instruct me in the night seasons" (Ps. 16:7), or "I am he
which
searcheth the reins and the hearts" (Rev. 2:23). In present-
day
English the equivalent is "heart" or "mind." The King
James
literal rendering of Philippians 2:1, "any bowels and
Persistent Problems Confronting Bible
Translators 283
mercies,"
does not convey the idea intended by the original text.
Modern
translators employ a variety of equivalent terms, such as
"warmth
or sympathy" (NJB), "kindness and compassion" (GNB),
"warmth
of affection or compassion" (REB), "compassion and
sympathy"
(NRSV), "tenderness and compassion" (NIV).
5. In recent years yet another problem has begun
to confront
those
who translate the Bible into English, namely, the question of
the
suitability of using masculine-oriented language in passages
that
obviously apply to men and women alike. The movement for
women's
"liberation," with its occasional extravagances, has
made
people conscious as never before of deficiencies in the way
humans
speak of each other. Many publishers, as well as church
educational
boards, now issue guidelines as to how best to express
oneself
in "inclusive" language. No doubt such concerns will not
go
away, and translators of the Scriptures obviously do not wish to
offend
and put off readers by using what is increasingly coming
to
be regarded as unacceptable English.
The problems that are easiest to correct are, of
course, those
passages
where earlier translators inserted the word "man" or
"men"
but where the Hebrew or Greek text lacks such a term. The
traditional
rendering of Jesus' words in John
when
I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."
Here
the King James translators inserted the word "men," itali-
cizing
it to indicate (as they were accustomed to do) that it is not in
the
Greek. In order, however, to show in modern English usage
that
the passage does not intend to limit the reference to male
adults
only, translators have rendered the passage either "draw
everyone
to myself' (NAB, 2d ed., and REB) or "draw all people to
myself'
(NJB and NRSV).
According to the King James Version, at the
wedding feast
held
at Cana of Galilee, the comment was made, "Every man at
the
beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well
drunk,
then that which is worse" (John
"man"
and "men" do not appear in the Greek text, nor are they
italicized
in the translation. The REB and NRSV have indepen-
dently
of each other avoided the masculine bias of the King James
Version
by using "everyone" instead of "every man" and
"guests"
instead of "men."
Somewhat more difficult to assess are the
passages that do
contain the Hebrew or Greek word for
"man" (wyxi or a@nqrwpoj) but
where
it would be wrong to understand the passage as restricted to
adult
males. For example, "Mari shall not live by bread alone"
(Deut.
8:3, quoted in Matt. 4:4 and Luke 4:4) is rendered in the
NRSV,
"One does not live by bread alone."
284
BIBLIOTHECA SACRA / July-September
1993
When the apostle referred to the work of the
Holy Spirit in
strengthening
"the inner man" (Eph.
tors
do? Should they assume that the expression "inner man" is a
stereotyped
phrase that would be understood by women? Or is it
better
to use the expression "your inner being" (NIV and NRSV) or
even
to replace "strengthen" with the noun "strength" and render
the
phrase "grant you inward strength"?
Of course in other passages the word
"man" or "men" must
remain
in English. One recognizes that the congregation in most
Jewish
synagogues in antiquity consisted exclusively of men.
Furthermore
the presence of the Greek word a@ndrej in Mark's ac-
count
of the number of those who had eaten at the feeding of the
5,000
(Mark
A recurring difficulty facing translators is the
lack of a
common
gender third person singular pronoun in English. It is
ungrammatical
to say, "everyone must bear their own burden,"
and
it is restrictive to say, "everyone must bear his own burden,"
but
it would be cumbersome to say, "everyone must bear his or her
own
burden." In such cases the NRSV translators considered that
the
least unsatisfactory solution was to represent the meaning by
pluralizing,
"All must carry their own burden."
6. Several problems are virtually impossible to
resolve. How
should
poetry be translated? To turn Hebrew poetry into prose has
been
compared to playing on a violin a score written for the or-
gan.
Plays on words in Hebrew and Greek are
especially difficult
to
handle. Frequently the only solution is to supply explanatory
footnotes.
At Jeremiah 1:11-12 the NIV adds the note, "The Hebrew
for
watching sounds like the Hebrew for almond tree," and the
RSV
provides in notes the transliteration of the two words in ques-
tion,
"Heb shaqed" and "Heb shoqed." The Greek name Ones-
imus
means "useful," to which Paul alluded in Philemon 9-10.
This
is handled gracefully in
"Formerly
he was useless to you, but now-true to his name-he is
of
great use to you and to me."
The presence of an acrostic format in such
passages as
Psalm
119 and Lamentations 1-4 is the despair of many transla-
tors.
Ronald Knox, however, was no ordinary translator and he
managed
to present in English the equivalent kind of structure.
To
take Lamentations 4:1-10 as a specimen, the opening word or
words
of Knox's rendering are as follows: "All dim.... Bright. .
Cub....
Dry throat.... Even they feared.... Faithless Juda. .
Gone....
Here.... It were better.... Juda brought low ..."
and so forth.
This
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