scholarly journals Biblical conceptual sphere as a concept of Taras Shevchenko's idiostyle and its reverbalization in Ukrainian bible translations

2018 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Oksana Dzera
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
Complete Translation ◽  
Old Greek ◽  
Biblical Concepts

The article elaborates the analysis of Ukrainian translations of the Holy Scripture through the prism of Shevchenko’s metabiblical images. Biblical conceptual sphere is defined as a fragment of biblical picture of the world shaped on the basis of Old Hebrew, less frequently Old Greek imagery and represented by the totality of concepts which are connected through overlapping, interrelation, hierarchy and opposition and are thematically grouped. Verbalizers of biblical concepts contain the complex accumulation of senses reflecting correlations between God and people through specific world perception of ancient Hebrews. The mediating link between the Bible prototext and biblical metatexts is created by national translations of the Holy Scripture that shape national biblical conceptual spheres via multiple deviations of the Hebrew and Greek sources. The deviations affect national phraseology as well as individual authors’ interpretations of the Book of Books. Special attention is devoted to recursive deviation which manifests itself when a national biblical conceptual sphere and even national translations of the Bible contain elements of authors’ biblical intertexts. Taras Shevchenko’s poetry is viewed as the primary Ukrainian recursive biblical intertext. His idiostyle is characterized by the verbalization of biblical concepts through overlapping biblical and nationally-bound senses. Metabiblical images of Shevchenko’s idiostyle are tracked down to the Bible translation done by I. Khomenko and edited by I. Kostetskyij and V. Barka. The editors who represented the baroque tradition of the Ukrainian translation domesticated Khomenko’s version and introduced into it elements of the Ukrainian metabiblical conceptual sphere, predominantly Shevchenko’s metabiblical images. I. Khomenko himself did not approve of this strategy and regarded it as a violation of the Word of God. Yet the monastic order of St. Basil the Great that commissioned this translation did not consult the translator before publishing its edited version. Similar domesticating strategy is observed in the first Ukrainian complete translation of the Bible done by P. Kulish, I. Puluj, and I. Nechuj-Levycjkyj in 1903. Shevchenko’s influence is particularly felt in epithets specifying key biblical images, such as enemy (лютий / fierce) and heart (тихе / meek). Though each book of the Holy Scripture in this translation is ascribed to only one translator of the three it seems logical to surmise that P. Kulish, the founder of the baroque translation tradition in Ukraine, was the first to draw images from Shevchenko’s metabiblical conceptual sphere. The article postulates the necessity to perceive Shevchenko’s poetry as a complete Biblical intertext which not only interprets national biblical canon but also generates it.

The Retranslation Hypothesis and Lexical Borrowings in Bible Translations into Igbo

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-100
Author(s):  
Uchenna Oyali
Keyword(s):  
Language System ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Complete Translation ◽  
Target Culture ◽  
Better Than ◽  
The Way ◽  
Biblical Concepts

AbstractIn this paper, I explore the validity of the retranslation hypothesis – that the first translation of a text tends to be more target culture oriented than subsequent translations – in representations of certain Biblical concepts in the translations of the Bible into Igbo. Specifically I investigate instances of lexical borrowings in the first complete translation of the Bible into Igbo because, following from the hypothesis, subsequent translations of the Bible should also borrow the same items. I discover that most of the borrowings in the first translation are de-borrowed in the retranslations, while the retained borrowings undergo various forms of grapho-phonological adjustments to reflect the Igbo linguistic system. Thus, the retranslation hypothesis is not validated in this study. I trace this choice of indigenization in the subsequent translations to the agents involved in the translations. Being specialists in Igbo Studies, they understand the Igbo linguistic system better than the agents of the first translation who were mainly European missionaries with little knowledge of the language system. Unlike the missionaries, these Igbo agents are not only interested in having the Bible in Igbo, but also in having it in an Igbo that is in sync with the way the language is actually used.

scholarly journals History and theory of Scripture translations

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole
Keyword(s):  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History And Theory

This article argues for the importance of Bible translations through its historical achievements and theoretical frames of reference. The missionary expansion of Christianity owes its very being to translations. The early Christian communities knew the Bible through the LXX translations while churches today still continue to use various translations. Translations shape Scripture interpretations, especially when a given interpretation depends on a particular translation. A particular interpretation can also influence a given translation. The article shows how translation theories have been developed to clarify and how the transaction source-target is culturally handled. The articles discuss some of these “theoretical frames”, namely the functional equivalence, relevance, literary functional equivalence and intercultural mediation. By means of a historical overview and a reflection on Bible translation theories the article aims to focus on the role of Africa in translation history.

Digitization of Bibles in Greater China (1661–1960)

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-254
Author(s):  
Simon Wong
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Chinese Han ◽  
Greater China ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Eastern Christianity ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Language Groups

Bible translations in (or for) Greater China may be classified into three categories: Chinese, Han dialects, and indigenous languages. All these language groups witness translation activities by Protestant missionaries. However, in its earliest history, Bible translation was pioneered by missionaries of Eastern Christianity in the seventh century or even earlier, whereas from the Catholic side, clear historical narrative has recorded Bible translation work in the thirteenth century by John of Montecorvino (1247–1328) into a Tatar language. Sadly, this work was not preserved. The earliest extant Bible translation in this vast area was published in 1661 in the Siriya language of Taiwan. This article reports on two major digitization projects: digitization of old Chinese Bibles (1707–1960), including 51 translations in total, and digitization of Bibles in Han dialects/fangyan and indigenous languages (1661–1960)—about 50 languages (including dialects) and 60 translations. These two projects represent the largest and most systematic full-text digitization of the Bible heritage of the area ever undertaken.

scholarly journals Lexical Aspects of Russian Bible Translations

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
G. A. Kazakov
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
English Language ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
Church Tradition

The article is devoted to the study of the lexical aspects of Russian Bible translations of the 19th—21st centuries in comparative coverage and is a continuation of a study pre-viously conducted by reference to English Bibles. A historical overview of the existing Russian translations is given (the Synodal translation and the texts preceding it, the New Testament of Bishop Cassian, the Bible of the World Bible Translation Center, the “Central Asian translation”, the translation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Bible of the Inter-national Bible Society, the modern translation of the Russian Bible Society, the “Zaoksky Bible”). Special attention is paid to modern editions. Samples of texts are compared according to the lexical parameters of adaptiveness, terminologicalness, style and literalness. On the basis of this comparison, a classification of the considered translations is proposed, and their typological features and interconnections are established. The lexical nature of translations is interpreted in terms of their sociolinguistic effect (public perception). The data obtained confirms the pattern previously found in the English-language Bibles — the inverse relationship between adaptiveness on the one hand and terminologicalness, high style and literalness of the translation on the other.  In terms of lexical characteristics, the Synodal and the “Central Asian” translations differ most from each other, which is probably due to their focus on church tradition and missionary goals, respectively. 

scholarly journals Overliteralness and Mother-Tongue Translators

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Michael Cahill
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Rhetorical Questions

One barrier to quality in Bible translation is a tendency for translators to translate literally from their primary source text. This is a hazard for any translator, but has particular relevance in the case of Mother-Tongue Translators (MTTs) with minimal training, who are bearing an increasingly larger role in new Bible translations around the globe. In this article, we first examine the problem of overliteralness, observing cases of RL structural adherence to the SL in direct speech, ungrammatical sentences, mistranslation of rhetorical questions, use of idioms, and neglect of discourse factors, etc. The problem of overliteralness extends to information and emotional impact implicit in the SL that is not made explicit in the RL. Reasons for overliteralness include the natural intuitiveness of translating literally, respect for the Word of God (they don’t want to change it), and MTTs’ unawareness of their own language patterns. Since translation consultants are not always familiar with the receptor language, these types of mistakes may escape notice in the checking process. Nonetheless, many MTTs do excellent translation work. We present two major factors that help MTTs avoid overliteralness. Through training and mentoring, they need to absorb the translation principle that gives them “permission” to not be literal. Next, deliberate study of structures of their own language is key, especially contrasting it with structures of the primary source language. Cases where these types of activities are already being done will be presented, and more are encouraged.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of to Alfa Kai to Omega in the Greek New Testament (Revelation 1:8) and Asante-Twi Bible

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Foster Asamoah
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
Greek New Testament ◽  
Future Revision ◽  
The Church

Bible Translation has been a means the Church uses to bring the Gospel into the language of the recipients to help improve the quality of life of the indigenes. Nonetheless, it must be noted that all over the world most Bible translation materials have experienced numerous revision exercises. An example of this is the Asante-Twi versions of the Bible which has witnessed two revision works; one on the whole Bible in 2012 since its publication in 1964, and a revised New Testament version published in 2013. Even with the recent revised ones, there still exist translation problems, for some words are strange or foreign to the Asante-Twi speaking people; clear example is Revelation 1:8 which is the focus for this study. Using Mother-tongue Biblical Hermeneutics methodology, this thesis delves into the meaning of the Alfa ne Omega no in the Asante-Twi context and its usage in Revelation 1:8; vis-à-vis an exegesis of the Greek word to alfa kai to omega to find its equivalence in the Asante-Twi. It was found from the study that Ahyεaseε ne Awieeε no is the best rendition of to alfa kai to omega . This work has thus added an Akan translation and interpretation of Revelation 1:8 to the knowledge of the field of mother-tongue hermeneutics; and it is being recommended that in the future revision of the Asante-Twi Bible, the Bible Society of Ghana should consider using Ahyεaseε ne Awieeε no to translate to alfa kai to omega (to alpha kai to omega) in Revelation 1:8.

scholarly journals The Zulu version of the old testament from a typological perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 212-225
Author(s):  
Victor Porkhomovsky ◽  
Irina Ryabova
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Sacred Objects ◽  
Canonical Text

The present paper continues typological studies of the Bible translation strategies in different languages. These studies deal with passages and lexemes in the canonical text of the Biblia Hebraica, that refl ect ancient cultural and religious paradigms, but do not correspond to later monotheist principles of Judaism and Christianity. The canonical Hebrew text does not allow of any changes. Thus, two translation strategies are possible: (1) to preserve these passages in the text of the translation (a philological strategy), (2) to edit them according to the monotheist principles (ideological strategy). The focus in the present paper is made on the problem of rendering the name of the ancient Semitic goddess ’ashera, attested as the companion of the supreme gods in certain traditions and pantheons (’El /’Il/, Ba‘al, YHWH). Two strategies of rendering the name of ’ashera are attested in different Bible translations: (1) to preserve the name of the goddess (philological strategy), (2) to eliminate this name or to replace it with the names of her fetishes and sacred objects (ideological strategy). The Zulu case of rendering the name ’ashera is particularly looked at in this paper.

scholarly journals Learning and Revealing the Thoughts of the Holy Scriptures through the Preachers as Perceived by Rev. Zygmunt Pilch (1888–1962)

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-116
Author(s):  
Łukasz Bucki
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Natural Source ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
The World ◽  
Teaching Church

The text of the article is an analysis of selected issues from the teaching of Rev. Zygmunt Pilch (1888–1962) PhD, who directed his thoughts not only to students of preaching but also to preachers. His teaching is still relevant today. The homiletics lecturer appealed to the preachers of the Word of God that they were obliged to communicate the Word of Salvation to the world. The text of the Holy Scriptures, according to the homiletics teacher, is a natural source of preaching, as it is the Spirit of God Himself who speaks through it, through the teaching Church. From the inspired text, the preacher should draw content, spirit, anointing, life and grace. A preacher reading the Scriptures is bound to grasp the meaning of God’s speech. By reading the text, he looks for thoughts and meanings, wanting to capture the inner content of the text. The primary concern in reading the Bible is to know its literal meaning, which is directly apparent from the words of the text. There is also a typical sense in the holy books. The preacher’s task is to convince the faithful to live by faith, according to the Lord’s thought contained in types. Reading the Word of God requires appropriate methods that understand its symbolic meaning, revealed in allegories. Christ often made use of parables as the means of visual teaching, drawing images from everyday life. Devoted completely to preaching, Z. Pilch reminded that the Holy Scriptures, being the treasury of the revealed truth, were the main literature for every preacher. The teaching of the prelate Zygmunt Pilch seems to be still relevant and is still an undiscovered treasury.

scholarly journals A Critical Study of Abba Ho Patēr in Romans 8:15 in the New Revised Asante Twi Version (2018)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Foster Asamoah ◽  
Diana Adjei-Fianko
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Future Revision ◽  
Romans 8

Bible translation is among the difficult exercises in scholarship because it demands a careful analysis of the biblical text from the source language into the target language. The religio-cultural settings and worldview of the indigenous people are also considered so that they are able to access the word of God as written and meant by the author(s). An example of Bible translation exercise is the New Revised Asante Twi Version (NRATV) 2018, which contains some translation problems. Some texts are not translated but “carried wholly” into the new or target language to make them look as if they form part of the native language. One of such is “Abba,” which is a HebraicAramaic word found in Romans 8:15. Since Abba is not an Asante (and Akan) language, it becomes difficult for the Asante reading community (and by extension all Akan languages) and users of the Asante-Twi Bible to understand and express the concept within their religio-cultural worldview because they do not understand the thought of the author in their language. Using exegetical, mother-tongue hermeneutics and the communicative method of translation as approaches, the study has found out that the translation of …Αββα ὁ πατήρ (…Abba ho Patēr) as …Abba, Agya (…Abba, Father) in the Asante-Twi Bible (2018) should be rendered as “…Agya, M’agya” (Father, My Father). The study has thus added to the interpretations of Romans 8:15 in Asante-Twi. It is being recommended that in the future revision of the Asante-Twi Bible, the Bible Society of Ghana should consider using “…Agya, M’agya” (Father, My Father) in the translation of … Αββα ὁ πατήρ (…Abba ho Patēr).

scholarly journals Was Rhoda Insulted? Re-Reading the Translation of Acts 12:15 in the Asante-Twi Bible

2020 ◽  
pp. 174-185
Author(s):  
EMMANUEL FOSTER ASAMOAH
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Verbal Insults ◽  
Future Revision

Bible translation is among the most difficult exercises in scholarship, for it needs careful analysis of the biblical texts in the light of the culture of the indigenous people to make the word of God acceptable in their culture, while not deviating from the original meaning. The Asante-Twi Bible (2012) is a product of Bible translation exercise in contemporary scholarship. However, there exist in it some translation problems; some texts which are said by Christians have been translated to carry verbal insults and derogatory remarks in the Asante-Twi language, which are not what the Greek texts intended. An example is Acts 12:15, which suggests that Rhoda was insulted by a group of Christians for saying the truth. Using Mother-tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and exegesis, the study has found out that the translation of οἱ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπαν· Μαίνῃ… (hoi de pros auten eipan…) (“And they said: You are mad!”…) as “Na wɔka kyerɛɛ no sɛ: Woabɔ dam!...” (And they said to her: You are mad!...) in the Asante-Twi Bible should rather be: “Nanso wɔka kyerɛɛ no sɛ: Biribi ha wo!...” (But they said to her: You are troubled!...). The study has added to the interpretations of Acts 12:15 in Asante-Twi. It is being recommended that in the future revision of the Asante-Twi Bible, the Bible Society of Ghana should consider using “Na wɔka kyerɛɛ no sɛ: Biribi ha wo!...” in the translation of οἱ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπαν· Μαίνῃ… (hoi de pros auten eipan…). Keywords: Insult, Bible translation, Mother-tongue, Asante-Twi and Woabɔ dam.

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