The Word: On the Translation of the Bible

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Even in the most practical sense it guides readers in finding the translation that best fits the specifics of their beliefs. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2007 and is a Corresponding Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

I dislike functional-equivalence translations, but then specialised language study has infected me with the privilege of choice. It is a testament to theological practice, translation philosophy and simply a little witty book that isn't too hard on the brain to be truthful. John Barton was the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1991 to 2014 and since 1973 has been a serving priest in the Church of England. nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass”, they imply “a settled agrarian community”.

Bible’ is in origin a plural – ta biblia in Greek, ‘the books’ – but a sense developed, certainly by the end of the third century, that the books were in reality a single one with many parts. His bestselling A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize for History, won the Duff Cooper Prize and has been translated into more than ten languages. Or is it the story (or argument) that's being told, in which case a freer rendering might give a truer understanding. The essence of a religious approach to the world, it seems to me, is to be found, not in the imposition of theological dogma, but in the recognition of what is actually there.

A century and a half earlier another dissident, John Wycliffe, suffered Vatican justice for the same sin, but only once dead. The latest iteration of the Methodist’s ‘Inclusive Language Guide’, suggests replacing ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ with neutral terms to avoid offence. He notes, for example, links between the long-term legacy of Christian antisemitism and translating hoi Ioudaioi in the New Testament as “the Jews”. They regarded the life of Christ as the great truth towards which the Hebrew prophets and scriptures pointed, and which superseded the old faith and its laws. Are the words of the original the most important thing, and therefore to be rendered as closely as possible?

For much of the history of Judaism and almost the entirety of Christianity, however, believers have overwhelmingly understood scripture not in the languages in which it was first written but rather in their own—in translation.