Which is "the best" translation?

Have you ever heard someone talking about a particular English Bible translation and saying it's the best? I've heard that said about the ESV, the NIV, the NRSV, the NLT and The Message. Can they all be the best?

I was sitting in a Translation Priciples lecture recently and started to think about the different English translations and what their relative strengths are. Before I get there, let me outline the three different kinds of translation.

1. Some translations are literal or"word for word" translations. This means that they try to translate each word as closely as possible to the word that was used in the original Greek (or Hebrew/Aramaic in the Old Testatment). The ESV is a good example of this. This means that you will be able to see the language structure and word choice of the original language more clealy (though you are still reading it all in English).

2. Some translations are "meaning based" translations, which means that they first take a whole idea (might be a sentence or a clause) in the original language and translate the meaning of that idea into English. So the sentence structure will be more different to the original language than in a more literal translation, but it will also use more natural English. The NLT is a good representative of this approach, which is also sometimes called "dynamic equivalence".

3. Some translations are "paraphrases". These go further than the "meaning based translations" and apply the point of what was said in the original to today's situation and might even change what is being talked about to make the same point. The Message is usually placed in this category. Some people say that The Message, though it might be very helpful, is not a translation at all because it changes the meaning too much.

The risk with using a too literal translation is that the language might be too unnatual English to be understood properly (I have heard some people say that the ESV is too difficult for their children, even teenage children, to understand). The risk with a meaning based translation, and especially a paraphrase, is that you may not have understood the meaning correctly, and therefore what you translate might be wrong.

In summary literal translations run the risk of being unintelligible, other types of translations run the risk of being wrong!

These are not three discrete categories, they're a continuum, so the NIV andNRSV are placed somewhere in between the literal and meaning based translations.

To repesent the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, I came up with this little table:
Before explaining my table I should say that I'm talking about good translations here. There can also be very bad, literal and meaning based translations and bad paraphrases, but I'm not including those in my analysis.

Ideational Meaning is what people usually mean when they say "meaning". When we say "John walked out the door" the ideational meaning refers to this person called John and that he moved, putting his feet in front of one another to go out the door.

I think that meaning based translations do ideational meaning best. Literal translations don't convey the ideational meaning quite as well, because the meaning can be obscured when it uses foreign idioms or phrases. Paraphrases don't attempt to accurately convey the ideational meaning.

Textual meaning refers to how what is read relates to the rest of the text. For example in Mark chapter 2 Jesus refers to himself as "the son of man". The ideational meaning of this phrase is "I", people used this phrase to refer to themselves often. But on a textual level we can see that Jesus might have used this phrase to remind people of something else - in this case maybe the passage from Daniel 7.

Since they use a "word for word" translation strategy, links between texts can be most easily seen in literal translations. (From the introduction: "The ESV is an "essentially literal" translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer.") This is not always as clear in meaning based translations - though footnotes can help - and it is not clear at all in paraphrases.

Affectual meaning relates to how reading the passage effects readers' emotions. How are we to feel when, for example, Jesus is betrayed, or when he dies, or when he is transfigured, or when he feeds the five thousand? The original readers might have felt a certain way about something, but because we are so far removed from their culture we might miss some things and not be affected the same way.

Affectual meaning is best conveyed by paraphrases (as long as you belong to their target audience, if not the meaning can be lost on you, or misunderstood). Their aim is to affect the emotions of the readers and motivate the reader. In paraphrases there is no question of the original language affecting the grammar structure used, thus they are best at conveying affectual meaning, meaning based translations are next, and literal translations come in last in terms of affectual meaning because the English used is the least natural, and therefore affects our emotions the least.

In summary, meaning based translations (like the NLT) convey the ideational meaning the best. Literal, or word for word translations (like ESV) convey the textual meaning the best. And paraphrases (like The Message) convey the affectual meaning the best.

So when people say that the ESV is the best translation I would say:

• Yes it is! If you're studying the original text and want help understanding the Greek, or if you want to know what the original language says, but can't study the original language.
• But no it's not! If you want to read the bible in natural English, nor if you want your heart, as well as your head, to easily understand what you're reading.

If people say that the NLT is the best translation I would say:

• Yes! Because it is written in very nice English, which speaks to my heart well, and it also clearly shows the meaning. I especially like reading the Old Testament prophets in the NLT because I find I need it written in natural English to really understand what's happening since their situation and culture and also the genre is very removed from what I'm used to.
• And No! Because it isn't so easy to see how one passage relates to others, and also some of the ambiguities in the original language are lost. For example 1 Timothy 2:15 where the NLT has "women" the Greek word would be more accurately translated "he" or "she".

If people say that The Message is the best translation I would say:

• Yes! Because it speaks to my heart well and applies the message to my own culture, which gives me encouragement very directly, and means that I am affected strongly by each encouragement and each rebuke.
• But also No! In some ways The Message changes the meaning a little too much, and I'm never quite sure when biblical author's writings end and the interpretation of the translator begins. The Message is really more like good preaching. It is powerful and it hits home. But the message of The Message must also be tested against a translation which sticks more closely to the original text.

Want to share any thoughts about this with me? What did you think of my graph? Which translation do you like best and why?

As a post scipt I should also say that not all these positives and negatives have the same weight for me, and so there is a translation that I prefer above the others. Other people will have different priorities and different background and will therefore will prefer a different translation to me.

I acknowledge Kirk Patston who first told me about the three types of meaning though under different names in a very interesting Old Testament lecture. The idea has been adapted from the linguist Michael Halliday.

Inaugural prayer

While watching Obama's inauguration, I was struck by the prayer that Rick Warren prayed. Not by the words themselves, but by the fact that he was praying as a representative of the whole nation.

What would it mean if America meant these words "forgive us ... as we forgive those who sin against us".

What would happen if the USA did forgive those people who sin against them. How would the last 8 years have been different if they could have "forgiven" the 911 terrorists? Surely a country is bound to bring lawbreakers to justice, but would there have been a war in Afghanistan? In Iraq? ...

Jars of Clay

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body.” 2 Cor 4:7-10

Lewis on friendship

“But in friendship .... we think that we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting – any of these chances may have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples “Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good friendship, increased by Him through the friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon with our Host.”

C.S. Lewis “The Four Loves”

Chatterbox

“When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise” Proverbs 10:19

Who am I?

Who am I? They often tell me

I stepped from my cell’s confinement

Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,

Like a squire from his country-house.

Who am I? They often tell me

I used to speak to my warders

Freely and friendly and clearly

As though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me

I bore the days of misfortune

Equably, smilingly, proudly,

Like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all which other men tell of?

Or am I that only what I myself know of myself?

Restless and longing and sick like a bird in a cage,

Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,

Yearning for colours, for flowers for the voices of birds,

Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,

Tossing in expectation of great events,

Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,

Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,

Faint and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?

Am I one person today and tomorrow another?

Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,

And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army,

Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me these questions of mine,

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945

Taken from my roof

God is a wonderful artist.

Beautiful

No, this isn't a cockroach with a particularly shiny bottom. It's a firefly that I found on my marble floor last night. I wouldn't have found it had I not turned off the light to go to bed and seen a flashing green light on the floor. (The photo below is taken from the same place without the flash).

I learned a new word

natni

It's  the word for "friend", but only if you're female, and your friend is also female, and only if you both share the same name.  "Yeah, she's my natni". 

I haven't found any natnis here, my name is a little unusual to Indian ears.

Start 'em early...

that's what I say. You may not be able to see it (note the sarcasm) ... but just below a Mr Men book, and above some other children's books is Wallace's "Greek Grammar - beyond the basics". Oscar put it there himself for a bit of light reading. Ok, so it's not light, it took him both hands and a big effort to get it there in the first place. He's already learned animal sounds, and some shapes, so maybe now we'll start him on "alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon..."

Proverbs 23:4-5

Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich.
Be wise enough to know when to quit.
In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,
for it will sprout wings
and fly away like an eagle.

Lightning

This was taken from our roof this evening.

Addition to previous post

Having put two and two together (one "two" being the rumours in India mentioned in the previous post, and the other "two" being an article in SMH) I think that the fear generated in this little town was because of the Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Doomsday preditictions seem to have reached here and intensified in this superstitious culture...

The world was supposed to end today

so my house elf * tells me. She said it was in the newspaper and on the local TV news and everything. There was supposed to be an earthquake at 2pm. Lots of wild rumours were flying around.

To people around here it wasn't a joke. Some schools were closed today because of these rumours, and those that were daring enough to open had fewer pupils than normal. My house elf's children (8 and 10 years old) didn't want to go to school today because they said that they would rather die at home, than die at school.

I don't know who started these rumours, but I'd be very interested to see who did and how they did it. This community was very afraid today.

This is what happens when truth is not valued (by at least the person who started these rumours). When people are not educated enough to understand that, scientifically speaking, no one can yet predict earthquakes. When people do not trust Jesus when he says "no one knows the day or the hour".

* My house elf receives a generous wage, is not enslaved to the house, and is also not an elf.

My favorite time of the day...

... is when I'm preparing dinner. Specifically when I'm making something with peas in it.

And it's not because I like cooking all that much (oh no no no). But peas here come still in their shells, and what might seem like a very slow mundane task is transformed into something soothing and calming when I sit on the floor with my bowl of peas to shell and Oscar trots up to me and instead of bugging me for something, plonks himself down opposite me and takes a pod and starts methodically taking the peas out of the pod (one by one, of course, is there any other way?) and putting them into the correct bowl. He then gathers the remains of the pod up into one hand and puts it back into the bowl and starts all over again. We both sit there happily until the task is done, and Oscar sometimes long afterwards.

I love it, not just because I think my one and a half year old is very clever, which of course I do, but because he sits there quietly working until the task is done. We both can just sit there shelling peas together, content in each other's love, with no need for making animal sounds, pointing out body parts, or desperately thinking what could Oscar be doing at this time while I'm making food. It's our moment of waking peace in the day and I treasure it every time.

Lovely

Reading the bible in one year

I've started to read along with a one year bible reading plan. I've tried it before, but never managed to finish it sticking to the one plan. I love the New Living Translation, especially reading the Old Testament, I find I understand it much better than the more literal translations. I usually read it on my mobile (that way I can curl up in bed and read it without the light on..... mmm).

Something "praiseworthy"

Here's something which is "excellent and praiseworthy" - Oscar has managed to not only get a milk moustache, but a milk goatee and some milk chest hair as well. Well done!

Proverbs 17:22

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,

but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

The latest incarnation of my blog

I've been wondering for a while what I should do with this blog, since facebook and our website have taken over my "photos and stories" mode of blogging. Because I do like blogging (and I like the idea that maybe someone, somewhere will actually read this blog) and so I want to keep it, I've decided to give it a new reason for being.

So in spiritual exercise to keep myself looking positively at the world (Phil 2:14), I will post all manner of things that are in accordance with Philippians 4:8. "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (NLT)

Hopefully someone, somewhere will also be encouraged by the mishmash of things that are posted here...