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Re: Evangelicals and dynamic equivalence



On Mon, 2 May 1994 dturner@grbcs.edu wrote:
 
> On another note, Tyndale House has hired a group of evangelical scholars to
> revise the Living Bible.  This process has been going on for some time and
> the revision is expected to be completed relatively soon.  Tyndale House 
> promises that the lexical and syntactical errors of the old LB will be
> eliminated.  We'll see ... .

At the risk of unintentionally opening another can of theological worms 
(I feat I seem to be getting quite good at!), I would ask a favor.  If 
you know any of the scholars working on this revision, ask them to drop 
the word "Paraphrase" from the title page.  Technically, a paraphrase is 
restatement of meaning from one form to another *in the same language.*  
As I recall, the Living Bible claims to be based on the Hebrew and Greek 
texts, with reference to earlier translations -- a claim similar to that 
made by virtually every English translation.  The process of restating 
meaning from one language to another is called "translation."  I think, 
though I may be mistaken, that the Living Bible being called a paraphrase 
is based on the misunderstanding that only so-called "literal" 
translations are really translations, and other attempts to transfer 
meaning into more usable idiom must be "paraphrases", since that is 
usually the task of paraphrase within a given language.  (I recall, when 
the GNB first came out, that many people referred to it as a paraphrase, 
since it was not a "literal" translation.)

If the Living Bible, or any other attempt to translate scripture, does 
not accurately portray the meaning of the original, then one cannot 
escape the problem by labeling the outcome a "paraphrase."  When moving 
from one language to another, there is no such thing as paraphrase.  
There is only good translation and bad translation.

Well, here we go again .... .

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"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."
--Groucho Marx

Prof. James F. Sennett
Asst. Professor of Philosophy         sennett@goliath.pbac.edu
Palm Beach Atlantic College                    andretg@aol.com
PO Box 24708                             voice: (407) 835-4431
West Palm Beach, FL  33416-4708            fax: (407) 835-4342
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