
How do we define Bible faithfulness?
Many conservatives tend to define faithfulness as applied to Bible translation to the degree of literality of a certain version – ‘the more literal, the more faithful’, they say. I beg to differ.
First, I am convinced that a ‘literal’ translation of the Bible is not possible. And, if it was possible, it would be incomprehensible. The main reason is the nature of language. In my opinion, this is the point where structuralists are wrong. They tend to understand language mechanically and unfolding a text would be like an engineer taking an engine apart. That is, I suggest, what the Romanian Beni Faragau tends to do in his approach of the Bible. If this view of the nature of human language would be right, computer scientists would have been able long ago to provide us with automated translation. I have a good friend who is working as an expert for over 25 years in this field and I know very well from him what a nightmare automated translation still is for specialists until this day. And, by the way, precisely because of that, he tends to be even more critical than I am about Beni’s method. Continue reading “Which is the most FAITHFUL translation of the Bible to the original texts? – 2”
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