Re: Translators

From: Don Wilkins (dwilkins@ucr.campus.mci.net)
Date: Fri Dec 04 1998 - 17:29:14 EST


At 11:47 PM 12/3/98 +0000, John M. Tait wrote:
...
>Generally I find that sensible judgements can be made on the basis of a
>working knowledge of Greek - in Mark, for example, with the help of C.E.B.
>Cranfield and V. Taylor. Most of the difficulties are concerned with
>transferring the meaning into living idiom in the target language.
>
>On the other hand, if we are talking about future translators into English,
>is the same pessimism not even more pertinent with regard to future
>scholars in general (I assume that most members of translation teams for
>English versions are scholars)? If there are no readers of Greek competent
>enough to translate the NT into native languages without help, will there
>be future C.E.B. Cranfields and V. Taylors to redress their deficiencies?
>Or - to return to another subject - will they have to rely on the
>Translator's New Testament? There would certainly seem to be a disturbing
>gap between a translation which relies on such a source - with the
>questionable readings which Ward and I were discussing - and the exacting
>scholarship demanded for English versions.

I would not only second the last comment, but challenge the statement that
one can make sensible judgments with the resources described above. In point
of fact no commentary or word study however good (Cranfield is certainly
acceptable, Taylor's work has questionable value) addresses every problem a
translator encounters, and the problems that are addressed are resolved,
after all, as a matter of commentary and not as a matter of the "right
answer" (with the possible exceptions of solutions where the arguments are
irrefutable). There are, moreover, times when a translator with the best
available library must make translation decisions with a great deal of fear
and trembling, even when s/he is content in having a thorough understanding
of the issues involved. A good translator also has to evaluate problems in
textual criticism, and for that Metzger's textual commentary is
indispensable but hardly adequate in every detail. Indeed, in that area GNT
comes up woefully short (someone I heard or something I read described it as
a "missionary's text," as though missionaries were too ill-prepared or their
target group was not important enough to merit concern with TC), N/A is
barely adequate, and one would wish that Swanson could hurry up and finish
the entire NT Greek Manuscripts series. The situation in the OT is even more
precarious.

Don Wilkins

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