Oh, Good. Another Bible Translation.

[Pilgrim]

I'm sorry, how does the Nestle-Aland, being the Greek text, help you with Hebrew?

[micah4]

I recently got a NET bible, and I like it so much I've started using it as my primary reading/study bible. It's somewhat more literal than the NIV, and always footnotes the literal reading where they opt for dynamic equivalence.

I was a bit disappointed with the NET bible, maybe my hopes were too high. The translator's notes are great, but as for being literal? I dunno, it seems to me to take as many if not more liberties than the NIV. I understand that this is part of their translation philosophy (that there is on such thing as a "true" literal translation), and yes they're sticklers about footnoting the more literal rendering- but I found it very frequently opts for a paraphrase even when that paraphrase doesn't seem to do anything to make the text any clearer. Why give me a paraphrase that's not any clearer, and make me go look at a footnote to see what was really written?

On top of that there's a huge gap they need to fix in consistency. Most translations specifically attend to making sure that like phrases are translated in like manner wherever they occur. The Net folks seem to have just put one main translator on a book with no effort to coordinate the individual translators, and the result is just a really disappointing inconsistency. That's a major failure I think for a translation, because having consistency in how the original language's phrases or idioms are translated into english gives english readers the ability to recognize where passages use the same idioms/constructions in the original language even though they may not know the original language. Not having that reflected by a consistency in the translation really robs the reader of significant information. The NET bible's a nice study resource to have around, but I could never use it as my primary reading or study bible.

[yonah_mishael]

I was thinking over Shabbat about the meaning of "a good translation" or even "the best translation." I came to the conclusion that I do not like Artscroll because of its translation necessarily. I don't really care about translation, I guess. I can derive the same benefit from any translation. What makes a specific copy of the Tanakh important or -- to use our terminology -- "better" is the commentary that accompanies it. I prefer Artscroll Chumash because it is accompanied by a decent commentary along with two translations (English and Targum Onkelos [Aramaic]) together with Rashi's commentary. I guess that's what makes me prefer it. When I thought about it, I do not particularly prefer Artscroll's translation of the Hebrew text into English above any other. I just like the commentary. :)

For critical study, however, I (of course, have to) use the the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), which I sometimes place alongside the Septuagint (Brenton). I don't do critical investigation all too often anymore. I am learning to content myself with Torah study and delving deeper into Jewish life than into trying to discover some sort of "more original" form of the writing. I guess it's just not my forté.

Shalom,
Yonah

[Conductor42]

I'm not making it personal, but you are obviously not a mother of four small kids, or the father of those kids and mother. Yeah, when they come home they want to immediately translate the original languages of the bible. Oh yeah.

If you begin teaching them when they are young, it's no problem at all.

The problems arise in trying to get them to learn it when they're older.

[Conductor42]

I'm surprised the Karaite is going shopping on Shabbat....but that's a separate issue.

they said "karate sensei david" (sensei = japanese word for teacher), not karaite. i.e. the guy is a marital arts teacher.

karaites wouldn't be shopping on shabbat

[One Bad Pig]

they said "karate sensei david" (sensei = japanese word for teacher), not karaite. i.e. the guy is a marital arts teacher.

karaites wouldn't be shopping on shabbat

That's martial, not marital.

[Historicism.com]

I'm sorry, how does the Nestle-Aland, being the Greek text, help you with Hebrew?

?
I didn't mean to suggest that it did.

And about "it's" that was a typo, but good call.

[Gavriel]

Lest we forget:

If you have learned OT Hebrew in order to translate it you will remember that most of your flash cards have multiple meanings for a given Hebrew word (I mean like "chesed" is it "loving-kindness," "grace," "kindness," "favor" or what?).

That's why you look at context, not just the word itself.

If you were raised speaking modern Hebrew you have an advantage but the words still are not on a one-to-one equivalence with thee ancient Hebrew. You still are interpreting in your own words through a couple of millennia.

Modern and ancient Hebrew are slightly different.

Either way, sometimes a good, literal English translation is BETTER than the Masoretic Text (in the BHS or not) or the Byzantine (in the Robinson Pierpont or not) or the Nestle-Aland27 or whatever. At least the words retain their native fluency in YOUR original tongue. Then go back and clarify, sharpen, get fresh perspective, or what have you from the originals. But don't mislead yourself that you are somehow finding an anachronistic immediacy in hadabar YHWH (forgive the sloppy transliteration).

The problem arises when a word from Hebrew gets translated into your native tongue, the word can often take on many more meanings that the Hebrew word did not.

It's best to know the Hebrew word in context of Hebrew texts, so you don't suddenly get many new meanings from your own language.

Or as pointed out by yourself in the preceding paragraph, because the Hebrew word can have multiple variants, you loose ALL but one of the variants when you translate.

[timspong]

The liberalist rot starts to take hold a little deeper

[yonah_mishael]

The liberalist rot starts to take hold a little deeper

Liberalist rot? What in the world are you talking about??

[timspong]

Liberalist rot? What in the world are you talking about??

The very potent Leven of worldly wisdom that has crept into the modern social order and undermined it with a weak "politically correct" deterioration of Godly principles.

[One Bad Pig]

I think he was referring to the OP, Yonah.