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Translating the Bible
- Abstract
FOR THE past fifty years there has been a growing feeling among scholars and ministers of religion that the time is ripe for a new English translation of the Bible. Despite its status as an English classic, the King James Version, most commonly in use, is, it is claimed, too archaic in point of language to be readily intelligible, too antiquated in point of scholarship to be reliable, and too grandiloquent and monolithic in point of style to convey a true impression of the tone and variety of the original. The same applies also, it is added, to the Catholic Douai Version, and-though to an admittedly lesser degree-to the Revised Version of the 1880′s. All of these renderings, runs the argument, are, in fact, distorting mirrors, and the continued use of them is one of the major reasons why modern man is becoming more and more estranged from the authentic Word of God. If, therefore, the Bible is to continue to be meaningful and relevant, there is, it is contended, an urgent need for a new translation which will be at once modern in idiom and abreast of the current state of Biblical studies.
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