Abstract
The Word: On the Translation of the Bible follows on the heels of Emeritus Professor John Barton’s 2019 bestseller A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths. What the author began to explore through a succinct account in the closing chapter there (“Translating the Bible”) is now given a fuller and more comprehensive treatment in The Word. This sequel is neither “a handbook on how to translate the Bible” nor “a reflection on a personal attempt to do so” (xi), nor a history of Bible translation (26). It aims rather to analyze “how translators over the centuries have approached the Bible” (xi) and to engage in “a discussion of what translation means for readers of the Bible” (3). Readers expecting to find a seasoned biblical scholar’s “firm endorsement of one particular version or a blanket dismissal of all extant ones” will be pleasantly disappointed since, as the author charitably contends, “when it comes to the Bible, there can be no one ideal version” (226–27), none is “uniquely right” (4), and “all types have their place and none is suitable in all contexts” (3).
Following the front matter, The Word presents ten chapters capped off with a conclusion, endnotes (not footnotes, alas!), bibliography, and indexes (subject and Scripture references). The foreword reveals the author’s main influences and stimuli for writing on translation—George Steiner’s After Babel (1975) and David Bellos’s Is That a Fish in Your Ear? (2011)—while the remainder of the work demonstrates recurring appreciation of his Oxford predecessor James Barr and literary translator Robert Alter, whose Hebrew Bible (2018) once again receives high praise. Barton will return repeatedly, albeit judiciously, to Alter’s concept of the “‘heresy of explanation,’ where the translator makes explicit (for a supposedly stupid reader, as Alter sees it) connections that are latent in the text, and explains (away) awkward pieces of wording by making all smooth” (103). The foreword helpfully discloses the limited scope of the book, alerting the reader to the predominance of English translations in what follows: “Writing this book, I often wished I had command of some of the non-European languages into which the Bible is regularly translated … but I am necessarily restricted to those I can read with understanding [i.e., German and French in addition to the biblical languages],” laments the author (xi).
Page xiii offers a “Glossary of English Editions,” from ASV (American Standard Version) to TNIV (Today’s New International Version). This glossary is puzzling for several reasons. While it follows the format abbreviation + full title + publication year(s), the years are unfortunately incomplete. For example, NIV is given the dates 1973–1978 (years of first publication of the New Testament and the whole Bible, respectively), with no mention of major revisions in 1984 and 2011. Second, the Christian Standard Bible (CSB) and the New English Translation are conflated under the abbreviation “NET” and assigned the year 2001, the year the NET Bible was first published. Later, apart from a passing comment on its (their) “inerrantist agenda” (24) where both versions are once again conflated but now given a 2004 date (the year CSB’s predecessor the Holman Christian Standard Bible [HCSB] was first released), none of these versions—CSB, NET, or HCSB—is discussed or referenced elsewhere in the book. Third, and somewhat surprisingly given its market share, the glossary (and book) contains no mention of the New Living Translation. The same could be said of the Common English Bible.
The introduction provides important context for the chapters to follow, especially for the non-expert general public for whom this work is intended. The waters are slightly muddied, however, by the author’s frequent use of “original Hebrew,” “original texts,” “original form,” and so on. In these cases, the fastidious reader is left contemplating the referent of “original” and craving more precise terminology, such as the parenthetical gloss “source” on one occasion (3). The introduction then gives a preview of how subsequent chapters will draw attention to translation matters that are “rarely discussed” and a “luxury” due to the “practical demands made on modern translators” (4). As a remedy, the author will ask “theoretical questions that are not asked insistently enough,” inasmuch as “biblical translation is not highly ‘theorized’” (5). Importantly, the author properly recognizes that “translators have been among the principal agents in mediating the Bible’s message to readers and hearers, even in shaping what that message is” (7). I note in passing the author’s preference for the potentially ambiguous label “biblical translation” (= translation according to the Bible?), otherwise analogous to “biblical studies” (= study of the Bible), in lieu of “Bible translation” (= translation of the Bible), the more common designation used by Bible translation practitioners.
Chapter 1 supplies “A Brief History of Biblical Translation,” drawing mainly on Bruce Metzger’s modern classic, The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions (2001), to trace the origins of Greek, Aramaic, and Latin translations before turning to early modern versions (primarily English, German, and French). Surprisingly, nineteenth-century Swiss translator-theologian Louis Segond receives no mention here or elsewhere (e.g., “there is no classic French rendering that might resonate behind the new one as the KJV does in English” [22], or where the rendering “the Eternal” for YHWH is discussed [155], a rendering present in Segond’s Old Testament decades before Moffatt). Under the heading “Translation in Modern Times,” the United Bible Societies and Wycliffe Bible Translators receive a paragraph of general acclamation. Citing Alter, John Goldingay, and Tom Wright, the author longs for more versions by individual translators who, unlike translation committees, can employ “bold new approaches” (26). Well-formed observations abound, such as “Translation, like all other forms of interpretation, is a subtle art” (27), even if one may push back against claims such as the New Jerusalem Bible being the “most innovative biblical translation in common use” (23) or that “translators today do not have to worry much for their personal safety” (26).
Chapters 2–3 introduce and finely illustrate the twin concepts of foreignization (“taking the reader to the Bible”) and domestication (“bringing the Bible to the reader”), although the latter term is not to be found in the book. As such Barton maintains a dichotomous categorization of translation(s). It is refreshing nonetheless to find a biblical scholar conversant with the field of (Bible) translation studies, interacting with the likes of Dryden, Schleiermacher, Nida, Reiss, Vermeer, Venuti, Bassnett, Chesterman, Greenspoon, Brunn, Daley, and Wilt. Inspired by skopos theory à la Reiss/Vermeer, Barton acknowledges the value of versions such as the Good News Bible and The Message in so far as they are successful in achieving their stated goals of bringing the Bible to the reader. In all, these chapters present a fair and balanced synopsis of both the arguments in favor of and objections to these two approaches. As later shown in chapters 5–10, Barton’s unique contribution is perhaps in his ability to tease out and articulate carefully nuanced, if at times pointed, perceived theological and religious machinations (e.g., “functional equivalence is used in an attempt to convert people to Christianity. … This may be an oversimplification” [74]). He seeks to correlate different approaches to translation with “different types of Christian believer” (45) and belief about, for example, inspiration and authority. More generally, he suspects “a swing away from functional-equivalence translation in recent years” (66).
Chapter 4 takes up George Steiner’s After Babel to proffer a happy equilibrium between source and target text by “rebalancing” an otherwise binary view of translation. Replete with extensive block quotes, this chapter aims at a mediating position, but fails to gain enough momentum to do so assertively and convincingly. In most cases, it is hard to disagree with the desirability of a translation that “gives a very fair impression of the tone of the original without archaizing” (98) and uses “exactly the right idiom and style” (102) without being too foreignizing. Alter succeeds in finding this “elusive balance” (102). Non-Western or non-anglophone readers may take issue with the decidedly Eurocentric focus of the chapter and statements such as, “English is the most prestigious language in the world” (104). This chapter would have benefited from the distinction between translation strategy (the overall orientation of a text) and translation procedure (specific techniques employed; see Munday et al., Introducing Translation Studies, 2022, 20–21). Similarly, other sections (e.g., 194–95) would have benefited from the helpful distinction between concordant and contextual translations, two concepts that are often conflated with formal and functional equivalence.
Chapters 5–10 address the “rarely discussed” topics alluded to in the introduction: style and register; worship (corporate reading and liturgical use of Scripture) and inclusive language; words and meanings (e.g., semantic shift between the Old Testament and the New Testament, as well as ongoing debates concerning biblical terms such as “soul,” “salvation,” and “faith”); “the Bible as a web” (e.g., intertextuality, biblical theology, canonical criticism); translation and biblical criticism; and, finally, the admittedly “shocking suggestion” that all Christians—not just Eastern Orthodox churches—should accept the “Greek Old Testament as the true Christian Bible” (213). Bible translation practitioners, especially North Americans who may be carried along by the current of unquestioned evangelical commitments, perhaps stand to benefit the most from these chapters. Barton disrupts the lazy river just enough to grab one’s attention but without capsizing the canoe. “Translation is never neutral” despite the best of intentions:
The choice of translation correlates with, or is even driven by, particular convictions about the character of the Bible. Those who have a strong belief that the Bible is always self-consistent will tend to translate so as to make this apparent. … Theological stances on the Bible’s status and character thus affect, and are registered in, decisions about seemingly specialized, perhaps even trivial, questions of linguistics that will appear to most as purely factual and without bearing on matters of faith. What is at stake, it seems to me, is whether these decisions help to produce the Bible as we would like it to be, rather than as it actually is. As noted at the end of the first chapter, the Bible and its faiths are not identical, and translation is one of the primary sites where the difference between Scripture and religious beliefs is negotiated. (211)
Finally, in “Conclusion: Purpose and Power,” Barton weaves together in a masterful and satisfying way the strands he separated out in the preceding chapters. Thanks to thinkers such as Reiss and Vermeer, the author steers clear of “pointless disagreements over which is the ‘best’ rendering of a source text, which bedevils much thinking about biblical translation.” Refreshingly, he acknowledges that “the King James Version and the Good News Bible are both effective and adequate, but with different goals and audiences in mind” (233).
At the nexus between translation studies and biblical studies, The Word is a most welcome addition to Bible translation studies. Bible practitioners, both novice and veteran, will be stimulated, enlightened, and challenged by Barton’s critical, scholarly investigation. Recognizing the non-expert target audience, the author has succeeded in providing an accessible overview and irenic analysis of a wide range of Bible translation topics. Technical concepts (e.g., supersessionism, antinomianism) are clearly defined and amply illustrated. Non-English languages (except one German quote: “Haltet ihr nicht Stand, so habt ihr nicht Bestand” [174]) always appear with translation or in transliteration. Barton presciently highlights the implications of various translation renderings (e.g., “Christian” [36–37]), pulling back the curtain on theoretical assumptions (e.g., canonical approaches [195]), without being heavy-handed or derisory. Where I found myself initially taking issue with an assertion (e.g., “Translators must follow the linguistic evidence rather than the ‘magic’ of an existing version” [108]), I had in most cases only to keep reading to be relieved of my agitation (“naïve” farther down the page).
There are, nonetheless, several areas where The Word could be improved. In regard to the bibliography, it is unfortunate that the author did not consult the matchless volumes edited by Philip A. Noss, A History of Bible Translation (2011) and A Guide to Bible Translation (2019), nor were insights gleaned from the United Bible Societies’ Handbook series. The Handbook on Isaiah, for example, would have been particularly apropos to the section on “Translating Nonsense” (128–30), not to mention the series in general opening the door to numerous non-European renderings. Similarly, many discussions would have been greatly enhanced by an awareness of research published in The Bible Translator, SIL International’s Journal of Translation, and other works authored by Bible translation researchers, publications that provide unrivaled access to local-language Bible translations. A separate section in the bibliography for Scripture versions would also have been helpful.
Second, the author’s treatment of skopos theory feels frustratingly only partially complete without mention of Reiss’s student, Bible translator Christiane Nord and her extension of Skopostheorie to include the interpersonal principle of loyalty (see her Translating as a Purposeful Activity, 1997, 2018). One may feel that certain of Barton’s more audacious assertions and suggestions would have been greatly tempered if informed by the inescapable sociolinguistic restraints revered by Nord’s function-plus-loyalty model—but that may have resulted in an altogether different book.
Even so, The Word is wonderfully written, courageous in content, and should find a place on lists of recommended reading in Bible translation studies. One can hope that Barton’s foray into translation studies will prompt further interdisciplinary cross-fertilization among biblical scholars and Bible translation practitioners. If we admit with him that “all renderings of a text are marked by their translator’s ideas and outlook” (236), we will likewise notice, upon reading The Word, something in ourselves marked by Barton.
