Customer Reviews

Bible in Translation, The: Ancient and English Versions

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Noteworthy, easy-to-read history of translation of Bible into English, beginning with Ancient Versions which have an affect on the English translations to come. Here he explores such efforts as the Coptic, Georgian, Sogdian and Nubian Versions.

Amazing is the fact that before movable type in printing, there were only 33 languages with any Bible translated. In the 19th century alone, over 400 languages received Bible translations.

Then he goes in depth into English translations, with especially attention given to the King James of 1611 fame, and those that preceded and influenced it so greatly. This fact is typically forgotten or severely deemphasized by the "King James Only" crowd. Witness this extraordianty statement: "It (Tyndale's) became, in fact, a foundation for all subsequent efforts of revision, so much so that 30 percent or more of the English Bible down through the Revised Versions has been estimated to be his in those portions of the Bible on which he had worked with such skill and devotion."

Metzger writes with the simplicity, clarity and passion coming from an authority who has worked with Biblical translation during his life. He simplifies, clarifies, and presents his esteemed opinions with grace and support.

This book will help the serious Bible student to understand more realistically the problems presented to the translator of Scriptures from the original languages.

Highly recommmended to all who want to understand the breath, depth and critique of English Bible translations.

Strengths: Very readable introduction to Bible translations. The author graciously keeps the average reader in mind by not using a lot of technical jargon. The author is a recognized expert on ancient manuscripts and it shows. Fully one third of the book covers the progression of Ancient versions to the threshold of their use in English translations. Especially good is the discussion of the shift from Jewish to Christian versions. The postscript should be read early on. Since the author sat on 3 translation committees and was the chair of the NRSV committee, he gives a fine discussion (with examples) of the goals of the translation. An added bonus is a short discussion on modern Jewish versions.

Weaknesses: The King James section gets surpisingly light treatment. The New King James gets 2 sentences. The NIV gets all of 3 pages, half derogatory. There is very little discussion of dynamic equivalence and it's effect on modern bible translating. The author mostly ignores the Westcott-Hort controversy referring the reader to his book on the subject "Text of the New Testament: It's Transmission, Corruption and Restoration", 3rd edition. If this book is any indication, I expect that one will be a good read. Some charts/timelines on the manuscript developments would be more helpful.

Mechanics: Paperback. There is a regular index and a scripture index which is quite helpful. Citations are referenced at the bottom of the respective page which eliminates the page flipping.

Summary: Overall a fine book and a good primer on Ancient versions and the several revised standard versions up through the end of the 1990's. Will wet your appetite for more reading on the subject.

As it would be expected the NRSV comes across in the best light, but out side of that his comments on various translations are very good. It is good reading and not all that technical, useful to get an idea of the versions that are available and the strength and weakness of each one. Bruce Metzger is a person one can trust on this issue.
I would tell folks to read this book if they are having Bible translation overload.

Introduction:
The famous Italian adage (translated "Translator ... Traitor!") is the first thing that came to mind as I was reading through "the Bible in Translation" by well known New Testament and biblical canon scholar Bruce M. Metzger. This 200 pager offers a fast read (and a good introduction) of the history of ancient biblical manuscripts, and the progression of english translations across the middle ages into our modern times. I whole heartily recommend "the Bible in Translation - ancient and English versions" to any clergy member, seminarian/theology student (if they haven't had it in their courses), and any God-fearing Christian who wants to understand why and how come we have various english translations in our modern times (KJV, ASB, JB, RSV, NIV, etc. and their newer revisions).

Author:
Bruce M. Metzger is best known for his classic "The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance," Oxford University Press.

When it comes to the topic of biblical canon, history of the New Testament, and New Testament studies all put in one, there are only two names that come to mind: F.F. Bruce and Bruce M. Metzger. These authors are often required material for many Protestant and sometimes Catholic and Orthodox seminarians.

Content:
I think the other reviewers did an excellent job at giving you an outline of the content of the book. The value of this book is that the author includes the evidence from antiquity to show the continuity of the English translations with the original Hebrew and Greek texts. As such, Metzger presents with precision but in a concise manner, the history of the Septuagint, the Jewish Targums, and the ancient Bibles known as:
Syriac, Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Arabic, Sogdian, old church Slavonic, and Nubian versions. Part 2 of the book deals exclusively with the English versions (British and American). Also, included are modern Jewish translations and paraphrase versions of the English Bible. All in all, a very good introduction into the times, history, and culture of how each of these translations came to be.

Here are some excerpts about the SEPTUAGINT:

* "The Septuagint is the traditional term for the Old Greek translation of the Hebrew Scritpures. The word means 'seventy' and is often abbreviated by using the Roman numeral LXX, referring (with some rounding off of the figure) to the seventy-two translations reputed to have produced the version in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.)."
* "The translation is not only the earliest but also one of the most valuable of ancient biblical verions. Whether oen considers its general fidelity to the original, its influence over the Jews for whom it was prepared, its relationship to the Greek New Testament, or its place in the Christian church, the Septuagint stands preeminent in the light it casts on the study of the Scriptures."
* "The importance of the Septuagint as a translation is obvious. Besides beign the first translation ever made of the Hebrew Scriptures, it was the medium through which the religious ideas of the Hebrews were brought to the attention of the world. It was the Bible of the early Christian church, and when the Bible is quoted in the New Testament, it is almost always fromt he Septuagint version."
* "By the end of the first century of the Christian era, more and more Jews ceased using the Septuagint because the early Christians had adopted it as their own translation."

Conclusion:
As a conservative Protestant, I have a lot of reverence and respect for God's Word - the Bible. As a result of reading this book (and others), I have come to realize the importance of using many translations for a better understanding of the original biblical texts. Since I do not speak, old Hebrew, Koine Greek, or ancient Aramaic, I rely on various English (along with Roumanian and German) translations to have a more comprehensive understanding of the original text (and its variants; since there are over 5,000 segments and manuscripts of the biblical texts and not two of them are identical in content). The beauty of the variants is that it enhances the text, not changes the core theology of traditional spiritual Christianity (universal Christianity of first millenium).

As a result of this read, I have come to better understand the benefits in reading and interpreting the Holy Bible in other ways next to the literal. The science of interpretation, or exegesis, according to Origen (early Christian scholar and theologian) consists of four steps of ascending importance: literal, ethical, allegorical, and anagogic.

"The Bible in Translation" only covers the stories behind the many translations over the past two millenia" and does not discuss interpretation (hermeneutics). For anyone who loves the Bible and is curious of how we got our current modern English translations, this is simply a FASCINATING and TITILLATING Read!

Bible Translations:
The Holy Bible, available in whole or in part to some 98 percent of the world's population in 2,233 languages (Preface), continues to be the most translated book in the world. This effort started with Ptolemy Philadelphus arrangement for the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Koine, in Alexandria, on the island of Pharos. This common Old Greek version, called Septuagint (LXX or 70) by the writer of the 'Letter of Arsteas,' alleged to its seventy two Jewish translators.
Origen's Hexapla, was a heroic attempt by the head of the Didaskaleon of Alexandria in the third century, to compare and purify the existing Greek texts.
Since 1870, with the beginning of the Revised Version, of the English Bible, a scholarly debate started over the approaches used in the translations that most closely transmitts the message of the Bible. Within the advances in liguistic arts, the trend moved from Literal translation, to Dynamic equivalence, or Meaning-Based Translation, and Paraphrase. While a paraphrase helps to grasp overall meaning of a passage a literal translation may be useful for some topical study. Many individuals, who study the Bible intellectually or devotionally may select multiple translations to help in clearly interpreting what they read.

Bible Translation History:
Just before the advent of Islam, the Good News as the four Gospels were translated into Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Georgian and Nubian in the East of which the first two nations were invaded, and in the West only to Latin and Gothic. At Gutenberg revolution the number of partial Biblical translation tripled in more than eight centuries. Translation from Hebrew and Greek originals started with the Reformation, and the Vulgate was left behind.

Ancient Versions:
In his masterful exposition, Professor Metzger allocates the first quarter of his study on the history of Bible translations started by the intellectual king that made of Alexandria the center of scholarly Jewish thought that produced Philo, the father of Christian allegorical interpretration. It is very interesting for English speakers to discover that the Alexandrian Church, not only pioneered the edition of the oldest codices, MS Unicials, but produced translations in the six Coptic dialects, since the third century. What amazed me was that even after the advent of Islam, the Bible was translated to Arabic since the eighth century, six hundred years before Wycliffe took on the task of the Bible English translation.

The Bible in English:
Old English translations began to appear in various dialects since the ninth century, and from there Princeton Professor of NT languages does provide a compelling study, informative and interesting of all versions of the English Bible ending with the NRSV, fifteen years ago. What makes his study of great value, is his comparative version reviews, bible quotations, and history of certain verses or narratives including the controversial passage of Isaiah on the virgin.

Metzger chronologically provides a very basic background and analysis of Bible translations from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) all the way to the recent Message paraphrase. This book is easy read and good starting point for understanding how the English translations have come about, but it is extremely general. For the layperson wanting more depth about underlying texts and textual criticism (determining what the original Bible said), I'd recommend James White's book 'The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust the Modern Translations.?' (As a footnote: Metzger did evidence a slight bias towards the NRSV that he worked on, and I was a bit surprised at his transparent devaluation of the NASB, seeing as how it is widely recognized for its accuracy.)

. . . on the transmission of Scripture from the very earliest times through the present.

I used this book as a text for an upper-division class I taught last spring entitled "The Bible Through the Ages" and the book was well received by my students.

After spending an appropriate amount of time on the transmission of the Hebrew Bible, and later, on the early translations of the Christian Bible, much of the rest of the book is dedicated to a discussion of the transmission of the English Bible. Also included were discussions on several early American translations with which I was not familiar. Metzger takes the reader almost all the way to the present, highlighting flaws and unique perspectives in most modern translations. When he does criticize, he does so gently (in the case of the New American Bible, by damning with faint praise!)

I was a little surprised that the contributions of the Venerable Bede to the very earliest portions of the English Bible were not mentioned.

Overall, however, a strongly recommended text.

"The Bible in Translation" is a survey of the history and variety of Bible translations by the late Bruce M. Metzger, who was himself an eminent translator and New Testament scholar, having served on three translation committees, including as chairman of the NRSV committee. The book is divided into two parts: Ancient Versions and English Versions. "Ancient Versions" follows the Bible (Jewish and Christian) in translation from the Septuagint through the Middle Ages, with mostly brief explanations of translations into Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Coptic, Visigothic, and more. The section on English Versions is longer and picks up the translation trail in 1382, with the Wycliffite Bible.

Metzger covers about 45 English translations in all, 24 of which were produced since World War II. This book was published in 2001, so it stops there. This is not a comprehensive list of English translations, but Metzger has chosen those that were major undertakings or are important in retrospect, as well as translations that became particularly popular. The amount of information presented varies by translation, but generally Metzger explains the circumstances under which the translation took place, who the translators were, characteristics of the translation, its purpose, its printing history, strengths, and shortcomings, with examples from the text.

The English Bibles begin with the pre-KJV versions, from the Wycliffite (1382) to the Douay-Rheims (1610), before moving on to the King James Version (1611), translations between the KJV and the RV, the British Revised Version (1885) and ASV (1901), and the modern speech versions of the early 20th century. Major versions of the second half of the 20th century (RSV, JB, NAB, NEB, NIV) are addressed at greater length in their own chapters. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic Bibles are covered. There are also chapters on Jewish Bibles, the revised versions of the last couple decades of the 20th century, easy-to-read versions, and paraphrases.

Judging from his writing, I would guess that Bruce Metzger was mainline Protestant. That puts him about in the middle of the road, which is probably a good place from which to critique translations. He critiques with a light touch and is always sympathetic to what the translators were trying to do. He uses the traditional abbreviations for translations somewhat unevenly and often without introducing them (as I have also done). I would have liked more consistency there, and a list of translations with abbreviations, dates, and type of translation in an appendix would have been helpful. But "The Bible in Translation" is an easy-to-digest survey for laypeople that will be helpful in choosing a translation(s), whether for scholarly or religious purposes.

Bruce Metzger is one of the foremost leading textual scholars of our time. This little review he put together of how the Bible came to be is one of the best available. It is well written, scholarly, and authoritative, yet it remains very accessible to the average reader.

If you are truly interested in the facts of how we got the Bible in its present form (especially in English), you owe it to yourself to let this world class scholar mentor you though this book.

Bruce Metzger is to be commended for providing such an accessible history of the early Bible translations and a faily complete history of the English translations. This includes some very rare and obscure translations, now out of print such as the Noah Webster version and others. The book is (predictably) well written and quite engaging.