A translation should be a faithful and accurate rendering -from a source language into a target language- of not only meaning but also style and register. “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Til’ your good is better and your better is best.” (St. Jerome of Stridon)
St. Jerome was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian, who is best known for having been the first to translate the Bible into Latin, naming it Latin Vulgate, between A.D. 383 and 404. Some sources state that he originally translated it all from Greek. However, as he went on, he corrected the Old Testament against the Hebrew original. Other sources add that Pope Damasus I commissioned St. Jerome to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church. He also coined the phrase “dynamic equivalence”. He believed in translating sense for sense rather than word by word, which allows to make edits as needed so the translated text is comprehensible.
In 1382, John Wycliff, an English theologian, completed the first English translation of the Bible, believing in the need for everyone to understand it directly. Wycliff‘s Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under his direction. After this, the work of biblical translations into modern European languages did not immediately take off due to general opposition from the church. In 1498, translating the Bible was even deemed illegal. And the Inquisition would promote that idea on the basis of translation mistakes potentially plunging new converts into doubts about faith. Therefore, it was not until the 16th century that bible translations dominated the book production. And by the end of the century, every European nation had the Scriptures in its own tongue. In 1536, translator William Tyndale, who had started working on the Old Testament English translation, was captured in Antwerp before it was completed. He was accused of being a heretic, strangled and burned at the stake at Vilvoorde, in a Flemish province of Belgium. Later on, the King James Bible, published in 1611, spread quickly throughout Europe, and became the most faithful, accessible, and scholarly translation to date.
The New American Standard Bible, completely released in 1971, is a literal translation from the original texts, well suited to study because of its accurate rendering of the source texts. It follows the style of the King James version but uses modern English for words that have fallen out of use or changed their meanings.
As of September 2022, all of the Bible has been translated into 724 languages; the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,617 languages; and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,248 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance.
The work behind the translations was not easy; in fact, it was often dangerous. Early translations were made by a series of people fascinated by the idea of adherence to truth, even putting their lives at risk. Some died violently for the cause of translation. “The men who risked all to translate the Bible” (Paul O. Williams, 2001) is a fascinating and remarkable book, containing a highly detailed account of the struggle to translate the Bible into English.
And hence, this is my question for you, translators: are we ready to involve ourselves in translation projects which may hinder our professional career or even risk our safety, in the attempt to bring the truth closer to the public of other languages? What is it worth? The money? Your ethics? Recognition?