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In which the jargon takes over

September 16, 2010 – 6:05 am

In general I don’t like Biblish – it’s not the language I speak nor is it the language of those I’d hope to introduce to God. Biblish is marked by strange or ungrammatical language choices and is often insensitive to idioms. And it’s vocabulary? Obscure, transliterated, oblivious to polysemy and maybe even archaic. But over [...]

Posted in common language, jargon, natural English, sacred language | Comments (26)

In which we ask how to know

August 20, 2010 – 4:24 am

We’ve seen a few things written on Genesis 15 recently (by David and John) and now it’s my turn. Crucial to this whole passage is verse 8: But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (ESV) We know it’s crucial, because God answers saying “Then the LORD [...]

Posted in Bible Translation | Comments (7)

In which I keep it short

May 22, 2010 – 5:49 am

On the purpose of translations… I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in an unknown register. Who’s with me?

Posted in Bible Translation, common language, idiomatic | Comments (40)

In which is all in all

April 5, 2010 – 11:55 am

I almost made a pretty big mistake the other day, because of a poor translation choice. Imagine you read the following somewhere, perhaps on a billboard, or a coffee mug: Brahman is all in all What would you think? Would there be much question as to what it meant? The problem I faced was that [...]

Posted in Bible Translation, biblical idioms, literal translation | Comments (84)

In which I don’t understand

February 10, 2010 – 3:58 am

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with [...]

Posted in Bible Translation, study Bibles, translation footnotes | Comments (16)

First things first

January 1, 2010 – 7:37 pm

Hi! Welcome to the new year. For those who don’t know me, I’m Dannii, an Australian linguistics student. I’ve guest posted here once before. But for my first official post on this first day of a new year, I thought what could be better than to write about the word first? Specifically that favourite verse [...]

Posted in Bible Translation, natural English, word for word | Comments (26)
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