Journal of Translation
Issue 1(1)
Journal of Translation 1(1) (2005)
Editor’s Foreword
by Freddy Boswell
Welcome
Welcome to the long-awaited launching of SIL’s Journal of Translation. In one sense, this is a replacement for Notes on Translation, as it provides an outlet for academic writing and research in this field. But JOT is truly different. It is a peer-reviewed, academic e-journal which incorporates recent investigations and discoveries not only in translation but also in related areas of study. We initially plan to e-publish the Journal three times a year, April, August, and December.
Our hope is that many will...
Two of the most misunderstood words in the New Testament are “the Jews”! Unfortunately, this misperception of historical reality has resulted in merciless persecution and ethnic cleansing of millions of innocent people. Judaism—both during and after the lifetime of Jesus—was a diverse movement, represented in part by those various and varied groups of Jews who were the earliest followers of a Jew named Jesus. Careful attention to both the historical and contextual setting of each occurrence of this phrase in the New Testament will enable the translator to generate both a more accurate and...
Although background information is not communicated by the source text itself, some of this information is needed by the readers of a translation so that they can adequately understand the text. When the readers do not know this information, it needs to be provided by a judicious use of footnotes. The difference between implied linguistic information and assumed background information is described. Then various categories of background information are considered in regard to their relevance in supplying footnotes. The ways in which footnotes can be included in a...
The article is best seen as a follow-up article in a series of articles about this topic that have previously appeared in The Bible Translator (1992) and in NOT (1997). The article explores the meaning of YHWH in various contexts, and what the implications of this analysis are for Bible translators. It concludes that there are only two legitimate options for representing YHWH, and it provides translators with a clear set of criteria that will help the translator to determine which one of these two representations should be used.
Participles in the Greek NT have a great variety of meanings or functions. One important meaning is to express a circumstance: the aorist tense expressing a circumstance prior to the action of the leading verb; the present tense, a circumstance concurrent to or occasionally subsequent to that of the leading verb. Unfortunately, various grammars fail to distinguish the circumstantial function from other functions. English versions of the NT likewise often render participles incorrectly. The present article seeks to clarify these distinctions and to enable the reader of the Greek NT to...
Old Testament translation brings new challenges. This article touches on some of the areas which may need special attention when translating the Hebrew Bible. These include textual issues, hapax legomena, genre, and poetical language. Textual problems in the OT are more difficult to handle compared to those in the NT. Rare words or words that occur only once are more frequent and difficult to explain. Some of the text types differ from those of the NT and need to be investigated because they can influence our exegesis. Finally, the poetical language is richer and more abundant and may...