Book Description

A Guide to Bible Translation offers a broad overview of theory and practice in Scripture translation from ancient times to the present day, with an eye to the future. Its 726 articles by 180 translators, publishing specialists, and scholars are addressed to a global readership of Bible translators, interpreters, students of culture and biblical studies, as well as interested church members and clerical leaders. This unprecedented Guide opens up and celebrates captivating stories of people, languages, and key topics of scholarship involved in over two millennia of Bible translation. Hearing a passage read from the new Gbaya language Bible, my Muslim friend declared with astonishment, "God really does speak our language!" Multiply that response by over 3,000 language communities where worshipers listen attentively to God's Word clearly translated and clearly read. We are grateful to the editors and authors whose life-long dedication to the communication of God's Word and to excellence in scholarship makes this Guide available to us. Thomas G. Christensen, Professor Emeritus Institut Luthérien de Théologie de Meiganga, Cameroun Bible translation has always allowed itself to be stirred and driven, not just by challenges, but also by new knowledge, new technologies, new ideas of presentation, dictates of different geographical locations, and the needs of the target audiences whether these were ecclesiastical, politico-cultural, or ideological in nature. And now through this Guide's easy narrative style, its categorization of topics, and the courage to allow diverse voices and languages to speak into this complex subject, the United Bible Societies has added one more innovative tool into Bible translation work. Professor Margaret Muthwii, Vice Chancellor Pan Africa Christian University, Kenya In the 1990s, translation studies, led by scholars such as Susan Bassnett, André Lefevere, and Mary Snell-Hornby, took the now famous "cultural turn," looking at how institutions of power influenced translation decisions. Right around the same period, Bible translators took the "translation studies turn," looking to translation studies scholars such as James Holmes, José Lambert, Ernst-August Gutt, Lawrence Venuti, and Cristiane Nord, to expand their theoretical base. Such interdisciplinary collaboration, taking place at colloquia around the world, can be seen everywhere in the United Bible Societies' A Guide to Bible Translation, which will appeal to students of Bible translation, translation studies, sacred text translation, the history of translation, and, especially, cultural studies. Professor Edwin Gentzler University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA