Translation Affirmation

Douglas Moo confirmed my own thoughts from months ago:

Translating the New Testament: Text, Translation, Theology, where I questioned the benefit of a book on translation that doesn’t include any professional translators.

The volume does not claim to offer (and does not, in fact, offer) any kind of unifying
perspective. I found several of the essays helpful and stimulating. But, as a translator of
Scripture, I found very little in the book that was, in fact, directly useful for my own work.
Porter’s survey of new methods was interesting but failed to show how the methods
could, in fact, be put in service in the task of translation. The basic essays of Gignac and
Johnson illuminated some of the challenges faced by the translator but offered little
specific methodological help in overcoming, or at least in dealing with, those challenges.
Nevertheless, it is useful to be reminded of all the issues (from nitty-gritty text-critical
decisions to the dangers of cultural embededness) that the translator needs to take into
consideration if his or her work is to be done faithfully.

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