The Word: On the Translation of the Bible

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In our culture, the Bible is monolithic: It is a collection of books that has been unchanged and unchallenged since the earliest days of the Christian church. The idea of the Bible as “Holy Scripture,” a non-negotiable authority straight from God, has prevailed in Western society for some time. And while it provides a firm foundation for centuries of Christian teaching, it denies the depth, variety, and richness of this fascinating text. In A History of the Bible, John Barton argues that the Bible is not a prescription to a complete, fixed religious system, but rather a product of a long and intriguing process, which has inspired Judaism and Christianity, but still does not describe the whole of either religion. Barton shows how the Bible is indeed an important source of religious insight for Jews and Christians alike, yet argues that it must be read in its historical context–from its beginnings in myth and folklore to its many interpretations throughout the centuries. It was Lewis, when still alive, who had encouraged Phillips to publish his translations of the ­Epistles of St Paul, under the title Letters to Young Churches (1947). It had huge sales and brought invitations for American lecture tours. The Biblical World is a comprehensive guide to the contents, historical settings and social context of the Bible. It presents the fruits of years of specialist study in an accessible form, and is essential reading for anyone who reads the Bible and would like to know more about how and why it came to be. John Barton is Emeritus Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow of Campion Hall. He is the author of A History of the Bible: The Book and its Faiths (Allen Lane/Penguin 2019).

The “prince of peace” passage still features every Christmas Eve at the much-loved Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, though Barton says it is likely to have referred to the birth of a royal child at the time it was written. Similarly, Barton finds little support in the gospels for later Trinitarian thinking on the equal status of Christ with God the Father. In Judaism, meanwhile, the Midrash tradition performed its own sleights of hand to explain away textual anomalies in the ancient books. Barton knows this subject in all its detail and complexity, which is what makes the experience both daunting and rewarding. If you don't have a degree in theology, you'll either have to spend a great deal of time doing research to be able to understand some of Barton's more specific or esoteric points or you'll have to be able to choose when to skim and when to sink into the book. I fall into the second category. I know my understanding of the specifics of The Word was only partial, but I also found that partial understanding very worthwhile.

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It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories. John Barton has written a wise and eminently sane book about a book which has inspired both insanity and wisdom. It is a landmark in the field, and it will do great good.”— Diarmaid MacCulloch Throughout history, most Jewish and Christian believers have understood scripture not in the languages in which it was first written but rather in their own—in translation. In The Word, acclaimed Bible scholar John Barton explores how saints and scholars have negotiated the profound challenges of translating the Bible while remaining faithful to the original. In addition to considering questions of literal versus free translation, literary style, inclusive language, and more, Barton draws out scriptural translation’s role at critical junctures in religious history. Far from a mere academic exercise, biblical translation has shaped how we answer faith’s most enduring questions about the nature of God, the existence of the soul, and the possibility of salvation.

A fascinating journey through the history of “Amazing Grace”, one of the transatlantic world’s most popular hymns and a powerful anthem for humanity.” Barton’s own preference is to ­follow the three criteria of ­adequacy, genre and purpose in Reiss and Vermeer’s Towards a General ­Theory of Translational Action (1984), which I have not read. The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there. Barton’s book is neither dry nor unremittingly theoretical. Scholarly conundrums concerning translators’ priorities are illustrated with interesting examples from the biblical texts. How, he explores, are translators to deal with Isaiah 28:10, which seems to be deliberately meaningless: “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Isaiah appears to be warning his audience that they will soon be hearing the incomprehensible, alien language of their Assyrian invaders. Written by an international collection of experts, the volumes include a fulloverview of the full range of biblical material, before going on to more detailed discussions of myth and prophecy to poetry and proverbs.This does not mean that all parts of Scripture are to be read as if one the same level. The book of Leviticus functions differently from the Gospel according to Matthew. But it does assume the traditional Christian belief that the ultimate author of Holy Scripture is God and that God does not contradict himself and that therefore, carefully read with due attention to their contexts, all parts of Scripture are compatible with each other. Along with the evident conviction that this marvellous “melee of materials” deserved fresh treatment beyond the absurdities of Da Vinci Code-style fantasies (conspiracy theories about the Bible’s compilation are well and truly laid to rest), it is this desire to free the Bible from overzealous interpreters that sums up Barton’s intellectual project. Asserting a perfect fit between scripture and the faiths of either Judaism or Christianity means doing violence to a set of texts that are open, mutually contradictory, historically situated, utterly diverse in genre and all the more suggestive for that.

This strikingly accessible yet wonderfully erudite volume will be welcomed by many … a tour de force.” – BBC History Magazine In drawing attention to apparent inconsistencies in translation, the author highlights where they can change perceptions of the text’s original meaning, or where existing doctrine may have influenced the translator.EXHILARATING”, says the cover blurb — and, amazingly, it is: scholarly intelligence, a readable style, and insights at every turn, with no language but English needed. This book is not a comparison of different Bible translations, but a study of how translators work, and the choices that they make. It is decades of expertise in the fine wood-grain of biblical texts and languages, applied to the clump of trees in a landscape that is scripture as we mostly encounter it. My last major issue with the book is chapter ten, where he makes a rather weak argument (both doctrinally and historically) that Protestants might do well to consider priveleging the Septuagint (along with the apocryphal books) over the Hebrew OT. He assumes that Patristic quotations of the Apocrypha indicate early adoption into the canon. This fails to account for the relative infrequency and qualitative difference of Apocrypha citations versus OT citations. He also argues that the doctrinal emphases accord better with the brliefs of Christianity. That may be true, but this does not mean the Septuagint is divinely inspired, and that is the central point for evangelical protestants.