Translating words into another language requires careful thought but, ultimately, God’s word reaches us in a ‘person to person’ communication that is “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12). This strikingly accessible yet wonderfully erudite volume will be welcomed by many … a tour de force.” – BBC History Magazine 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.

Barton notes that translation can affect doctrine. For example, the choice to use the word ‘soul’ instead of ‘life’ or ‘self’ can promote the belief that the soul is an independent entity, instead of a part of our psychosomatic unity.

Book reviews

In our own time, Robert Alter, the American professor of Hebrew and comparative literature, who this century published his own trans­lation of the Hebrew Bible, has excoriated modern versions that turn the Bible into an easy read by suppressing distinctive features of biblical speech (such as repetition and parataxis – the use of “and... and... and”, which actually goes quite well into English). John Barton’s understanding of the nuances of Bible translation flow from a lifetime of study. In The Word he shows how it has been key at critical junctures in history.

Barton says that while the Bible has been understood as the source of fundamental truths, believers for most of the history of Judaism and for the entirety of Christian history have understood the Bible in translation rather than in the language it was first written. Barton looks at the challenges of producing versions of the Bible in the language of the day whilst remaining true to the original. He says translators have been among the most important people in mediating the Bible’s message and even in shaping it. Other issues crop up when he discusses the doctrinal implications of linguistic data. I think it all boils down to one problem: Barton doesn't quite understand the evangelical doctrine of inspiration/inerrancy. He suggests, for example, that the imperfect Greek grammar of Mark and Revelation may contradict such beliefs. To anybody who has seriously studied the subject, however, that is simply preposterous. 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.This is a fascinating book! Much of the discussion around translation, especially in my circles, centers entirely around formal and functional equivalence. Barton does an excellent job here of demonstrating that the formal/functional spectrum is only one of several important features of the translational process. He considers matters such as doctrinal presuppositions, tonal register, archaism, gender inclusivity, textual criticism, genre, form criticism, and canon (as well as others) all factor into the process. His core thesis is that the adequacy of a translation depends in large part on its purpose, and therefore that, while there can be incorrect translations, there cannot be one uniquely correct one. I think he proves this point quite persuasively. Alter took an example from the “egregious” Jerusalem Bible’s ­version of Exodus 1: 8-14, about Pharaoh getting nasty with the children of Israel. Pharaoh’s words are rendered as: “We must take precautions to stop them increasing any further.” This, Alter says, “both in sound and diction could easily come from a bureaucratic report”.

The Word: How We Translate the Bible—and Why It Matters makes for both daunting and rewarding reading. Barton's purpose here is to survey the kinds of decision-making translators have to do and offer chapters focused on the complexities of these. Go for literal accuracy or for an accuracy of spirit/feeling? Modify outdated usages, like the universal male, to offer a more inclusive reading experience? At the beginning of the 1980s I went to Gannetts Park, a well-appointed cul-de-sac in Swanage, to interview J B Phillips, then in his 70s. From the middle of the road you could see the sea, but not, I think, from his house.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. A fascinating journey through the history of “Amazing Grace”, one of the transatlantic world’s most popular hymns and a powerful anthem for humanity.” This book examines how saints, scholars, and interpreters from ancient times to the present have produced versions of the Bible in the language of their day, while remaining true to the original. It explains the challenges they negotiated, from minute textual ambiguities to the sweep of style and stark differences in form and thought between the earliest writings and the latest.” A literary history of our most influential book of all time, by an Oxford scholar and Anglican priest 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.