The main point that I took away from Beal’s sixth chapter of The Rise and Fall of The Bible is that there has never been one bible. Even before the Bible was translated in many different ways for the common person, there was not one agreed upon collection of books or translation. Beal underscores this point as he discusses Jerome’s Vulgate Bible, noting that there were Vulgates, not one singular Vulgate. Conflicting collections of books to be included in the Bible and various translations have always been a part of Christianity, but this issue was intensified when the Bible was translated into common languages. With widespread availability of the Bible, individuals were able to form their own opinions and in turn support a translation that reflected their own beliefs.
Today, different Christian denominations favor different translations of the Bible based on their varied beliefs. Just by looking at the translation choices on biblegateway.com makes it apparent how many translation options are out there. Are some translations better than others? Eugene Nida offers two categories of translations: formal and functional. Formal implies word-for-word, and functional aims to translate thought-for-thought. In my opinion, a Bible translation should have a balance of staying true to the original words of the Bible, yet also convey the meaning behind the words. By translating the Bible, the original text is compromised. There is no way around it, yet translating too functionally dilutes the text even further. Let’s look at these two translations of Galatians 3:2-4.
NRSV:
2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing.
The Message:
2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!
The Message translation takes functional translation to another level, as it tries too hard to speak plainly. I think it is problematic to translate the Bible in a way that disregards the complexities present in the text in favor of boiling passages down to what their “point” is. I feel that it is the individual’s role to decide what the text means to them in the present if they so choose, not the translator’s. These two very different translations further highlight Beal's point that there are many different Bibles. Even though these two translations come from the same source, they do not seem interchangeable.
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