Relative Clauses That Can Create Problems

There are two main types of relative clauses: restrictive, which identify or specify the head noun, and nonrestrictive, which give parenthetical information about the head noun. While all languages in the world reportedly use restrictive relative clauses, many languages do not have non-restrictive relative clauses. However, Hebrew, Greek, and English all have both types of relative clauses. Consequently, people in languages with only restrictive relative clauses can easily understand non-restrictive relative clauses in those languages to be restrictive. For example, the statement, “This is my Son, whom I love” could be interpreted to mean that there was another son whom the Father did not love. This presentation will seek to explain those two types of relative clauses, their use in scripture, and the potential problems in translating non-restrictive relative clauses. It is hoped that being aware of the problems with non-restrictive relative clauses, in addition to good community checking, can help alert translators to potential misunderstandings of the source texts and English translations. And it will present some ways to translate non-restrictive relative clauses that can help produce better, more accurate target language translations.