Sunil Kurien Mathew has been involved in Bible Translation for the past thirty-two years. He worked as a cross-cultural Bible translator in a project in Western India and published the New Testament. In 2009, he was certified as a Translation Consultant and since then has been serving as a consultant and trainer for several Bible Translation projects in India.
Communication Efficacy for an Impactful Bible Translation. An Ethical Evaluation of Translation Strategies Across Four Indian Languages
Abstract
The message of the Bible is the message that brings transformation; the message which presents God as one who has come into the midst of people for the purpose of an interactive relationship. This principle of incarnation permeates the entire Canon, forcing God to use human, context-specific settings to communicate. Translating the message of the Bible is missional and follows God’s example, crossing boundaries and drawing people into God’s kingdom.
A Bible translator should try to be aware of all possible forms of misunderstanding, must help readers to understand the messages of the original authors and assist them to integrate these messages into their own cognitive worlds.
This paper presents six case studies and examines the various ways in which Bible translators from Four language communities in India bridged linguistic and cultural gap between the Ancient-near East and their target audiences. Additionally, it aims to conduct an ethical scrutiny of these translation practices.
The New Testament contains numerous citations of the Old Testament; however, these quotations are seldom verbatim. A comparative analysis of Deuteronomy 6:5 and its corresponding citations in the Synoptic Gospels reveals that the Gospel writers did not reproduce the Hebrew Bible or the Septuagint texts word-for-word. They appear to have prioritized conveying the intended theological and communicative sense of the original passage in a manner that resonated with their audience’s linguistic and cultural context. Through this comparative analysis, the study provides an ethical evaluation of contemporary Bible translation practices across four Indian linguistic contexts.
This study investigates how these translators have maximized effective communication while minimizing misunderstanding across language boundaries, thereby eliciting a response in their audiences akin to the original reception of the text.
About the Author
Wycliffe India