Jim and his wife Andrea served with SIL in the former Soviet Union from 1995-2013, when they moved back to the States to care for elderly parents. Jim was a member of the Uzbek translation team, which published the first complete Bible in Uzbek in 2016. He now serves with Seed Company as a translation consultant in the Eurasia Area.
Translating the OT Names for God
Abstract
In the past much attention has been given to NT translation issues, but increasingly translation organizations are recognizing the importance of OT translation, particularly for Muslim audiences. When I was serving as the coordinator of an OT translation project, one significant issue the team wrestled with was how to translate the various names for God and their combinations in OT texts. In the process we discovered that it is important to carefully consider not only how to translate the key terms YHWH, Elohim and Adonai, but also how to apply a consistent approach to translating them in their various combinations with one another and with other terms.
This paper seeks to share insights and practical guidelines gained from that experience, with a view to helping other teams facing a similar challenge. It provides a summary of the major names and combinations and considers how to deal with them as an interrelated whole, rather than as isolated terms. It does not attempt to give definitive answers for how to translate the names and their combinations, but will provide an example of what one project did and how they went about the process. Hopefully, the list of names generated and the process of balancing meaning with matters of style and naturalness will be helpful to others in their OT translation work.