There are a few more that are translation errors that were done on purpose, but a lot of the Christian Bible was translated into a more "poetic" form of English that makes it easier to read, but removes some key words and destroys some of the meaning of the verses. To translate a Hebrew word for example "Brick" to "Blocks" might not seem such a big deal, but we still believe it is the word of G-d, which is why the Jewish direct translations from the Hebrew that we have are probably the most accurate you can get from not actually reading the Hebrew. Reading it directly from the Hebrew is obviously the best choice.
I concur with you 100% that it is the word of G-D. And also that reading it in the Hebrew is the best choice. Obviously not everyone has that ability. In the work of translation the connotations of not only words, but phrases too, are important. And not just the conotations of the original language, but with regard to the language into which it is being translated also.
The two languages I speak best are English and Spanish. A typical English phrase might be "I'm at home." In Spanish that would be rendered
"Estoy en casa." Now the Spanish word
"casa" can mean either "home" or "house" when translated into English, and the Spanish word
"en" can (among other things) mean "in", "on", or "at" depending on the context. But whether one is saying "I am at 'home'," or "I am in 'house';" the concepts are equivalent. That is they are equivalent, until one changes the context and you are talking to a college student that lives in a dorm. In that instance when you have two students studying in the library late at night and one turns to the other to say,
"Voy a casa." it is important to translate it as "I'm going home" referring to one's dorm room, they certainly don't mean "I am going to a house". But if it is two students standing in the parking lot next to a fully packed car at the time of a break from school and the student says, "Voy a casa." He/she most likely means "I'm going home, to my house."
Some years ago, when I my Turkish daughter was living with us -- a brief explanation, she was an exchange student who lived with us for a year, she did and still continues to call us "Mom and Dad" and we call her our "daughter" because that is the nature of our relationship, even if it is not biologically true -- we had gone to visit some other family for a weekend. We had a good time, but when we got back to where we lived, Aslı threw herself into a chair and said, "It's good to be home." Now by that she wasn't saying that she was glad to be in a house, nor that she was home with her family in Turkey, she was saying that she felt "at home" where she was with us. "Home" in that context was both a place and an emotional base.
I understand that in Turkish,
"ev" has more than one connotation. It can mean "house", the dwelling one lives in. It is can mean "home" the place you make for yourself (as in the saying, “love makes a house a home”). It can even mean "household", all who live in one house together; or, figuratively, it can mean "family". But in some cases you could use
"yuva", not just for the home of a bird, but for where people make a nest for themselves. Or would
"ocak" be a better choice if I was talking about sitting at home around the fireplace in my livingroom. When Asli said she was glad to be "home" what do you think was the Turkish concept she had in her mind?
So it is with
bayith or
nâvâh. These terms would have different connotations depending on the context. To say that one must equal "a house" and the other equal "a home" in every circumstance is not something we would do when translating any other language. (And I know you are not suggesting that either.) There must be a degree of flexibility afforded to the translator to not only translate from the original tongue, but also to interpret for his audience. For instance how would you translate the following Proverb from Turkish into English:
RAB kötülerin evini lanetler, Doğruların oturduğu yeriyse kutsar.
I would render it: "The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous." But I have also seen it: "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the just." Which one is the more correct translation? Well, I suppose the second one is more word for word accurate, but I don't think it communicates as well as the first.
Which is preferable, a word-for-word translation, or a more thought-for-thought translation? I believe a good case for each can be made, and the difference depends on the sophistication of your audience with regard to the scripture.
Brick or block? I think you used this merely as an illustration, because I don't know of any place where "block" is used to translate
lebânâh into English. But, I can think of circumstances where block might be better. Growing up where I did we had brick streets and many homes made of brick. Though a brick mason would tell you the differences between them, to me they were all basically the same -- an 8 inch x 4 inch rectangle, about 2 inches deep, and always red. Now, I know there are other types of bricks, but this is the image which pops into my head when I read the word "brick". A translator, knowing me for his audience, and knowing that
lebânâh refers to something that is whitish in color, might wish to write something different such as "bricks of white clay" when translating the passage for me. Does this change God's word? I don't think so. I think it communicates God's story. In just accurately translating it "brick", I might actually become misinformed. Which is why it would be best to read it in Hebrew, but that again presupposes a level of knowledge and sophistication that is far beyond the norm.
Sorry to go into such a long response, when basically I am agreeing with you, Izak. The reason I asked about your perceptions of Christian translations of the Old Testament is because I am simply trying to ascertain, from a Jewish perspective, where the deficiencies lay with Christian publications of the scriptures. With a little better knowledge myself, then hopefully I can educate Christians in my church to be more knowledgeable and better understand the scriptures when they read them.
