I am in a reading mood!!Has anyone read “The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation: With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses?”
Many claims have been made here regarding the reliability of the NWT. I have assumed since leaving that the JW translation is/was probably lacking. Is it? Any comments on this book? Any observations on Dr. Rolf Furuli, the author?
I am ordering the book to hopefully expand my knowledge regarding the “outside” view of the NWT.
Here is the book review:
"The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation: With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses"
In the natural sciences, a basic principle is to break everything down to the smallest possible units and then study each unit. In linguistics and in the study of the biblical languages, a similar principle was followed with the word as the basic unit, but from the middle of this century the view has developed that the smallest units which were meaningful for translation had to be the sentence or even the paragraph. The author believes that the pendulum has swung too far in one direction, and that it still is meaningful to work with the word as the fundamental unit of translation. The book therefore suggests that for a particular target group - those who, by the help of their mother tongue, want to come as close as possible to the original languages - a literal translation will be better than an idiomatic one. In the course of discussion it is shown that the principles on which such a translation is based accords fully with modern linguistic principles." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Rolf Furuli has worked with the biblical text for four decades. Since his first Greek lecture 24 years ago, his interest in translational questions, particularly in the finer nuances of the verbal systems of the biblical languages, has mushroomed, culminating in the publication of this book.
Rolf Furuli has earned his B.A. and mag.art (a degree between M.A. and Ph.D) from the University of Oslo, with an emphasis on Hebrew; he has also studied Accadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Greek, Latin,... read more
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