An eccentric translation of the bible
Language Log 2024-05-01
[This is a guest post by IA]
Speaking of religion and language, among the various 'sacred name Bibles' the most interesting I've seen is called the Literal English Version. (Though there is certainly nothing 'literal' about it in the sense of Young's Literal Translation.) It's online here.
Here are some quotes from it.
Luke 6:13-19
13 When it was day, He called His talmidim, and from them He chose twelve, whom He also named sheliḥim: 14 Shimon, whom He also named Kepha; Andreas, his brother; Ya'aqov; Yoḥanan; Philippos; Bar-Talmai; 15 Mattithyahu; Taom; Ya'aqov, the son of Ḥeleph; Shimon, who was called the Zealot; 16 Yehudah the son of Ya'aqov; and Yehudah Ish-Qerioth, who also became a traitor. 17 He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a large crowd of His talmidim, and a great number of the people from all Yehudah and Yerushalayim, and the sea coast of Tsor and Tsidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases;
Luke 1:26-35:
26 Now in the sixth new moon, the messenger Gavri'el was sent from Elohim to a city of the Galil, named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Yoseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Miryam. 28 Having come in, the messenger said to her, "Rejoice, you highly favored one! יהוה is with you." 29 But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be. 30 The messenger said to her, "Do not be afraid, Miryam, for you have found favor with Elohim. 31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call His Name 'ישוע.' He will be great, and will be called the Son of Elyon. יהוה Elohim will give Him the throne of His father, David, 33 and He will reign over the house of Ya'aqov to the ages. There will be no end to His Kingdom." 34 Miryam said to the messenger, "How can this be, seeing I have not known a man?" 35 The messenger answered her, "The Set-apart Ruaḥ will come on you, and the power of Elyon will overshadow you. Therefore also the set-apart One who is born will be called the Son of Elohim.
Now how is it that it is necessary to give the words for what we conventionalists might just call Jehovah (or Yahweh) and Jesus as Hebrew-alphabet logograms (הוה and שוע)? The reason given is basically that because in both cases the possible vowels (which are not indicated by the original Hebrew/Aramaic) are much too political (i.e., divisive, liable to argument, bitterness, and rancour). For this, read 'About the Names' starting on PDF page 5, and in which:
Regardless of this, however, the reader is still encouraged to pronounce (or not pronounce) His Name however they feel led. That is between the reader and The Almighty.
Aside from in the Preface, word-choice is also explained in Appendix A – Explanatory Notes starting on PDF 903. Here's one sample note:
Set-apart. The common English rendering of "Holy" has been changed in the LEV to "Set-apart." The Hebrew word commonly rendered as "Holy" is קדוש (qadosh) and means literally "set-apart." While "Holy" is usually defined as "something dedicated to God" we find that it does not entirely convey the same message in English. The Greek word in question is ἅγιος (hagios) and means the the same as qadosh. Likewise, rather than use a separate word for "consecrate" it is simply written as an action, without the hyphen. So the adjective – and noun – ("Holy") becomes set-apart, while the verb ("consecrate") becomes set apart.
For our Messiah, we chose to avoid the stigma over the word "Christ."
(And 'stigma'? If it were me, I'd want to avoid the punning potentiality of the word!)
[end of guest post by IA]
Notes on talmud and talmid
By Jeffrey Tigay
The triliteral toot is l-m-d, "learn, study." The noun talmid = student, disciple, scholar, while the the noun talmud = oral teaching, lesson, learning. As a proper noun Talmud is the name of two classic collections of interpretations and discussions about the teachings of the early rabbinic authorities of ca. the first 2 centuries CE. The two collections are known as (1) the Babylonian Talmud and (2) the Talmud of the Land of Israel, aka the Palestinian Talmud, or the "Jerusalem" Talmud.
By Michael Carasik
The root is למד l-m-d — “learn” in the basic conjugation, “teach” in the Piel/D/intensive conjugation, and so on.
תלמיד is actually a biblical word (once, in 1 Chr 25:8, where his master/teacher is called a מבין meivin). Neither talmud or talmid strikes me as a particularly common biblical noun pattern, but I see these patterns do exist. And it is not unusual for ת to be used to create noun patterns (mishkalim).
Why Talmud became the name of those books I don’t know — but talmud is not restricted to that meaning. For example, there’s a phrase talmud lomar which means something like, “Here’s the biblical verse that tells us this.”
Selected readings
- "A revolutionary, new translation of the gospels" (5/4/21)
- "Utterly lost in translation" (9/21/17)