Reader’s Edition of the Book of Mormon<\/em>, which I love. I’ve been working through Nephi’s Isaiah chapters, and, as I started working through 2 Nephi 19\/Isaiah 9, I decided it was time to check alternate translations. I have several: a 4-in-1 that includes KJV, New Life Translation (NLT), New International Version (NIV), and New American Standard Version (NASB), a copy of the English Standard Version (ESV), and, via the web, the NetBible (NET), plus, of course, Nephi’s\u00a0 versions of Isaiah (BOM).<\/p>\nThere are four issues that one can observe by working through 2 Ne 19\/Isaiah 9:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Similar translations, but with variations in clarity.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Most translations reading the same, but with one that disagrees sharply.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 All translations vary
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Most translations reading with clarity, but with one that is absolutely opaque.<\/p>\n
2 Ne 19:1 illustrates 1-3. Note how these different translations say more or less the same thing [point 1], up until all of them but KJV say something about how Galilee will be honored or made glorious, while KJV explicitly says the opposite [point 2]. Galilee is defined differently, alongside the bit about Jordan and the “way of the sea” [point 3, pay attention to the various linguistic gymnastics that each translations take to figure out where we’re talking about. NET notes that these are three different places, while the others attempt various efforts to make them the same]<\/p>\n
NIV says “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor<\/em> Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan” (italics for comparison)<\/p>\nNLT says “Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will soon be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory<\/em>”<\/p>\nNASB says “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious<\/em>, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles” (my emphasis).<\/p>\nNET says “The gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. In earlier times he humiliated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali; but now he brings honor<\/em> to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations.”<\/p>\nKJV says “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict<\/em> her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.”<\/p>\nI’ll illustrate point 4 with a comparison between KJV and NASB in 2 Ne 9:5\/Isaiah 9:5, although the other translations did similar things as Netbible does. I find KJV to be stultifying and I can only barely see how underlying texts might be the same (which may itself be a strong assumption).<\/p>\n
NASB: “For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, and cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.”<\/p>\n
KJV: “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.”<\/p>\n
I really want to prefer any translation that makes sense over ones that don’t, but I suspect that sometimes, either because of cultural coding or, well, prophetic obscuration (letting hear without hearing, as it were), scriptures won’t make sense without lots of additional study and prayer. I suppose at one level, the answer to my question is “go pray about it.” But let’s say I want to spend a little more time studying before my prayer, or assume that I’m a neglectful prayer–when I do pray, I never remember to pray about this stuff. Any thoughts?<\/p>\n
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\nI’m thrilled to see someone studying this way and asking questions, and also happy to lay out some basics and then respond with some specifics. I expect it will take several posts to do the topic introductory justice, so check back soon.<\/p>\n
Link to Part 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I received the following from an educated friend, and got permission to respond via blogposts.\u00a0 Slightly edited, he asks- >>As someone without training in the original languages, how can I evaluate alternate translations of scripture? Here’s what motivates this question: I’ve been reading Grant Hardy’s Reader’s Edition of the Book of Mormon, which I love. I’ve been working through Nephi’s Isaiah chapters, and, as I started working through 2 Nephi 19\/Isaiah 9, I decided it was time to check alternate translations. I have several: a 4-in-1 that includes KJV, New Life Translation (NLT), New International Version (NIV), and New American Standard Version (NASB), a copy of the English Standard Version (ESV), and, via the web, the NetBible (NET), plus, of course, Nephi’s\u00a0 versions of Isaiah (BOM). There are four issues that one can observe by working through 2 Ne 19\/Isaiah 9: \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Similar translations, but with variations in clarity. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Most translations reading the same, but with one that disagrees sharply. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 All translations vary \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Most translations reading with clarity, but with one that is absolutely opaque. 2 Ne 19:1 illustrates 1-3. Note how these different translations say more or less the same thing [point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20450"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20454,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20450\/revisions\/20454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}