Friday, September 5, 2008

Departing for the Nida School

With all this talk of Bible translations (see my last 5 posts, all the comments, the blogs that link to those posts, and all their comments), I've decided the only thing to do is to create a from-scratch translation of the entire Bible myself. To that end, I depart in the morning to be discipled in the art of Translation Studies at the Nida School of Translation Studies for the next two weeks at the San Pellegrino Institute for Translation and Interpretation in Misano Adriatico, Italy.

The goal of the school is to get experts in translation studies talking to experts in Bible translation and biblical languages. Bible translation is a bit of a unique category in translation studies and Bible translators are often blissfully unaware of the new ideas and methods brought in to contemporary translation approaches. The theme of the seminar this year is Cognitive Linguistics, an area I have some interest in.

When I get back, I'll start to work on my Mangum Opus - the Best English Translation Ever Version or BETEV. I predict it will become the new standard in English Bibles with at least 400 years of staying power. Everyone will immediately set aside their TNIV's, their ESV's, their NLT's, and yes, even their KJV's, once they read it.

I may not finish for 20-30 years, though, so be patient.

Anyway, now you'll know where I'll be for the next 2 weeks. I'll try to post my thoughts on the seminar discussions and maybe a few photos of Misano.

2 comments:

  1. Instead, may I suggest they you use your talents and energy to assist one of the many thousands of marginalized people groups to produce a translation in their language? Rather than just one more English translation (who needs that...) it will be a unique Bible for a unique people.

    BTW, I'm stinkin' jealous of you. Enjoy Italy and Nida.

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  2. I agree that would be a worthy endeavor. Of course, the last thing we really need is another English version.

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