This book is a lightly edited version of the author’s doctoral dissertation, The Textual Basis of English Translations of the Hebrew Bible, which was written with guidance from Emanuel Tov and approved without modification by the Senate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in December of 2007. An early publishing agreement did not lead to a finished volume, and, though the text project to be described in Chapter 9, Section C, was immediately set in motion, the dissertation proper rested on the author’s shelf for some ten years. In preparing the manuscript for publication in Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible, it was decided that the study’s original frame of reference would be maintained and that tables, commentary, and other details would not be updated or expanded, even to take in English translations produced after the 1996 terminus ad quem of the study’s original data sample. Instead, an addendum is provided in which five early 21st century English translations are analyzed using the parameters developed throughout the original study (Chapters 1–10) and where recent progress on important critical editions of the Hebrew Bible is noted.
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The chief aim of the original study is to work beyond existing uncertainties regarding the textual basis of the English translations of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and toward a sound characterization of the text-critical constitution of twenty-one English translations, from the 1611 King James Version (KJV) to the 1996 New Living Translation (NLT).
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I began reading and memorizing verses from the King James Version, “my Bible,” in 1976. In college, a few years later, the New American Standard Bible (NASB) was the translation recommended for coursework; it was more up-to-date than the KJV, yet it retained a direct, literal style capable of reflecting something of Greek and Hebrew structure.
When first I saw a copy of the Greek New Testament in 1979 (a burgundy UBS3), I was immediately intrigued, and when Dr. Robert H. Gundry explained a Hebrew fine point in the spring of 1982, it made an indelible impression. During a lecture in his survey course at Westmont College, he showed on the chalk board the slight difference between dalet and resh and mentioned that there was still plenty of work to be done on the Dead Sea Scrolls. From mustard seeds such as these (a few page turns, the corner of a letter, and so forth) stem my now long involvement with the original languages of the Bible.
As my grasp of the biblical languages (or their grasp on me) gradually strengthened, my hold on the English translations relaxed, until, by 1988, I had largely heeded the advice of another respected teacher to habitually read and memorize from original language editions. Eventually (in advance of Bible apps), I acquired a copy of Biblia Sacra utriusque Testamenti: Editio Hebraica et Graeca, a United Bible Societies (UBS) publication that binds the critical edition of the Hebrew Bible (BHS) and Greek New Testament (NA27) into a single volume. That finely printed codex remained “my Bible” long enough for the cover joints to weaken, tear, and require repair. All this to say that when I began research for The Textual Basis of English Translations of the Hebrew Bible (TBET), I did so as one generally familiar with a number of the better-known English translations but without a strong allegiance to any particular one.
In 1995, while Katharine Barnwell (who later authorized my PhD program) was coordinating SIL’s International Translation Department in Dallas, Texas, it was my job to help gather Hebrew-related materials for an electronic library known as Translator’s Workplace. Though we were able to meet the translator’s need for the Hebrew text, lexical help, grammatical tagging, and other resources, a lacuna seemed to persist as we sought a way to help Bible translators with questions surrounding small but sometimes significant differences in the ancient manuscripts—textual issues.
A scholar who is greatly missed, Roger L. Omanson, former UBS Consultant for Scholarly Editions and Helps, played a leading role in an earlier plan to publish TBET and kindly wrote some introductory remarks, including the following 2008 summary of UBS text projects.
In 1969 the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project was launched, again under the leadership of Dr. Nida. The preliminary conclusions of their work were published in the five-volume Preliminary and Interim Report on The Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (New York: United Bible Societies, 1976–1980) in both English and French. Their final report has been published in the following four volumes:
Critique textuelle de l’ Ancien Testament. Tome 1. Josué, Juges, Ruth, Samuel, Rois, Chroniques, Esdras, Néhémie, Esther (1982)Critique textuelle de l’ Ancien Testament. Tome 2. Isaïe, Jérémie, Lamentations (1986)Critique textuelle de l’ Ancien Testament. Tome 3. Ézéchiel, Daniel et les 12 Prophètes (1992)Critique textuelle de l’ Ancien Testament. Tome 4. Psaumes (2005)In an effort to make the results more accessible, Dr. Jan de Waard has been preparing less technical summaries. So far only two volumes of his work have been published, both by Eisenbrauns in the present series “Textual Criticism and the Translator”: A Handbook on Isaiah (1997) and A Handbook on Jeremiah (2003). The volume on Psalms is in preparation and should be published in 2009.
Based in a significant measure on the groundbreaking work of Barthélemy and the rest of the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, the decision was made that the time had come to produce a new edition of Biblia Hebraica, to supersede the Stuttgartensia edition, which itself was a revision of Kahle’s third edition of Biblia Hebraica. The Megilloth, the first fascicle of this new edition, Biblia Hebraica Quinta, was published in 2004; the second fascicle, Ezra and Nehemiah, was published in 2006; then Deuteronomy in 2007 and Proverbs in 2008.
All these publications have taken their place as basic tools for original language Bible study, text-critical studies, exegesis, and Bible translation. Nevertheless, the United Bible Societies felt that it would be important to offer Bible translators additional help if they were to make the best use of these fundamental works. Accordingly, we launched this series, “Textual Criticism and the Translator,” to provide translators with additional help in applying the results of these textual studies to their work. We are convinced that many others will benefit from these studies, and we are pleased to have launched this series under the publishing auspices of Eisenbrauns, thereby reaching a wider audience.
The Textual Basis of English Translations of the Hebrew Bible the [erstwhile next] volume in this series is a fascinating study of the relationship between textual criticism and Bible translation. Written at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Professor Emanuel Tov (2007), this dissertation ….
But we have jumped ahead. Before there was a dissertation, I was increasingly aware of the lacuna mentioned above, and it was that growing (nagging) awareness that developed into an active concern that translators on the field should be provided with sound, practical help for the textual issues they inevitably meet in the course of their work. I will always consider it an honor that UBS colleagues intended to publish TBET alongside books by Jan de Waard and the excellent scholarship represented in the UBS / Eisenbrauns Textual Criticism and the Translator series.
With research underway, one of the challenges that I faced was how to record and set in order all the bits of information that must be assembled for a detailed study of some 400 separate textual issues across twenty-one English translations and a number of ancient sources, perhaps 10,000 segments of text, in all. A book that I received as a gift from lifelong friend, Kevin Bird, detailed the solution—a systematic way of filing and retrieving information electronically. Once implemented, the system allowed me to enter the necessary word strings and gradually build up a coherent data-picture.
To understand that picture in a scientific manner, I realized that I would need to correctly apply modern statistical methods. Here my SIL colleague, Stephen L. Walter, provided expert advice. He helped me to understand the nature of the data and to do statistical analysis at key points.
Through conversations, recommendations, and corrections, a number of others, including Annelise Daley (who read and commented on every chapter), have likewise helped me to improve the book. Any shortcomings that remain are my responsibility alone, as are the views and opinions expressed (which do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SIL International or any other agency or individual).
The topic encompassed by TBET stretches from the ancient world through the Middle Ages and up to present times. In seeking out the most relevant materials, some rare or unique, I was helped by the staff of the Cambridge University Library, where I examined the NEB committee notes and other items from the British and Foreign Bible Society archives. In Oxford I benefited greatly from the services and holdings of the Bodleian and Oriental Institute Libraries and in London from those of the British Library. I am grateful for the SIL travel grant that allowed me to carry out some of my research in these locations.
At a later stage of work, I was asked to present on the topic of text and translation to an assembly of some seventy Bible translation consultants at Horsleys Green in England. While preparing for the talk, I began to see data patterns more clearly than before, and in the presentation itself some key points were articulated for the first time, particularly with regard to periodization. In the ensuing conversations and as a result of a motion that was passed at the end of proceedings, I was encouraged to establish the related, long-term text project already mentioned in the opening paragraph above. I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of my SIL colleagues, including those who continue to facilitate my work in this area.
The data to be examined stone-by-stone in the earlier chapters of TBET will begin to take on a shape indicative of distinct periods vis-à-vis the textual eclecticism of the English translations, leading to suggestions for a typology of eclecticism and other observations, all of which are offered as a contribution to scholarship and prolegomena to further efforts to expedite and improve worldwide Bible translation.
S.C. Daley
Spring 2018