my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities.” The text appears in the RSV in this form: “he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.” A reading of the Hebrew text will reveal there is no Hebrew word in this passage for “fruit.” This may be interpretation, but it is not called for in a translation. The work of the interpreter should fol low that of the translator. It may be pointed out here that a paraphrase is introduced into Romans 5:2 also. The KJV is: “ By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of
an owl of the desert.” The translation of the ASV is: “ I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am become as an owl of the waste places.” The RSV renders it: “ I am like a vulture of the wilder ness, like an owl of the waste places.” How much is gained here, especially in view of the footnote: “ The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain” ? You may test it yourself by comparing the majestic rendering of the last clause of Isaiah 63:1 in the KJV and the ASV with the pompous, but not more force ful, translation of the RSV. Careful reading of the footnotes will disclose the nature of them. Some of them touch matters in a radical way (see later on Isaiah 7:14) while others are quite pointless and ineffective. As an illustration of the latter, read Psalm 23 in the KJV and ASV, then in the RSV with its seven footnotes for the six verses of the Psalm. Strangely enough, when there was an opportunity to give the proper meaning to an im portant verb, there is no change what ever. I refer to Exodus 20:13 in the Decalogue. It reads in the KJV and ASV: “ Thou shalt not kill.” This verse has been made to do duty in bolstering arguments against capital punishment, arguments in favor of vegetarianism, and arguments against military service even in defense of one’s own country and loved ones. If the translation “kill” is allowed to stand, it contradicts verses in the broad context of Exodus like 21:14; 21:15; 21:16; 21:17; 22:18; 22:19; and numerous other instances. In the He brew language there are more than a half dozen verbs which convey the thought of kill, but the word employed in Exodus 20:13 is a special word. It means “ to murder,” and the verse in the Decalogue should be translated: “Thou shalt not murder.” This needed change is not found in the RSV which reads: “ You shall not kill.” As already shown, this is not the meaning of the verse. The Results of the Revision All orthodox students of the Scrip tures recognize that prophecy is a mir acle of utterance. The Messianic element in the OT prophets is one of the out standing features which attest the super natural character of the OT. It is well known that liberals greatly minimize the element of predictive prophecy in the Bible or seek to eliminate it alto gether. We have carefully considered every major Messianic passage in the RSV. It will not be possible in the pur pose of this appraisal to treat each one, but we present some of the findings. It is commonly accepted that the Abra- hamic Covenant of Genesis 12:1-3 is basic in God’s unconditional dealings with Israel and the nations. It concludes with these words (practically the same in KJV and A SV ): “ and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” RSV gives us: “ and by you all the fami lies of the earth will bless themselves,” with a footnote reading, “ in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” It is true that the Hebrew verb is in a conjugation (or better, stem) which is
Come what may, the offspring will show the characteristics of its parentage. There is a Jewish saying which runs this way: “ The apple does not fall far from the tree.” The list of the translators of this version shows unmistakably that theologically they are in the liberal camp. They are scholars, but liberal scholars, scholars with a liberal bias. No orthodox or fundamental school is in cluded among them. Their position on the Bible is not that of the historic faith, of the Apostolic or Reformation days. There is no evidence that they hold to the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. Their Methods The real aim and task of a translator is to be rigidly faithful to the language of the Biblical text, and faithful also to the language into which it is being trans lated. A faithful translation should take into account the original text above all else, and rule out guessing or conjec tures. The RSV indicates it will use the versions, and this it does with both hands. It refers again and again [we are speaking especially of the OT] to one Hebrew manuscript in the footnote, or dwells monotonously on the note that “ thè Hebrew is obscure” or “ the Hebrew is uncertain.” If the readers could only know how often the versions are ob scure! But the impression is given that the defect lies with the Hebrew. By actual count we have found in the foot notes of the OT, 1292 references to the versions. Anyone who has had any expe rience in teaching students even on the graduate level, realizes what a Hercu lean task it is to teach them to read footnotes. How many of the ordinary readers of the Bible can be expected to read footnotes? Does not all this foot noting savor of the pedantic? On page 222 there are in the footnotes, 11 refer ences to the versions as well as one con jecture. By actual count again, there are at least 344 conjectures in the OT. On page 545 there are three conjectures in two lines of footnotes. And, mind you, these conjectures are introduced into the text of the passage; it is only the foot note that indicates the words of the text are a conjecture. It would have been far better, if conjecture had to be included in the version, to have placed all con jectures themselves in the footnotes. Since the RSV has determined not to employ italics, it is difficult to know where the text ends and paraphrase be gins. For use is made of paraphrase. This may be due to the close adherence of the OT translators to the text of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT), which indulges in paraphrase in many places. An example of para phrase is to be found in Isaiah 53:11. It reads in the KJV: “ He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satis fied: by his knowledge shall my right eous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” The ASV renders the verse thus: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satis fied: by the knowledge of himself shall
Dr. Charles L. Feinberg Hebrew Christian Bible Scholar Author and Professor
the glory of God.” The rendering of the ASV is: “ through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoicd in hope of the glory of God.” The RSV translates thus: “ Through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” The word “ sharing” is added without any basis in the Greek text. On page x of the preface we are told that the Scriptures “must stand forth in language that is direct and plain and meaningful to people today.” Let us test this version out on this score. In Psalm 103:6 the KJV reads: “ The LORD exe- cuteth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” The ASV is: “ Jehovah executeth righteous acts, And judgments for all that are oppressed.” The RSV translates: “ The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.” Is there a gain here in di rectness, plainness, or meaningfulness? We can test it further with Psalm 102:6 which reads in KJV: “ I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like
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