WHAT MAKES A GOOD TRANSLATION
 

The following comments are adapted from Dr. Neil R. Lightfoot whose Doctoral Dissertation from Duke Divinity school was in the field of textual criticism and the Revised Standard version.  Dr. Ian A. Fair has added one or two additional observations.

A good translation must:

1.   Be made of the best critically attested manuscript or textual base.

2.   Speak in the idiom or th readers.

3.   Be true to the idiom and language of the original text.

4.   Be clear and intelligible.

5.   Strive toward a measure of consistency in its choice of words.

6.   Manifest a literary style that is suitable to the tenor of the message.

7.   Be accurate in its reproduction of the original message.

8.   Be true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than to a particular theological or denominational persuasion.

9.   Be made by a committee that is reasonably widespread in theological conviction, and qualified in the field of textual criticism and translation.


 
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