What’s in Your Bible?
Behind-the-Scenes Choices that Make or Break a Translation

When you pick up the Bible to enjoy your personal devotions, you may never think about the array of decisions translators made in order to put together the Bible you read every day. But you’ll likely be fascinated by some of the issues that arise when faithful people set about to translate ancient biblical languages into modern English.

The Great I’m

The words “I am” and the contraction “I’m” mean precisely the same thing. So if you’re translating the Greek eimi in Acts 9:5 and want to render the original word as accurately as possible, the English translation “I am” is just as close as “I’m.” Which do you choose? Holman CSB translators created guidelines to make sure the final rendering sounds as natural as possible to 21st century English readers. For example, when someone is speaking, the HCSB generally uses contractions. That tends to be the way we talk these days, right? But there are exceptions. In the example above, for instance, Jesus is making a strong point with the soon-to-be apostle Paul: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” To render it “I’m Jesus, whom you’re persecuting” would have left the verse sounding too casual for such a weighty confrontation between the Lord and His chief detractor. So sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t (or…do not) use contractions.

That Old So and So

It’s second nature to you and most English readers that the order of sentences implies the sequence in which things happen. But ancient Hebrew writers seemed less sure that their readers would see it that way. As a result, the words “and so” crop up almost endlessly in the Old Testament. HCSB stylist John Perry notes, “In some ways, the Old Testament is one giant run-on sentence.” Does that mean translators must repeat the words “and so” every time they appear in the Hebrew text? Holman CSB scholars decided not. In English, as noted earlier, the translation is implied by sentence order—the thing mentioned in one sentence comes before the thing mentioned in the next. And so: saying “and so” over and over simply isn’t necessary in English. In fact, putting the words in would likely interfere with the reader’s understanding rather than help it.

Suffer Not Thy Reader to Chuckle

Phrases like “gay clothing” or “riding upon his ass” may have carried early readers of the King James Bible through the story with no problem, but today’s readers would be hard pressed to get through a passage worded like that without stumbling. That’s why HCSB stylists apply what John Perry calls the “guffaw factor” when smoothing out an otherwise precise translation. “I ask myself,” says Perry, “‘Could a junior high boy read this out loud without laughing?’” If the answer is “no,” then he and the styling team look for some other way to preserve accuracy in the rendering.

Leaving Well Enough Alone—Kind Of

Translating the best-known and most-loved passages in the Bible bears a distinct set of problems. For one thing, reader expectations are high. Take Matthew 5:3, for instance. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is the form of the Beatitudes developed by the King James Version, and even many contemporary translations maintain that “traditional” approach. The Holman Christian Standard Bible, on the other hand, renders the verse as “The poor in spirit are blessed.” This form retains the words of the traditional approach since both ways of stating the phrase are equally accurate. But the Holman CSB introduces a more natural English word order—an order that clarifies the meaning of the passage.

(Quotation) Mark My Words

Quotation marks are a relatively recent addition to English punctuation style. They were unheard of in the days of the first King James Version and have become commonplace only in the last century or so. And although they’re nowhere to be found in the original writings (neither were commas or periods), introducing them into the English text actually increases the accuracy of the translation. But how far should translators go with them? The Bible often has quotes within quotes within other quotes: “He said, ‘she said, “he said, ‘she said.’”’” Generally, HCSB stylists draw the line at three levels of quotations. After that, what began as an aid to understanding gets in the way.

With All Good Indent

There wasn’t much indenting back in the days of early Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic writing. But an indented passage today is a valuable signal about how to read a given selection. In poetry, for instance, indentation is expected. Without it, a modern reader might mistake poetic writing for prose and completely miss some important point. Then, too, indentation offers another way to clarify a longer quotation—sometimes even helping to avoid one of those cumbersome extra levels of quote marks.

Knowing these behind-the-scenes decisions that make a good translation great may not revolutionize the way you read the Bible, but sometimes a little knowledge can be a very enlightening thing.

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