Translator's Glossary

AnachronismThis is something that is out of place in respect to the historical setting. This happens when something is referred to in a translation that did not exist at the time of the original setting. An example is the use of the word Bible, instead of Scriptures, in the New Testament.

ApocryphaThe term means hidden things. Of three applications of what it refers to, Jerome's is the one that is the generally accepted modern usage -- books that are outside the Hebrew canon. With the exception of one book, the books of the Apocrypha were in the Greek version of the Old Testament made for Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt. The books were accepted as Biblical by the early Church and quoted as Scripture by many early Christian writers, for their Bible was the Greek Bible.

The rabbis who met near Jerusalem after C.E. 70 accepted thirty-nine books, which came to be known as the Palestinian Canon. The rabbis in Alexandria accepted those and, in addition, other books - called today the Apocrypha -- which came to be known as the Alexandrian Canon. It was translated into Greek by Jewish scholars and became the Scriptures of early Christian authors. Today, Jews and most Protestants accept the Palestinian Canon. Catholics follow the Alexandrian Canon.

AutographThis is the technical name for the original manuscripts. We no longer have any.

CodexThis is a collection of canons or a manuscript in leaf form, distinguished from scrolls.

ChiasmusThis is an arrangement of a series of statements in which there is a correspondence between the first and the last, between the second and the second last, and so on. This is symbolized ABBA, ABCCBA, using as many letters as there are levels of correspondence.

Dead Sea ScrollsThese are ancient writings, on scrolls, found by an Arab boy in 1947 in caves near the Dead Sea. It is not known for certain who wrote them, when, and where. The Jewish community that used these writings was situated in the forbidding ravine of Qumran at the northern end of the Dead Sea.

Dynamic EquivalenceThis broad theory of translation attempts to reproduce in the English reader the same understanding of meaning and degree of impact and challenge that the original Hebrew and Greek audiences experienced when the Scriptures were first produced. This is accomplished through a thought-for-thought, meaning-for-meaning, translation style.

Dynamic Versions: These are idiomatic, but pay attention to precise verbal correspondence as much as possible. Examples:

1. Contemporary English Version
2. Easy to Read Version
3. New Century Version
4. New International Version
5. New Jerusalem Bible
6. Revised English Bible

Free Dynamic Versions: These are free in word choice, almost colloquial or paraphrastic in places. Examples:

1. New English Version
2. Phillips Revised Student Edition
3. Today's English Version

ExegesisThis is the interpretation that a translator gives to a passage.

Formal EquivalenceThis broad theory of translation attempts to follow the form of the original document very closely in verbal and grammatical order.

Verbatim Versions: These are word-for-word, grammar-for-grammar correspondence. They seek to link only one English word to any individual Hebrew or Greek word. Examples:

1. New American Standard Version
2. Young's Literal Translation, Revised Version

Literal Versions: These follow the original word order, with flexibility in using various English words to translate an original Hebrew or Greek word, allowing for shades of meaning. Examples:

1. The Geneva Bible
2. King James Version
3. New American Bible
4. New Berkeley Version
5. New King James Version
6. New Life Version
7. Revised Standard Version
8. William Tyndale Translation

Loosely Literal Versions: These are more idiomatic and/or interpretive translations. Examples:

1. Amplified Version
2. Complete Jewish Bible
3. Lamsa Bible
4. New Revised Standard Version

Biblia HebraicaThis is perhaps the best-known Hebrew Old Testament of the twentieth century and is the standard for printed Bibles. It was first edited by Rudolf Kittel.

ImprimaturLiterally, it means "Let it be printed." It is an official formula of licence to print or publish, affixed by a censor or board of censors to a book or pamphlet. In the Catholic Bible versions, a bishop or archbishop is listed as the imprimatur.

LexiconThis is an alphabetically arranged book setting forth the meanings and etymology of the words of a language.

ManuscriptsThese are copies made by hand by ancient scribes, of the original Scriptures.
A few Old Testament manuscripts are as follows:

1. The Aleppo Codex
2. The Cairo Codex of the Prophets
3. The Leningrad Codex

A few New Testament manuscripts are as follows:

1. The Chester Beatty Papyri
2. Codex Bezae
3. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
4. Codex Sinaiticus
5. Codex Vaticanus

Masoretic TextThis is the Old Testament text, established in the eighth and ninth centuries C.E. by Jewish scholars. The scribes, known as Masoretes, tried to preserve the precise text of the Scriptures. Considering the effective system of vowel marks developed by a small Jewish sect in Babylon about C.E. 500, a Masoretic family named ben Asher produced a better system of vowel markings and applied to the basic Hebrew text (of consonants only) in the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. The ben Asher text comes to us in several forms, including Cairo Codex, Aleppo Codex, and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Codex.

In 1524, Jacob ben Hayyim published a printed text of the Hebrew Old Testament, using a multitude of high quality manuscripts, including several lists of Masoretic notes. This became a standard for printed Jewish Bibles. Only in the last two hundred years has it been so accepted in the Christian world. Rudolf Kittel's Biblica Hebraica, perhaps the best known Hebrew Old Testament of the twentieth century, listed the variations of a ben Hayyim text in its footnotes and did not include them in the text. The ben Hayyim text of 1524 was used for both Kittel's editions of 1906 and 1912, but another ben Asher text (the Leningrad Codex of 1008) was adopted by Kittel for his third edition of Biblia Hebraica in 1937.

MinisculesThese are New Testament copies made beginning in the ninth century C.E., replacing the uncials (see below) and written in small, cursive Greek script.

OstrakaThese are scraps of pottery that early writers used as a cheap form of stationery.

PapyrusThis is the predecessor of modern paper. It was made from Egyptian reeds, which were cut into strips, dried, and glued together to form sheets.

ParaphraseParaphrases are not translations at all. Instead, the paraphrasing author uses one or more existing English translations and then rephrases the text into easily understood everyday language. An example is the Living Bible.

PseudepigraphaThese are spurious religious writings, falsely ascribed to Scriptural characters or times and not considered as canonical by any branch of the Christian church. Some examples are found in the Pseudepigrapha section on this web site.

Q (Sayings of Gospel Q)Q stands for the German word Quelle, which means "source." Q is the source on which Matthew and Luke draw, in addition to Mark.

Received TextJoannes Froben, a printer in Basel, Switzerland, persuaded the noted Biblical scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam to come to his city to prepare a Greek New Testament edition. Using manuscripts from the library at Basel University, the two men produced their Greek text in 1516. It became known as the textus receptus (Latin for "received text"). It was a basic guide for the translators of the King James Version. It began being replaced about two hundred years later by a critical text.

Strong's ConcordanceThis work is a thorough verbal index to the Holy Scriptures, as they exist in the three most important forms now known to British and American readers and scholars, namely, the partly Hebrew and partly Greek original text and the "Authorized" and "Revised" English Versions. It is the only work hitherto constructed that gives all the words of the English Bible and all the passages where they are found. It was first copyrighted in 1890.

Synoptic GospelsThis is a term from the Greek sunoptikos, which means "seeing together," or "having a common view of." It is used specifically of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which are similar in form, outline, and contents.

TanakhThis is an acronym made for the words Torah (Pentateuch), Nevi'im (Prophets), and K'tuvim (Writings), which are the three main sections of the Hebrew Bible - or the Old Testament.

TargumsIn the last few centuries B.C.E., the Jews who lived to the north and east of Judea found the Hebrew Bible difficult to understand, for their spoken language had become largely Aramaic. Translations into Aramaic, first of the Torah and then the rest of the Bible (Nevi'im and K'tuvim), became known as the Targums. The Septuagint and the Targums are not only the oldest translations of the Bible but also the most influential. Christian translators were influenced by the interpretation of the Hebrew text set forth in the Targums (much of it in oral form at the time). The earliest Targum, which is on the Pentateuch, began to be committed to writing about the second century C.E. It did not supersede the oral Targum at once as it was strictly forbidden to read it in public. Its language is Chaldee.

TetragrammatonThis is the name which is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name, that is, the four letters YHWH. This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore, it has been consistently translated LORD. Hebrews were instructed to utter a less holy name -- Adonai (lord/master) or Elohim (gods).

The form Jehovah is a combination of the consonants of the Divine Name and the vowels attached to it by the Masoretes, but belonging to an entirely different word. The sound of Y is represented by "J" and the sound of W by "V", as in Latin. The four letters YHVH are most likely semi-vowels and not true consonants. That is, Y=I, H=A, V=U, and H=E, resulting in IAUE. This would be pronounced Yahweh (EE-AH-OO-EH).

TextThis is any one of various recensions that are taken to represent the authentic words, or portion of the words, of the original Scriptures.
Some examples are as follows:

1. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
2. Masoretic Text
3. Nestle-Aland's Novum Testamentum
4. Textus Receptus
5. United Bible Society's Greek New Testament
6. Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in the Original Greek

TransliterateThis is to write in English letters from Hebrew and Greek letters. Actually, it can mean writing words from any alphabet in another alphabet.

Textual TransmissionThis is the way that our ancestors copied the original manuscripts of the Old Testament and passed the copies along to us.

UncialsThese are New Testament copies made first in the third and fourth centuries A. D. and written in all capital letters run together. They were written on vellum (parchment) and papyrus.

VulgateThe Latin Vulgate, meaning "common," was translated by Jerome in the latter part of the fourth century C.E. It is based on some of the best manuscripts at that time. It remained the authentic text in the Catholic church up to the present century. Before 1943, all official versions in modern languages were made from it.

Bibliography

1. Blight, Richard C. Translation Problems from A to Z.
2. Comfort, Philip W. The Complete Guide to Bible Versions.
3. Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History.
4. Funk and Wagnalls. Dictionary of the English Language.
5. Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels.
6. Packer, J. I., et al. The Bible Almanac.
7. Dead Sea Scriptures, The, 1976.
8. Messianic Jewish Manifesto, 1988.
9. New American Bible, 1987.
10. New American Standard Version, 1977.
11. New English Bible, 1970.
12. New Jerusalem Bible, 1985.
13. New JPS Version, 1988.
14. Revised Standard Version, 1952.
15. Smith's Bible Dictionary, 1948.
16. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, 1980.