How does Bible translation work?
How does Bible translation work? What do you need to keep in mind? You will find out on this page.
On this page, we would like to explain more about how Bible translation works. Use the links below to go directly to the section:
- Who translates the Bible
- Preparing a Bible translation
- Proceed step by step
- Readers and advisors
- Layout and printing
Who translates the Bible?
How do Bible translators work? Take a look behind the scenes at the translators of the Dutch-Flemish Bible Society.
Preparing a Bible translation
First of all, Bible translators begin by establishing the goals and the working method. After all, every Bible translation has its own characteristics: do you opt for ordinary language with a limited vocabulary? Or will it be a Bible translation in which you can utilize all the richness of the Dutch language?
Next, Bible translators gather all available information. This consists primarily of the source texts, of course. But it also includes dictionaries, commentaries, and other background information about the world of the Bible. And during a revision of a translation, there are also suggestions from readers that can be incorporated. All this information can then be linked together in a computer program (Paratext).
Proceed step by step
When translating the Bible, we always work in pairs of a source language expert and a Dutch language specialist. We follow an extremely meticulous working method, with room for discussion and careful consideration. This is a process spanning several years. It proceeds roughly according to these steps:
- Each book of the Bible is assigned a 'book team' consisting of someone who knows the source languages and someone with extensive knowledge of Dutch. This translation pair handled the text of the translation. They translate from the source text and check the Dutch.
- A second translation pair responds to the translation. Has justice been done to the source text? Is the Dutch correct? In doing so, these two translators sometimes make suggestions for improvements.
- The 'book team' then processes the comments from the two colleagues and provides feedback when they do things differently.
- A coordinator also always reviews the document, taking into account other books of the Bible, quotations, and other issues that play a role throughout the Bible.
- All feedback is processed by the book pair.
- Final check and final editing: a final round of checking the entirety of the books of the Bible.
Example of a translation question
Some words in Hebrew or Greek appear only a few times in the entire Bible. So how do you deal with such unusual words? Discover an example in translator Jaap van Dorp's blog about an angel or a donkey in Deuteronomy.
Readers and advisors
When translating the Bible, there are sometimes topics that require additional knowledge. That is why we sometimes ask external experts for advice. For example, a Flemish reading group to check whether any strange sentence structures or words have been chosen that have a different meaning in Flanders than in the Netherlands. Or a professor from the liberal Jewish community who reviewed a number of sensitive texts in the Old Testament.
Layout and printing of a Bible
Once the entire Bible has been translated, it is laid out at a Bible printer. Then everything is carefully checked one more time to ensure that everything is truly correct, and the Bible is printed on special thin Bible paper.
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