Translation

Translation work is largely related in my life, from my studies to my hobbies to my gift to my faith.

1. I am studying in Russia, many things are in Russian, including the medical books that I read and the teachers that I talk to. English-Russian translation and vice versa are important, yet I don't like Russian.
2. I like to watch anime in original Japanese audio. I can't stand those English or Chinese dub. Yet I understand not Japanese, so watching anime with English-subtitle is essential, since I don't have the time and opportunity to learn Japanese, though I would like to learn it
3. My pastor speaks only English, but there are some brothers and sisters from China only speak Chinese. A translator is needed. Last time this job was done by other people, but they graduated, so I (have to) take over this job.
4. The Word of God is the foundation of my faith in God. But the Bible or Scripture was originally written in Hebrews (for Old Testament) and Greek (for New Testament). A Bible in English translation is essential for me, because learning Hebrews and Greek is too difficult.

In the first and third instance, translation that was involved is important for understanding. Not only so for the third instance, fast translation is needed. Detailed word-to-word translation is of secondary importance. Audience need to grasp only the main point to understand the whole picture of it. In such case dynamic translation is involved. Rephrasing and choosing suitable terminology are needed. This is of utmost importance when come to the first instance, where a Russian word can have many different meaning. A literal translation (like Google translation) sometime, or many times make the sentence zero sense.

However in the second and forth instance, accurate translation is need. Recently I watch an anime Hyouka.  It is not the typical shounen anime or fighting anime. Action or drama is not the main point of it. This anime delivers its gist through wordings and conversations. So accurate translation is need to understand and enjoy it. It is so sad that sometime I need to watch different translation to understand. The worst is sometime the same sentence was translated into different versions, with total different meaning. I guess this is the complexity of Japanese. But this is just anime, just a hobby what I do in free time.

The most important is the forth instance. Some people might know that I am struggling with different English translations  of the Bible. Basically I come to faith through New International Version (NIV). I also do enjoy English Standard Version (ESV). Yet the struggle comes when I was exposed to my church in Malaysia. They taught that the only faithful translation is King James Version (KJV) or the Authorized Version (AV), while other modern translations are less faithful. When they say "less faithful", they don't only mean it is more inferior, some emphasised that they are corrupted.

I admit that KJV is more accurate in term of translation, yet the English that it used was a 16th century English. Who still using the words like "thou", "thy", "hath"? What is the purpose if it cannot convey the idea? Some might say everything is possible with God, so reading KJV is of no problem. Undeniable that with time and affort understanding KJV is possible, but what about those aged people, like my friend's grandparents, they come to faith when they are at their 80s, they have difficulties in understanding even NIV, how on earth you want them to understand KJV? Some people might argue that they can read in their mother tongues, eg. Chinese. But they only speak English. And what about those who don't have Bible in their own mother tongues, like some ethnics in Ghana? Their mother tongue is not even a written language. And if everything is possible with God, why can't God saves them using these modern translations? Not only so, so many great theologians and teachers use these modern translations like John Piper, R.C. Sproul, Jerry Bridge, D.A. Carson, and so on. So are they wrong? Are the books that they written, which quote from these modern translations, corrupted?

For long time I keep my standpoint with above statement. Yet as time passes I do saw the insufficiency and inaccuracy of NIV and ESV that I read. Should I really change and pick up a KJV Bible?