Global Hermeneutics? - International Voices in Biblical Studies ...

60 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS?
TRANSLATION, HERMENEUTICS AND THE GLOBAL CONTEXT
What are the implications of this history and the context of globalisation for
the translation of the Bible? Translation involves a transfer of meaning from one
language to another, from one culture to another, from one world to another, from
one time period to another, from one belief system to another, etc. all at once. It is
not simply translating words or sentences, but making sense of texts through a
process of interpretation and understanding, of capturing the message of the source
text and rendering it, as they say, accurately or faithfully in a receptor/target text.
This is a complex hermeneutical exercise. In the process of such a transfer, the
translator can make certain translation decisions or interventions. The translator
makes decisions related to the target audience, the language level, the language
type, the function or skopos of the translation, the question of the original text and,
if there are variants, which variant to use, whether there are other translation
versions of the text being translated and what role these will play in the new
translation being undertaken. These and a myriad other decisions must be taken by
the translator(s). In doing so, they need to bear in mind the needs of the sponsor(s)
of the translation, the particular ideology or theological stance of the sponsor(s),
their values and preferences, among other considerations. Questions of fidelity or
faithfulness are important, yet they are not independent of the above considerations.
Indeed the whole question of the ethics of translation is influenced by these
considerations. The translator does not and cannot work in a vacuum or in some
rarefied objective world free of any interests. In short, Bible translation takes place
in contexts which are fully part of the dynamic global world.
In the case of the Old Testament there is the translator’s relationship to the
text, the translator’s location in the faith community and the community’s
relationship and understanding of the text, or the place, role and function of the text
in the life of the community. It is also important to take into account the faith
community’s relationship to the larger community to which they belong to, but
which may not attach any significance to the text in question. This dialectic
between the translator, the source text, the faith community that sustains the text,
those in the community who commission or sponsor the translation of the text, the
larger world—in all its diversity and plurality, etc.—of which the faith community
is only a part, certainly plays a key role in this whole process. Translation is never
neutral. It is subject to the problem of the partiality and limitations of the
translators, their knowledge of the source text and its backgrounds (geographical,
historical, social, cultural, linguistic, religious, political, etc.) and their knowledge
of the target/receptor text and its backgrounds (geographical, historical, social,
cultural, linguistic, religious, political, etc). Questions of power, of perspective, of
pluralism/diversity, of interests, preferences, of identity, among others, play a
crucial role. These considerations bear on the translators’ understanding,
interpretation and choices. Their command of the receptor/target language and their