Evangelicals Now
<< January 1998 >>

Accuracy of Translation

NIV rethink?

Accuracy of Translation
By Robert Martin
Banner of Truth. 89 pages. £4.95
ISBN 0 85151 735 8

In Northern Ireland I recently heard someone jokingly call the NIV 'the Nearly Inspired Version', but the way in which it has 'swept the board' in the last 25 years suggests that the joke is, for many, dangerously near the truth. I was plainly not the only one to miss Robert Martin's searching and important book when it first appeared in 1989 and I hope I will be joined by thousands now profiting from its return.
His book is, of course, wider than an examination of one Bible version. He sets the scene in three important chapters dealing with the importance of accuracy, the philosophy of translation and the nature of inspiration. For these alone the book is worthwhile.
We need to think beyond the popular categories of 'literal' and 'paraphrase', and Martin provides very surefooted explanations of 'formal equivalence' and 'dynamic equivalence' as theories of translation. While these two approaches to translating a text are not mutually exclusive, it remains the case that to an extent never true of formally equivalent translations, in 'dynamic' translations words are lightly added to the original at the same time as words in the original are equally lightly lost.
In addition - as Martin proves by many an example and as indeed none can well deny - in translations of dynamic equivalence (or those that are preponderantly so) the translator must trespass to an impermissible degree into the realm of interpretation, forcing on readers one possible meaning to the exclusion of others and removing our right to weigh the Scriptures for ourselves. And at the most serious level of all, he asks the key question: can dynamic equivalent translations honour the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Word of God? It was no surprise to me that his objective and relentless scrutiny exposed the pervasive inadequacy of the New International Version. Martin's book does us a great service: make sure not to miss it.

Alec Motyer