Scripture in multimedia - American Bible Society publishing of print and multimedia scriptural materials

National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 1999 by Pamela Schaeffer

Hodgson expects it to take decades for translation into new technologies to mature as a field. "Print translators have had 2000 years to get it right," he said. "We've had only 10 years."

Hodgson attributes the shift from papal condemnations to acceptance of the society's missionary work in large part to Eugene Nida, widely regarded as a pioneer in translation methods and ecumenical outreach. Nida worked for the society for more than 50 years, ending up as head of the society's translation department. In an interview from his home in Brussels, Belgium, Nida said credit goes largely to the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s.

Functional equivalency

Nida pioneered what is called "functional equivalency" translation -- sometimes called "dynamic equivalency" -- which means translating meaning for meaning (usually sentence by sentence) rather than the traditional method of word for word. The goal is to translate the Bible into the language people actually speak, not by paraphrasing but by working from the original Hebrew and Greek, he said. The goal is clear, simple writing for easy reading. The principle, applied to the society's own translations, such as the Good News Bible, and the newer Contemporary English Version, though controversial among some conservatives and anathema to fundamentalists, is used in translation work worldwide. An example of how language changes from culture to culture, often rendering literal translation meaningless, is that the Hebrew word or Greek word that translates into English as heart -- as in "love the Lord with all your heart" in Matthew 28:30 -- would be more understandably translated in West African languages as "with all your liver," Nida said. Many cultures use body parts to convey emotion, but not necessarily the same ones.

Nida had long envisioned Bibles acceptable to both Catholics and Protestants. After Vatican II and the shift from Mass in Latin to Mass in the vernacular, Catholic leaders were eager for new translations. "I was amazed at the requests coming to us from priests, bishops, archbishops," he said. In the late 1960s, he organized a conference in Switzerland and invited members of the Vatican's Congregation for Propagation of the Faith. The result was a document on Catholic-Protestant translation ventures, "a landmark in ecumenical cooperation," Nida said. A few years later, Nida gave lectures in translation at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

"The society works with Catholics now in at least 150 different languages," he said. He labeled the result "the most important thing to happen since the Reformation: to give the scriptures to people in forms they can really understand." So far, the American Bible Society and its 134 counterparts around the world -- all under the umbrella of the United Bible Societies -- have helped to translate the Bible into more than half of the world's 5,000 languages and dialects. Catholics increasingly are part of that effort, serving as translators, consultants and board members, he said.