Bible Translations
The most popular and widely printed book in the world, the Bible, has been translated very often, both in ancient and modern times. The translations constitute important cultural compositions in their respective languages in some of which they are the first written documents.
The nature of the translation differs from one version to another; similar differences are even visible within the same translation whose character varies from book to book. As in modern times, some ancient translators rendered their source more faithfully than others. Those who adhered closely to their source created "literal" translations reproducing all the characteristics of the source, including so-called Hebraisms.
The 17th century King James Version, for example, employs the phrase "to find grace (favor) in the eyes of" which is the precise equivalent of the Hebrew expression, not found previously in the English language. Similar Hebraisms are found in all ancient versions.
By contrast, translators who did not aim at a literal representation of the Hebrew Bible incorporated differing quantities of exegesis at all levels. Words were rendered differently in accordance with the various contexts and unusual translations also appeared. At the same time, details in the biblical were explained contextually in accordance with known exegetical traditions and the translator's imagination. Thus difficult expressions were clarified, and situations requiring explanation were elucidated in the translation. Some renderings contain more exegetical elements than others, and the more such elements are included, the freer the translations. Some ancient translations reflect such a large amount of contextual exegesis that the individual words of the Hebrew text can no longer be identified. In such cases one should speak of an ancient "midrash" or a paraphrase retelling of the biblical text.
This, for example, is the case with the Greek and Aramaic translations of Esther which embellish the biblical story and add a religious background.
Because of these added elements, most ancient translations are of great importance for our understanding of the interpretation of the Bible in antiquity. As such they are greatly studied by modern scholars.
A further reason for the importance of the ancient versions is that they date to an early period when the Hebrew text was not yet fixed. Hence some of the translations reflect an original which differs in major or minor details from the received Hebrew text (the so-called Masoretic Text). Much is now known about the Hebrew texts from which the ancient versions were made, especially because of the Hebrew scrolls found in Qumran (the "Dead Sea Scrolls") which resemble the Septuagint translation in many details. The Hebrew texts from which the ancient versions were rendered thus can often be reconstructed by retranslation into Hebrew, these reconstructed texts frequently differing from the received biblical text.
This is especially true of the Septuagint, the oldest written translation of the Bible. Written in Greek, the language of the Hellenistic world, the Septuagint was produced in Hellenistic Alexandria (Egypt) in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. As with all ancient versions, the circumstances of it's origin are disputed and obscure. As related in the "Letter of Aristeas", one of the extra-canonical biblical books, a Ptolemy (probably Ptolemy Philadelphus who reigned from 285 to 246 B.C.) summoned 72 elders (six from each tribe) from Jerusalem to translate the Jewish scriptures into Greek; in spite of working in separate cells, the devinely guided translators miraculously produced identical versions. The kernel of the story may be true since the Ptolemaic rulers were known to be interested in foreign cultures. At the same time, the Jewish community of Alexandria, being deficient in it's knowledge of Hebrew, must have required a translation for it's daily needs.
Early papyri of parts of the Septuagint have been found in various places in Egypt and Palestine, and there exist several early manuscripts of its complete text which provided the earliest attestations of the Bible until the recent discovery of the Hebrew scrolls near the Dead Sea.
Jewish in origin, the Septuagint was soon accepted as Holy Writ by the Greek-speaking Christian community, which was greatly influenced by its contents and terminology, as is evident from the NT. Even though internal evidence shows that it was produced by Jewish translators, the Septuagint became increasingly known as a document used by Christians, almost a Christian source, making it less attractive for the Jews who therefore abandoned it. Instead, they started to revise the Septuagint, making it acceptable to them by removing terms which had become "Christian" such as christos, the standard rendering for mashiach (anointed). These Jewish revisions are connected with the names of Aquila, Theodotion and Symmachus.
The Hebrew source of the Setuagint translation differed from the received Hebrew text, often in major details. Thus in the second part of Exodus, the sequence diverges from the received text, and in the Greek Book of Jeremiah is much shorter than the Hebrew original. The Septuagint also contains several books which are not found in the collection of Hebrew sacred writings, such as the Books of Maccabees, Judith and Baruch. Furthermore, the sequence of the books in the Greek Bible differs from the Hebrew counterpart. Thus the Book of Ruth is appended to Judges, and Lamentations (traditionally ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah) is appended to the Book of Jeremiah.
In antiquity the Septuagint was translated into various languages, among which was Latin. This "old Latin" translation introduced the contents and names of the books of the Septuagint into cultures. In the Greek Orthodox Church, the Septuagint is still a sacred book.
Internal Jewish needs likewise prompted the translations into Aramaic, the major language of the Jews in Babylonian Exile, which also progressively replaced Hebrew in Palestine. Several Aramaic translations were produced, first oral and afterwards written; they were named targumim, or singular targum ("translation" or "paraphrase"). Of these, the best known are the Targum Onkelos to the Pentateuch and Targum Jonathan to the prophets; both are of the "literal" type. The free and even paraphrastic type are represented by the so-called Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Neophiti to the Pentateuch. All targumim were based on Hebrew text, even though they reflect varying degrees of exegesis. Their dates of origin are not known. In the Jewish tradition the targumim were held in great esteem, as can be seen from the frequent quotations in the ZTalmud and medieval commentaries.
The Latin Vulgate (vulgata), produced by the Church father Jerome (A.D. 345-420) originated from Jerome's revision of the "Old Latin" translations, but continued as a Latin translation of the Hebrew source itself. Produced in the years 390-405, it was a faithful, yet elegant, translation of the Hebrew, incorporating rabbinic exegesis; in due course it replaced the Septuagint as the sacred test of the Church.
In addition to these translations there is also a translation into Syriac, an Aramaic dialect. This translation (the Peshitta, the "straightforward one") is clearly based on Jewish exegesis, but little is known about its origin.
