Seeker’s Class: The Bible and Translation
The materials on this page were collected for the Seeker’s Class at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, a weekly gathering dedicated to studying the Bible, social justice issues, and Church history.
The Bible and Translation
For these three weeks of the Seeker’s Class at FCCLA we will have a conversation about the Bible and translation. We will discuss linguistic theories of translation and the specifics of English Bible translations. The resources below are not “homework” by any means. We will be looking at some of them on Sundays, and I will play some videos in class, but you are not expected to be familiar with them. If you have any questions, please contact me by email. Please come with questions and thoughts!
Week 1: Why and How? (Why read the Bible? How does translation work?)
Recommended listening (if you have time before the Seeker’s Class meets)
Radiolab podcast on translation – if you only have a short amount of time, listen to the first segment, “100 Flowers”.
Extra Resources
Video: A professional translator talking about language
Video: Bible translators at work
Video: What is translation? Meaning vs. Music
Ken Liu on translating The Three Body Problem from Chinese to English
Handout with discussion questions
Week 2: Which? (Which translation should I read? Hint: It depends.)
Recommended reading (if you have time before the Seeker’s Class meets)
Extra Resources
Video: PBS Documentary on the history of the English Bible
Recent discovery of a draft of the KJV sheds light on the process of translation
NPR segment on the influence of the KJV on the English langauge
Video: Choosing a Bible translation
A chart with basic information about a variety of translations
(Another) chart with basic information about a variety of translations
Handout with discussion questions
Week 3: But what about… (Did Paul really write those words? Do I need to learn Greek? What’s the Septuagint? …etc.)
Recommended watching (if you have time before the Seeker’s Class meets)
Video and article: Tedx talk on some problems with English Bible translations.
Extra Resources
And God Said by Joel M. Hoffman, who gave the TEDx talk above.
Video: A translator of Homer on translating Ancient Greek into English
Dr. Robert Alter on translating the Hebrew scriptures
How to use an interlinear English/Greek Bible
Bible Study Tools, a translation comparison site with study notes
Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament – the version of the NT text that scholars use. It incorporates the latest in textual criticism scholarship.
Video: a reading of John 1 in Koine Greek
Bart Ehrman on why the authorship of the Pauline epistles matters
Some (partially sensationalist) theories on who wrote which books of the Bible
Handout with discussion questions