Page 196 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY

“The spiritual truth of Scripture was originally written Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they
in clear natural language which was intelligible to its seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do
readers. Its language conformed to the idiomatic usage they understand” (Mt. 13:10-13).
of the native speakers of the time in which it was It is not true, then, that the original Scripture in its
written. However, the illuminating work of the Holy
Spirit was necessary to enable the original readers to entirety was clear to the native speakers of that day.
grasp that spiritual truth, because spiritual truth must It is also not true that all of the idioms of the original
be spiritually discerned. When people today read a writings were those of the native speakers at the time of
translation of the Bible, the only barrier they should writing. The Law of Moses was given by revelation from
have to encounter is the spiritual one, not a linguistic God on Mt. Sinai and much of it was foreign even to the
one which stems from the use of unnatural and Israelites at the time of its reception. This is true, as
difficult language” (By the Word, pp. 36,37). well, for many other parts of Scripture—the Priesthood,
This translator is merely restating something she the Tabernacle, and the Church are examples. These
learned from one of the chief promoters of dynamic were revelations from heaven and did not conform to
equivalency—John Beekman, translation coordinator any earthly cultural setting.
with Wycliffe Bible Translators. In Translating the Word When, therefore, the translator quoted above says
of God, a book co-authored by Beekman and John that the only barrier people should have in reading a
Callow, we read this basic assumption which underlies translation today is a spiritual one and not a literary
these faulty theories of translation: “The naturalness of one, she is only partially correct. It is true that we
the translation and the ease with which it is understood should strive to make Bible translations as clear as
should be comparable to the naturalness of the original possible. No UNNECESSARY obscurity should be
and to the ease with which the recipients of the original introduced through a Bible translation. But if the people
documents understood them” (p. 34). to whom the Bible was originally committed did not
Jakob Van Bruggen tells us that “Beekman and understand much of it and if much of it was foreign
Callow simply presuppose that the linguistic form of the even to their ancient cultures, how could we possibly
original was natural and not difficult. They write that expect to overcome this in modern versions of the Bible
Paul, Peter, John, James, Luke and the others wrote without unjustified changes?
clearly and were readily understood by their first- We see, then, that this foundational assumption of
century readers” (Jakob Van Bruggen, The Future of the dynamic equivalency is in error. It is no wonder that the
Bible, Thomas Nelson, 1978, p. 111). superstructure which has been built upon this faulty
Let us return to Silvernale’s statement, and upon foundation is heretical.
closer investigation it will be seen that it is a subtle How influential is dynamic equivalency?
mixture of truth and error. It is not completely true that
the “Scripture was originally written in clear natural I think many will be surprised to learn that the
language which was intelligible to its readers,” nor that dynamic equivalency method of Bible translation has
“its language conformed to the idiomatic usage of the gained almost total ascendancy among the world’s most
native speakers of the time in which it was written.” We influential translation groups. Consider some facts:
will consider this more fully later, but at this point it The United Bible Societies (UBS). As of 2001, there
should be sufficient to point out the fact that even the are 130 member societies involved in the United Bible
writers of the Bible themselves did not always Societies. In 1997, the world distribution of Scriptures
understand what they were speaking! This is stated in 1 by the United Bible Societies reached almost 561 million
Pe. 1:10-11. “Of which salvation the prophets have (this includes Bibles, New Testaments, portions, readers,
enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the etc.). This total included 20 million whole Bibles and
grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or 18.5 million New Testaments. Nearly 80 percent of the
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in world’s Bibles are distributed through the UBS. As of
them did signify, when it testified beforehand the 2001,, the United Bible Societies were involved in
sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” translation work in 672 different languages.
The Apostle Peter acknowledged that some of the The American Bible Society, which pays almost one-
writings of Paul were “hard to be understood” (2 Pe. half of the United Bible Societies’ budget, owns the
3:16). The parables of the Lord Jesus Christ had a two- copyright to the Today’s English Version. This is their
fold purpose—to reveal truth to believers and to hide baby. They have sold more than 80 million copies of it
truth from unbelievers! “Why speakest thou unto them and they have determined that from now on all of their
in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because new translations will be based on the principles
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the underlying the Today’s English Version, principles called
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.… dynamic equivalency.

196 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity