Abstract

DE WET, Karen. The third Afrikaans church Bible: Processes and practices of a direct translation. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2020, vol.60, n.4-1, pp.1007-1027. ISSN 2224-7912.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2020/v60n4-1a10.

This article deals with the Bible translation project that produced the third Afrikaans authorised version or church Bible, Die Bybel (2020). The introduction provides a general orientation, by relating the origin of the translation to a request made in 2004 by churches using Afrikaans in their sermons. This request was directed via KABA, the Kerklike Advieskomitee vir die Bybel in Afrikaans (the Church Advisory Committee for the Bible in Afrikaans) to the Bible Society of South Africa (BSA), for a Bible in Afrikaans that could be used as a church Bible, and also for edification and personal use. When the BSA agreed (in 2005) to have a third Afrikaans church Bible translated, the decision was informed by a range of reasons/factors. These included (1) advances and developments in translation studies, specifically Bible translation, and (2) research related to the source languages of the Bible, the fields of archaeology and anthropology, and subjects such as the identification and nomenclature of fauna and flora and precious stones in the Bible. The planning phase of the project was managed by a pilot committee, referred to as the loodskomitee, tasked with matters such as formulating the translation brief, planning the phases of the project, identifying and appointing team members for the translation teams of interdisciplinary experts (source-language experts, exegetes, Bible scientists, translation scholars, and Afrikaans language and literature specialists), organising conferences and work sessions for team members (providing training in line with the nature of the proposed translation, as well as in the use of the software selected, Paratext), and compiling a workbook that would be used to record approaches and decisions relating to the translation. At the end of the planning phase, the pilot committee handed matters over to the BSA-appointed executive committee (the begeleidingskomitee, or oversight committee), who would oversee the project. The article firstly discusses the consultations between the executive committee and a representative of the recently published (2004) Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling (NBV), an authorised Dutch translation. Specific similarities and also some differences between the Afrikaans and the Dutch projects are covered. This also serves to emphasize the focus on a direct translation, that is, as close as possible to the source texts, but at the same time in a style and language appropriate in the target language. The next part of the article describes the actual process of translation. This was executed by one interdisciplinary translation team per Bible book. In the first round, the team consisted of four people (made up of exegetes, source-language experts, translation scholars), and in the second, the further input of both an Afrikaans language and a literature specialist was obtained, before the project progressed through the other phases. Special mention is made of the phases in which the editorial committees, one each for the Old Testament, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical Books, were involved, and the nature of their contributions to the translation is pointed out. Whereas the first part of the article describes and discusses the rationale, aims, nature and process of the translation project leading to the publication of the third Afrikaans church Bible, the last part of the article is dedicated to those aspects of Die Bybel (2020) that can be regarded as unique - especially with respect to Afrikaans church Bibles. These include interdisciplinary and interdenominational collaboration, the inclusion ofwomen as contributors and translation scholars, the focus on making the translation suitable for oral reading, in keeping with the orality of the source text and being adaptable for liturgical use, as well as the creation of a so-called "complex translation" (Naudé 2019), or "thick translation" (Apphiah in Van der Merwe 2016), by creating a paratatext. Headings and footnotes, and their contribution towards creating a lucid and informative translation, are discussed as a case in point. The article concludes that Die Bybel (2020) is unique as an Afrikaans church Bible and that it has the necessary characteristics to take its place in the emerging new generation of Bible translations, as defined by Naudé (2005).

Keywords : Afrikaans Bible translation; Bible translation; Die Bybel (2020); church Bible; authorised version; study Bible; direct translation; domestication in translation; foreignization in translation; source-language orientated; target-language orientated; paratext; footnotes.

        · abstract in Afrikaans     · text in Afrikaans     · Afrikaans ( pdf )