Lesson 1 | Vocab
Why Did They Translate It Like That?
As you do more reading of the Hebrew Bible on your own, you will find yourself asking this question. And there are two ways to ask it—one of humble confusion and the other of arrogant presumption. Let our question be of the first kind!
The question of humble confusion recognizes that there is something about the verse which you are not seeing. Fair enough. You are, after all, new to Hebrew. Look for translation notes (especially in the NET Bible where the notes are extensive) or reference a commentary. It might be that the translation is based upon the LXX Greek translation due to suspected problems at that point in the Hebrew text. Or it may be that the grammar is a bit more complex that you first realized. The point is this: we ought not to reject a translation until we understand it. If we reject a translation without understanding how the translators arrived at that point, then we sadly have wandered into the realm of arrogant presumption.
Consider this passage:
As general interpretive skills (“powers of discernment”) are developed through constant practice in living out the gospel, so too are interpretive skills using the Hebrew Bible developed by consistently and humbly reading and struggling with (and living out) the text. Thus, anyone can learn to land better exegetical conclusions using the original languages, but only through much hard work. As always, there are no short cuts!
