Basic resources for Bible translation consultants

I recently shared this list with my UBS GTA colleagues as a Google doc, and they have helped create what we have so far. It should eventually have at least several majority language versions, but English is where we will inevitably start. There are still empty sections (Paratext) as well as much missing data. But we have made a start. Now I invite comments and improvements to the list(s) by this wider group via this Google doc copy.

And here is an excellent alternate/complement/supplement to the above list from Stephen Pattemore. Perhaps we should all do our own list and then just list the lists!

Extracted text from Approaches_to_Bible_Translation.docx:

Approaches to Bible Translation: A Guided Reading Course This course is intended to provide some background to where UBS has come from and where it is heading in relation to the theory and practice of Bible translation. It is by no means comprehensive and will be supplemented by intensive training weeks and the readings associated with them, exploration of the MAP site, and any other self-directed reading you care to engage in! You will probably not have the luxury of reading all the works listed here in detail. Some you will enjoy, others you will endure, quite a few you might skim through and get the essence of. Items marked with are probably more important than others. But you may want to pick out some of the others based on your interests. Another disclaimer is that this scarcely touches on some other very important fields for Bible translation for example, biblical studies, textual criticism, linguistics (especially cognitive linguistics) and anthropology/ cultural studies except to the extent that some of the general works build on a refer to them (eg the Wilt (ed) Frames book.) I should point out that, even if there once was, there is currently no official UBS theory of translation. Everything is contestable. Everything needs to be read critically. At the risk of sounding self-promoting, I think a good place to start for an overview is with: Pattemore, Stephen. Framing Nida: The Relevance of Translation Theory in the United Bible Societies. In A History of Bible Translation, edited by P. Noss, 217-263. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2007. The whole Noss volume will no doubt be enticing and can be read in its entirety at your leisure! My paper itself will also suggest a number of lines of investigation to follow. However it is probably good then to go about things in a somewhat chronological fashion. Where We Came From Nida, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1969. This was for many years the Bible of Bible translation and although it is dated and has been much argued (for and against), and although translation theory has moved on a long way, it remains the foil against which most discussion takes place. From a similar era comes the description of what became the standard format for UBS translations, following on from the Good News Bible : Wonderly, William L. Bible Translations for Popular Use, Helps for Translators. London: UBS, 1968. Following the line of UBS thought, still in the era dominated by Eugene Nida, the next important read is: de Waard, Jan, and Eugene A. Nida. From One Language to Another: Functional Equivalence in Bible Translation. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1986. Alongside of these can be read the parallel and in many ways similar developments within SIL, also drawing largely from Nidas inspiration: Barnwell, Katharine. Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles. Dallas: SIL, 2002. Larson, Mildred L. Meaning-Based Translation. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998. Different Voices Starting around the early 1990s UBS became increasingly exposed to the newly developing discipline of Translation Studies. This is a discipline with so many, often contradictory, branches that it is hard to provide a short list of reading. Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman, 1990. Tourey, Chestermann, Venuti, Prickett, Gentzler, Nord, Pym are just a few more names to look up. (See the general Theory Bibliography) A couple of edited books which reflect this wider perspective are: Brenner, Athalya, and Jan Willem van Henten, eds. Bible Translation on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century: Authority, Reception, Culture and Religion. Vol. 353, JSOTS. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Naud, J.A., and C.H.J. van der Merwe, eds. Contemporary Translation Studies and Bible Translation: A South African Perspective, Acta Theologica 2000 Supplementum 2. Bloemfontain: University of the Free State, 2002. Some of these focus on descriptive studies attempting to describe the translation as a socio-linguistic phenomenon, and some are more theoretical bordering on the prescriptive. The UBS Main-line The questioning of the Nida approach, and influence of a much wider range of scholarly work is evident in the next official book to come out of the UBS stable. This is not the work of a single person but of a collective of senior consultants in UBS in the early 2000s. Wilt, Timothy, ed. Bible Translation: Frames of Reference. Manchester: St. Jerome, 2003. Probably the greatest criticism of this direction was that it lacked pedagogical flair, although an attempt to produce a course based on it is: Wendland, Ernst. Contextual Frames of Reference in Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome, 2008. One theoretical framework that has become quite influential in a number of applications within the Bible translation world is the semiotic theory of Charles Peirce. This is reflected in Arduini, Stefano, and Robert Hodgson Jr., eds. Similarity and Difference in Translation. Rome: Edizioni Di Storia E Letteratura, 2007. But probably the most influential has been the functionalist skopostheorie of Christiane Nord: Nord, Christiane. Translation as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome, 1997. Another important cross-over from the world of Translation Studies into Bible Translation is the area of Performance Criticism. Probably a good way into this is through the most recent issue of The Bible Translator, 66.3, December 2015. Relevance Theory: Diversion or Missing Link? Starting with a series of presentations by Ernst-August Gutt to the UBS Trienniel Translation Workshop in 1991, Relevance Theory has had a contested role in the world of UBS translation theory. Probably an easy way into the topic is with the lectures that began it: Gutt, Ernst-August. Relevance Theory: A Guide to Successful Communication in Translation. Dallas: SIL, 1992. Gutts main work, in its second edition is: Gutt, Ernst-August. Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context. 2nd ed. Manchester: St. Jerome, 2000. The most vocal opponent of an RT approach was Ernst Wendland: Wendland, Ernst. A Review of 'Relevance Theory' in Relation to Bible Translation in South-Central Africa. Part 1. JNSL 22, no. 1 (1996): 91-106. ...Part 2. JNSL 23, no. 1 (1997): 83-108. I think I have been able to mollify Wendland to some extent and we have published together!

Some further work from a Relevance Theory perspective in relation to Bible translation includes. Hill, Harriet. The Bible at Cultural Crossroads: From Translation to Communication. Manchester: St. Jerome, 2006. Pattemore, Stephen. A Drift on a Sea of Implicature: Relevance Theory and the Pragmatics of Translation. Journal of Biblical Text Research 22 (2008): 180-202. Pattemore, Stephen. How Relevant is Exegesis for Translation? In A Man Called Daniel: A Festschrift in Honour of Bishop Daniel C. Arichea, Jr., edited by Anicia del Corro, Edgar Ebojo and Rosario Yu, 151-169. Manila: Philippine Bible Society, 2008. Pattemore, Stephen. On the Relevance of Translation Theory. Review & Expositor 108, no. 2 (2011): 263-277. Pattemore, S.W. Repetition in Revelation: Implications for Translation. BT 53, no. 4 (2002): 425-441. Pattemore, Stephen, Forthcoming, Relevance Theory and Bible Translation in P. Noss (ed) Dictionary of Bible Translation. (My works in this set have the advantage of being short!) In addition Harriet Hill and colleagues in SIL have produced a student training manual based on RT: Hill, Harriet, Ernst-August Gutt, Margaret Hill, Christoph Unger, and Rick Floyd. Bible Translation Basics: Communicating Scripture in a Relevant Way. Dallas:: SIL International, 2011. Other useful Relevance Theory works include: Almazn Garca, Eva M. Dwelling in Marble Halls: A Relevance-Theoretic Approach to Intertextuality in Translation. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 14 (2001): 7-19. Pattemore, Stephen. Relevance Theory, Intertextuality, and the Book of Revelation. In Current Trends in Scripture Translation, edited by P. Noss, 43-60. Reading: UBS, 2002. Pattemore, S.W. Souls under the Altar: Relevance Theory and the Discourse Structure of Revelation, UBS Monograph Series, 9. New York: UBS, 2003. Pattemore, Stephen. The People of God in the Apocalypse: Discourse, Structure, and Exegesis. Vol. 128, SNTSMS. Cambridge: CUP, 2004. Perry, Peter S. The Rhetoric of Digressions: Revelation 7:1-17 and 10:1 - 11:13 and Ancient Communications, WUNT 2 Reihe 268. Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009. Stecconi, Ubaldo. The Foundation of a General Theory of Translation Built on the Semiotics of C.S.Peirce., PhD. University College, 2006. This last is very interesting in that it blends the very popular semiotics of Peirce with Relevance Theory. Applications UBS scholars have written on a number of other fields with relevance to Bible translation: Cho, Ji-Youn. Politeness and Addressee Honorifics in Bible Translation, UBS Monograph Series, No. 11. Reading: UBS, 2009. Sundersingh, Julian. Audio-Based Translation: Communicating Biblical Scriptures to Non-Literate People, Dome Series Volume 2. Bangalore: SAIACS Press, 2001. van der Jagt, Krijn. Anthropological Approaches to the Interpretation of the Bible, UBS Monograph Series No. 8. New York: UBS, 2002. Wendland, Ernst R. Analyzing the Psalms. Dallas: SIL, 2002. Wendland, Ernst R., ed. Discourse Perspectives on Hebrew Poetry in the Scriptures, UBS Monograph Series No. 7. Reading: UBS, 1994.