KTOT Latest Release

Peter Schmidt (Editor) announced the latest release of new articles to the Key Terms of the Old Testament (KTOT) resource in Paratext. This brings the total to 104 articles available in this valuable translation resource. KTOT is a tool for the Bible translation and consultant community, providing current research on some of the most important key terms of the Old Testament. 

• Anne Garber Kompaore explores the width and depth of שָׁלוֹם šalom ‘well-being’, as it applies to one’s personal life and to relations with others. It further occurs in greetings, also in encounters where there is mistrust. Contextual meanings range from outward safety in traveling to inner peace of mind. The many-sidedness of the term calls for the translators’ sensitivity to each text and probing their own vocabulary.
• Meg Billingsley investigates the two adjectives tāmîm ‘without defect’ and tām ‘blameless’ and the noun תֹּם tōm ‘integrity’ and explains how the idea of physical wholeness serves to express moral quality: that someone does not do wrong and has pure motives. For where a simple equivalent is not available, she discusses translation examples from other languages. A concise comparison with other terms of morality helps to see the differences between them.
• Working on a synonym to the above, Terry Wardlaw expounds on words from the root יָשָׁר yšr (‘straight/level; uprightness’) and on how metaphors are at work here: In the concrete world, the words can refer to ‘channeling’ water, or fighting in ‘the plain.’ When it comes to ethics, people are—in a live metaphor—pictured on a ‘straight’ path, or ‘right’ way. Moving on to a dead metaphor with a higher degree of abstraction, people do ‘what is right,’ and count among ‘the upright.’ God judges with ‘uprightness.’ Translators are reminded that they need to check whether these metaphors work or don’t work in their language.
• Peter Schmidt offers an in-depth study of תְּרוּמָה tərûmâ ‘contribution’, which is often poorly understood as “a general offering term” and in some versions neglected. He sees it as a religious tax, or something set aside for the support of the sanctuary and its staff. Numerous difficult constructions and verses, from Leviticus to Ezekiel, are addressed.
• Ayala Wing informs us about שַׁבָּת šabbat ‘time of rest’, be that a day or a year. She discusses the variant šabbaton, and points out that the combination šabbāt šabbaton implies a stricter ceasing from work. She counters some misunderstandings like the etymology from “seven” or the character as a “joyful celebration”; incorporating Jewish exegesis, it is argued that miqrā_’-qōdeš_ is probably not a ‘holy assembly,’ but the ‘announcement of a holy time.’ She alerts to some pitfalls in certain national or church contexts.
• In his overview article, Manie van den Heever orients translators about their main options regarding the weighty question of how to render God’s name יהוה YHWH.
• Peter de Niet examines נבא / נָבִיא nabi’ ‘prophet’ and the verb ‘prophecy.’ Well aware of potential mis-conceptions among believers and non-believers, he evaluates translation equivalents like messenger etc. To do so he studies thoroughly how prophecy is presented in the OT – including (a) how prophets in Israel and elsewhere receive revelation, (b) the phenomenon of ecstasy, (c) the “companies of prophets,” and (d) how some texts keep in suspense the question whether someone is a “true” or “false” prophet.