Translating the Bible into Toba...
How do we translate the Scriptures into Toba? As well as theological issues, we also have to check for what might appear to be careless mistakes. We have to remember that the translators are translating from a foreign language (in our case Spanish), and can sometimes misunderstand or even just misread it...
Reading through the first draft of John’s Gospel in Toba, Bishop David was surprised to read the following in chapter 21 verse 2:
“Stephen is with Simon Peter, Thomas the twin, Nathanael...”
Stephen? How did he get into the text? The New International Version translates the verse as follows:
Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.
Neither in the original Greek nor in any other translation could we find any mention of Stephen in this verse. So why had José Manuel put him in?
Then we looked again at the Spanish common language version (which José would have used to translate from), which says:
Estaban juntos Simón Pedro, Tomás, al que llamaban el Gemelo, Natanael, que era de Caná de Galilea, los hijos de Zebedeoc y otros dos discípulos de Jesús.
Which means: “They were together Simon Peter, Thomas, the one called the Twin, Nathanael, who was from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples of Jesus.”
Now we understood what had happened: José had misread “Estaban” (they were) for “Esteban” (Stephen), and so he translated it as though it said
Now we understood what had happened: José had misread “Estaban” (they were) for “Esteban” (Stephen), and so he translated it as though it said
“Stephen was with...” An easy mistake to make, when there’s so much else to think about! This is what José’s translation now says:
'Uo ñe'me Simon Pedro, nataq'aen Tomas jo'ne qoyanec Uadiaĝaic, Natanael jo'ne Galilea le’ec di’me noic jo’ne Cana, nataq'aen jogaa'me lec'oqo'te ñe'me Zebedeo, choqogaa'me dojolqa jo'ne lapaĝaguenataqa laqaya' joñe'me Jesus.
Which means:
There was Simon Peter, and Thomas who is called the Twin, Nathanael who is a Galilean of the town which is Cana, and the sons of Zebedee, and with the two who are other disciples of Jesus.
John 21:2
www.michaelandsilvia.com/john21_2.html text and graphics© 2008 Michael Browne