Metatext as a mediating tool of
religious conflict in the
translation of sacred texts
Jacobus A Naudé
Background
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Not everything about a source text can be rendered in a
translation
Translators tell readers something about the source text,
while simultaneously hiding much of it
The ‘correct’ established meaning must be protected
Any translation diverging from the accepted interpretation is
likely to be deemed heretical and to be banned
Translators defend their translations by utilizing metatexts to
narrate the nature of the specific translation
Aim of the paper
To show that the metatext of a sacred text
 regulates the reader’s mental preparation for free translation to ensure
that free interpretations will be orthodox
 serves as a mediating tool of religious conflict in the translation of
sacred texts
Three metatexts will be utilised
 Luther’s Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen (Circular Letter on Translation)
 The Aristeas Book
 The metatext for the Bible in Afrikaans about capital letters for socalled messianic names/references
Outline of the paper
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Approach for describing and explaining the role of
metatexts: Narrative Frame Theory
Acceptability issues concerning the translation of
sacred texts:
translation dimensions of sacred texts
Discussion of metatexts
Frames and Framing in Translation
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Baker (2006) argues that the nature of human
knowledge is narrative in nature
There is no neutral knowledge, and no neutral
translation
Narratives are the stories we tell ourselves and
others about the world(s) in which we live
Frames and Framing in Translation (2)
Narratives are constituted through four interdependent features:
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Temporality: narratives are embedded in time and space
Relationality: it is impossible for the human mind to make
sense of isolated events or of a patchwork of events
Selective appropriation: as realized in patterns of omission
and addition, which are designed to suppress, accentuate or
elaborate particular aspects of a narrative
Causal emplotment: when independent propositions are
placed within a plot structure, they are transformed into an
intelligible sequence about which we can form an opinion
Frames and Framing in Translation (3)
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The process of framing events involves setting up structures
of anticipation that guide others’ interpretation of events
Every choice in translation acts as a kind of index that
activates a narrative, a story of what the world or some
aspect of the world is like
The point, then, is not to treat any specific translational
choice as random, with no implications in the real world.
Instead, the framework of narrative theory encourages us to
think of individual choices as embedded in, and contributing
to, the elaboration of concrete social reality
Frames and Framing in Translation (4)
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Processes of framing can draw on practically any linguistic or
non-linguistic resource to set up an interpretive context for the
reader or hearer
In translations, these include exploiting paralinguistic devices
such as typography, visual resources (colour, image and
layout), linguistic devices (e.g. deixis, code switching,
euphemisms)
Metatexts are useful to trace the contours of literary ideology
and expose the socio-cultural context which commands literary
exchanges
The metatext has the function of calling attention to the
translator as co-signer of the work; the metatext calls attention
to the intervention of another hand and cultural context
The translation dimensions of sacred
texts and metatexts
These dimensions reflect the reality in the aggregate, not in every
minute detail
 Unregulated translation: Anyone is free to ask for a
translation, and anyone capable of making one is free to
make it; without any regulation
 Regulation of the act of translation: Regulated translation
involves the imposition of strict controls on who translates what,
how, and especially for whom, and whether and how, and with
whom the resulting translations are shared and discussed
The translation dimensions of sacred
texts and metatexts (2)
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Regulation of the comprehensibility of actual
translation: Typical of this dimension is a translation,
which serves the purpose of keeping the sacred text
largely incomprehensible to the masses
Regulation of the reader’s mental preparation for
translation: The sacrality of sacred texts no longer
means that they are dangerous to the unlearned or
that they must therefore be kept from the profane.
This openness does not mean absolute freedom
The translation dimensions of sacred
texts and metatexts (3)
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This dimension seeks to control the reader’s mental
preparation for translation so as to ensure that free
interpretations will be orthodox
Metatexts have been used as mediating tools for
religious conflict that arises from the translation of
sacred texts:
Jerome’s Letter to Pammachius
Circular Letter on Translation and the
Luther Bible Translation
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The preoccupation of the Roman Catholic Church
was for the ‘correct’ meaning of the Bible to be
protected
Any translation diverging from the accepted
interpretation was banned
William Tyndale
Etienne Dolet
Circular Letter on Translation and the Luther
Bible Translation (2)
Non-literal or non-accepted translation came to be seen and
used as a weapon against the Church
 Martin Luther translated into East Central German, a
regional yet socially broad dialect
 Luther follows St Jerome in rejecting a word-for-word
translation strategy:
Vulgate: Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur (Matthew 12:34)
Word-for-word: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh (KJV)
Luther: Wes das Herz voll ist, des geht der mund über (common
German proverb)
The idiom means ‘to speak straight from the heart’
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Circular Letter on Translation and the Luther
Bible Translation (3)
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Martin Luther was accused of adding the world allein
(alone/only) in the translation of Romans 3:28
Arbitramus hominem iustificari ex fide absque operibus
Wir halten, dass der Mensch gerecht werde one des Gesetzes
Werk, allein durch den Glauben
We hold, that man is justified without the work of the law, only
through faith
 The charge was that the German implies that the individual’s
belief is sufficient for a good life, making ‘the work of the
law’ (i.e. religious law) redundant
Circular Letter on Translation and the Luther
Bible Translation (4)
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He defended himself in his famous Sendbrief vom
Dolmetschen (Circular Letter on Translation) of 1530
He justified his translation as necessary for clarity in
German: he was translating from originals and not
translations into pure, clear German, where allein
would be used for emphasis
Luther added essential traits of the ideal translator
in the circular to justify his translation
Aristeas’ letter fulfilled a similar function as a
metatext?
Aristeas Book and the Septuagint
Aristeas’ story is presented in the guise of a letter to his brother
Philocrates ...
The Book of Aristeas as Pseudepigraphon
 Humphrey Hody (1705) demonstrates the fictitious nature of
the Book of Aristeas
 John Wevers (1985): intent of B.Ar. is to detail the origins of
the Greek Pentateuch, but as fiction – not to accept anything
stated in B.Ar.
 Abraham & David Wasserstein (2006): legend with no
historical value
Aristeas Book and the Septuagint (2)
The Book of Aristeas as historiography
 Nina Collins: B.Ar. should indeed be taken seriously as a
historical document
 Sylvie Honigman: Intention is to perceive B.Ar. as ‘true
history’, a charter myth
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Noah Hacham: Narrative recounting of the expedition to
Eleazar and its outcomes. Combination of loyalty to Judaism
and involvement with the Hellenistic culture
Aristeas Book and the Septuagint (3)
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Brock’s conclusion that Aristeas does not have to do
with the origins of the LXX but rather with its
reception history is accepted in scholarly circles
Aristeas is perhaps part of a debate within
Diaspora Judaism concerning the true nature of
Jewish heritage and its interpretation of the Jewish
Law
It is suggested that the Book of Aristeas fulfilled a
function as a metatext
Aristeas Book and the Septuagint (4)
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Little is said about the translation of the LXX. The letter is
divided into 322 sections. The work of the translation is found
in sections 301 to 322. The intervening 250 sections give a
description of the temple and the Holy Land
Aristeas insists on the LXX’s Palestinian origin. Its parent text
was not an Alexandrian Hebrew text, but an ornate exemplar
sent by the Jerusalem high priest. It was not the Alexandrian
Jews who made the translation, but official representatives: six
from each of the 12 tribes, selected by the high priest. The
translation is rendered official by adoption by the Jewish
assembly. Like the Hebrew original it was not allowed to
undergo any revision
Aristeas Book and the Septuagint (5)
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The role of the law of Moses in the Septuagint Proverbs has
a more prominent role than is the case in the Hebrew by
underlining of the negative with an emphasis on evil
Greek: Wicked progeny curses its father versus
Hebrew: There are those who curse their fathers (Prov 30:11)
Greek contains more contrasts than the Hebrew.
Proverbs 31:1-9 was moved by the translator in order to
place 31:10 adjacent to 29:27 for purposes of contrast. In
this way the translator contrasts an unjust man with a virtuous
wife
Aristeas Book and the Septuagint (6)
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The B.Ar. is similar to the Dolmetschen of Luther
The B.Ar. as a narrative is not a legend, nor a
historical account of the origin of the LXX, neither is
it an apology to justify the translation of the LXX
Rather, B.Ar. was written after the translation of the
LXX was completed
It was a mediation tool to facilitate the differences
between the Greek and Hebrew in such a way that
free interpretations in the LXX would be viewed as
orthodox
The metatext on capital letters for
messianic references
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The Dutch Authorised Bible translation of 1639 indicates with
notes which texts can be understood as messianic
Since the twentieth century footnotes and margin notes were
not represented in the Dutch Authorised Bible translation
anymore
Capital letters are used in the first letter of a word to indicate
messianic terms in the Old Testament which refer to the New
Testament (cf Isaiah 9:5 ‘a Child has been born for us, a Son
given to us ...’; pronominal references and the word ‘Servant’ in
Isaiah 53)
The 1933 Afrikaans translation and its 1953 revision follow
this model
The Afrikaans translation of 1983 does not use capital letters
for messianic terms in the Old Testament
The metatext on capital letters for
messianic references (2)
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In the design of the Bible in Afrikaans it was decided that
footnotes would be used to indicate which of the OT texts
could be understood as messianic. It was similar to the model
of the Dutch Authorised Bible translation of 1639
The translation project was initiated in 2005 by the
Afrikaans-speaking churches in South Africa as a project of
the Bible Society of South Africa. All churches using
Afrikaans as language of communication were involved in
the project. The translation team reflected mainly the
mainstream viewpoints. The project is being done in 5
phases. Until the end of 2010 the project will be in phase 1
and 2. Phase 3 will involve the feedback of churches
The metatext on capital letters for
messianic references (3)
On 25 February 2008 documents were received from a
(fundamentalist) group with the title ‘Would you like an Old
Testament without the name of Christ?’
 The steering committee answered them in a circular ‘The use
of capital letters in parts of Old Testament referring by the
New Testament as references to the Messiah.’ It consisted of
the following sections:
Orientation reflecting the background on the use of capital
letters
Evidence of the source texts and other translations
The translation principles of this project
The difference between dogmatic interpretation and
translation
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Conclusion
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Metatexts reveal shifting relationship between author and translator
trace the contours of literary ideology, and
expose socio-cultural context
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Luther justified in his Circular Letter on Translation his free Bible
translation as necessary for clarity in German. In addition, Luther
added essential traits of the ideal translator in the circular as further
justification for his translation
Aristeas defends the Greek Septuagint as Jewish by insisting on its
Palestinian origin
The metatext created for the Bible in Afrikaans does not solve but
softens the dispute about the avoiding of capital letters in the Old
Testament to translate so-called messianic names/references
Conclusion (2)
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One can conclude that a critical function of a
metatext to the translation of a sacred text is to
regulate the reader’s mental preparation for free
translation (= diverge from accepted interpretation)
to ensure that free interpretations will be
considered to be orthodox and thereby serves as a
mediating tool of religious conflict
Thank you!