{"id":5215,"date":"2020-11-04T13:13:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T19:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/?post_type=article&#038;p=5215"},"modified":"2020-12-08T09:58:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T15:58:48","slug":"what-is-a-translation-what-is-a-paraphrase","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/article\/what-is-a-translation-what-is-a-paraphrase\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a translation? What is a paraphrase?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cParaphrase\u201d has been both misused and greatly criticized in recent times. Dictionaries define \u201cparaphrase\u201d as a rewording for the purpose of clarification. A paraphrase, then, is assumed to be in the same language as the source it is restating, and to reflect the same content, if not the same form, as that original source.<\/p>\n<p>Two translations made from the same source may differ, but the results are not paraphrases of each other. Rather they are simply separate, and possibly divergent, translations from the same source.<\/p>\n<p>From the considerations presented earlier in this article, it is easy to understand how translations may differ in legitimate ways. They can be equally valid expressions of what the translators understood about the author\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n<p>A paraphrase, however, is properly so called only when it expresses, in different words, the content of something already in the language. If the meaning of the paraphrase is not the same as the meaning of the document being paraphrased, then it is not a paraphrase at all! It is thus erroneous to apply the word \u201cparaphrase\u201d to a translation for the purpose of implying that it has changed the meaning of the original.<\/p>\n<p>Another problem with such misuse of the word \u201cparaphrase\u201d is that it encourages the question: \u201cHow does translation <em>A <\/em>compare or contrast with translation <em>B<\/em>?\u201d The proper question is rather: \u201cHow successfully does either translation <em>A <\/em>or translation <em>B <\/em>express the content and the intent of the source document in the receptor language?\u201d This is the vital concern, not how one translation differs from another.<\/p>\n<p>This is an excerpt from <em>The Origin of the Bible <\/em>by F.\u00a0F.\u00a0Bruce, J.\u00a0I.\u00a0Packer, Philip Comfort, and Carl F.\u00a0H.\u00a0Henry. To read more, you can purchase this book from many Christian bookstores and online retailers, including Tyndale.com: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/p\/the-origin-of-the-bible\/9781414379326\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/p\/the-origin-of-the-bible\/9781414379326<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Elliot, R. L., et al. <em>The Origin of the Bible.<\/em> Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","article_categories":[265],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/5215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_categories?post=5215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}