Right with God : Paul and his English translators

Abstract

The chief primary sources for the Christian doctrine of 'justification'nare two letters of Paul the Apostle, namely, the epistle to the churchesnof Galatia and the epistle to the church at Rome. The evidence suggestsnthat while this doctrine was of fundamental importance for Paul, amongnhis immediate successors its meaning was, in varying degrees, misunderstood,nand the significant role it had played in the Apostle's thoughtnwas largely attenuated. In the pre-Reformation period Augustine camennearest to an understanding of 'justification', but a full recovery ofnthe basic elements of the doctrine came only with the sixteenth-centurynReformers. In Luther's thought, 'justification' exercised a magisterialnrole. This view was adopted by the early English Reformers.In the vernacular translations they produced, the English Reformersnrendered the words of the single Greek word-family which is crucial tonthe establishing of Paul's doctrine by two English word-families ('righteousness'nand cognates, and 'justify' and cognates). In doing so, theynwere using theological technical terms rather than the language of then'ploughboy', and the effect of utilizing two English word-families whichnhave no obvious etymological or semantic inter-relationships tended tondestroy the unity of Paul's presentation. The practice of using twonword-families has persisted to the present day, with the result thatnunless the English reader is aware of the technical significance of thesenwords, Paul's doctrine of 'justification' is virtually unintelligible atnits very source. Yet it was the doctrine of 'justification' that thenEnglish Reformers were most anxious to communicate.During the present century an alternative way of rendering the vitalnwords of Paul's single family into English has been developed. It featuresnthe use of one English word-family only, and abandons the principlenof one-to-one correspondence in favour of the principle of dynamic equivalence.nFirst traceable to the private translation of Charles B Williams,nthis approach has been adopted for other translations, notably the influentialnGood News Bible (Today's English Version). As a result, Paul'sndoctrine is nimmediately intelligible to the English reader without eithernthe risk of misunderstanding or the need for additional explication.nThe question remains, however, whether the approach just referred tonaccurately represents Paul's meaning.nThe investigation of the issues implicit in the foregoing discussionnfalls into two parts. Part One comprises a fresh investigation of thenNew Testament evidence for the doctrine of 'justification' with special reference to Galatians and Romans. It is based on the third edition ofnthe United Bible Societies' The Greek New Testament (1975), and takes upnthe question of what Paul intended to convey by his use of the singlenword-family to which reference has been made. The.words of the singlenGreek word-family and the words of the two English families used tonrender them are subjected to a linguistic analysis. Following a surveynof the literary structure of Galatians and Romans, a detailed examinationnof all occurrences of the single word-family in these two epistlesnis undertaken. The evidence suggests that Paul uses this family to expressna right relationship with God rather than a judicial verdict ofnacquittal. The reference is not to God's personal attribute of righteousness,nnor to human uprightness in an ethical sense, but rather to 'rightness in relation to God' (Ro.1:17). From evidence drawn from othernPauline letters, from the Lord's teaching, and from other New Testamentnwriters, it is clear that Paul's doctrine of 'justification' is no merenpersonal idiosyncrasy, but is consistent with New Testament soteriologynas a whole, even in cases where the single Greek word-family used bynPaul does not appear.In Part Two thirty-five English translations ranging from four fourteenth-ncentury versions to those of the present day are examined with anview to determining how effectively they convey Paul's meaning in English.nEach is set in its historical context, and, where possible, thentranslators' views of 'justification' are taken into account. The studynis set in the broad context of the history of 'justification'. It isnsuggested that denominational factors have had a much stronger influencenon English translations than is generally recognized.n