The concept of “the Lamb of God” («ὁ ἀµνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») in English, German and Russian translations of the Gospel of John

Abstract

The interpretation of biblical concepts is a complex translation problem, the method of literal translation cannot solve it. The search for lexical matches in the target language is not always systematic. A comprehensive solution to this problem is possible within the framework of the conceptual theory of metaphor, which allows you to rethink the process of translating biblical concepts. The article explores the implementation of the concept «the Lamb of God» («ὁ ἀµνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») in the translations of the Gospel of John into English, German and Russian in the light of modern research on the conceptual theory of metaphor. The purpose of the study is to analyze the degree of implementation of the concept «the Lamb of God» («ὁ ἀµνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») in translations of the Gospel of John. The work uses the MIPVU method to identify metaphors in the original text of the Gospel of John, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis to assess the adequacy of the translation of the concept « the Lamb of God» in the context of the biblical conceptual field. As a result of the study, it was revealed that in the English, German and Russian translations of the Gospel of John, the concept of the «the Lamb of God» («ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») of the original text is not fully implemented. The absence of a separate lexical unit leads to confusion in the translations of the «Lamb» («ἀμνὸς») from the Gospel of John and the «Lamb» («ἀρνίον») from the Apocalypse, which distorts the meaning of the translations. The application of the MIPVU method to identify metaphors in the biblical text, as well as an integrated approach to the translation of biblical concepts, is a developing direction in modern translation studies. Modern advances in the field of metaphor theory make it possible to create new translations of the Bible that are accessible to readers who are not familiar with the biblical conceptual field.