I have tried in the last few posts to explain some of the characteristics of a good translation. To build up to accuracy, I also discussed the meaning of words, explication, and audience. Another of the characteristics of a good translation is known as clarity.
Clarity is a value in Bible translation, in part, because historically Protestants have believed that the Scriptures are understandable. The Reformers referred to the issue not as clarity, but as perspicuity (a word we don’t usually use now because…it’s not easy to understand). The word perspicuity means “the quality of being clear and easy to understand.” So, when we translate we do not seek clarity only because it is a good translation practice, but also because the Bible itself is intended to be clear, and to be understood.
What does it mean that the Bible is clear?
The Westminster Confession of Faith explains what Protestants believe about the perspicuity of Scripture:
All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet, those things that are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or another, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.
So, perhaps first it is best to explain what we don’t mean by clear. Saying that the Bible is understandable does not mean that it is all equally understandable. There are passages that are very simple to understand, and others that take time and study to understand. Apparently, even the Apostle Peter found some parts of Scripture “difficult to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). But as Protestants, we believe that even an uneducated person is able to understand all things necessary for salvation if he puts in the time to study them. This leads me to my definition of clarity:
A translation is considered clear when the target audience is able to understand the meaning of the text with the same level of ease as the original audience.
When we say that the Bible is clear, or understandable, we are not saying that it is “simple.” It is not as though everything in the Bible is easily understandable to children. Saying that the Bible is understandable does not mean that everything in it is equally understandable, nor does it mean that there is no need for study or teaching. All of the Bible is understandable, but it understandable in one of three ways: 1) immediately understandable, 2) understandable through study and teaching, and 3) spiritually discerned.
The immediately understandable. The Bible is written in a human language, for a human audience. The words, and sentences, and paragraphs all have meaning that are accessible to normal people. While some of the meaning of a passage will take study, much meaning ought to be immediately clear. Take John 3:16 as an example. In the ESV, this verse reads:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
In this passage there are things that should be immediately clear, for instance: 1) God loves the world, 2) because he loves the world he gave his son, 3) whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
When we do testing of a passage, we want to check to see if the immediately clear things are immediately clear. If we asked for this verse, “Who is loving?” and the people could not respond “God,” then we have not translated well. When we ask, “How did God demonstrate his love?” they should be able to respond, “He gave his only son.” If we ask, “What does it take for someone to have eternal life?” they should be able to respond, “One must believe in the son.” If any of these immediately clear truths are not immediately clear to the new audience, we have not done our job as translators. The immediately understandable is the primary area of clarity sought in a Bible translation.
Understandable through study and teaching. There are also aspects of John 3:16 that are not immediately clear, for instance: 1) who/what is the “world” in this passage? 2) what does it mean to “give his only son”? 3) what does “perish” mean in this context? 4) what is “eternal life”?
The answers to these questions cannot be found in this one verse. The verse itself needs to be studied within its context. And since the Bible is primarily a book written for believers, we should expect that many of these answers will be discovered in the process of teaching. However, this area of understandability should be considered by translations as well. We should translate in such a way that even the uneducated should be able to answer the less-immediately-clear questions in due time and with ordinary means. Once we have translated the Gospels, for instance, a Kwakum person should be able to read them and determine that “giving his only son” meant that God sent Jesus to die on the cross for sins.
Spiritually discerned. Ultimately, there is a spiritual aspect of meaning in the Scriptures. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” This is obviously not what we are talking about when we speak of clarity in Bible translation. This kind of clarity only comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person as they read God’s Word.
How does clarity relate to accuracy?
I began this multi-post quest in response to a post by my friend Aaron Shryock. In his post, Aaron says that “the concept of communicative accuracy is an indirect way of prioritizing comprehension or clarity over traditional accuracy.” My definition of accuracy, from the last post, was: A translation is accurate when the original message is communicated to a new audience. No meaning should be added, removed, or changed in the translation. As I mentioned there, I believe Aaron would categorize my definition with “communicative accuracy.” Thus, I believe he would say that I am prioritizing clarity over traditional accuracy.
I already defended my belief that one cannot consider accuracy without considering what people are understanding. But I want to make another claim here that one cannot consider accuracy without considering clarity. Because the Bible is perspicuous (or clear, or understandable), it would be inaccurate to produce a translation that is not clear and understandable. For our translation to be unclear means that the meaning is obscured where it should not be. Personally, I would consider that to be inaccurate.
The other day, I was listening to an English translation of Anna Karenina, which was originally written in Russian. At one point a character leaves the scene to “do her toilette.” Take a second and ask yourself what that means. Because of my experience with French, which has a similar phrase, I understood that to mean she got herself ready in the bathroom. However, I suspect that most Americans would think this was just an odd way of saying she “used the restroom.” I saw an English friend at church and asked her what she would understand. She said that English people would understand that this meant “got ready in the bathroom,” though it would sound a bit archaic.
“Do your toilette” is actually a phrase in English and in French (and I presume in Russian). It actually has meaning in and of itself, but is no longer an understandable phrase in American English, and is archaic in British English. In the case of Americans, I believe that if I were to use this phrase in a translation they would misunderstand the meaning. One might say, “Since this is an actual English phrase, that has a meaning you can look up, we should keep it and just teach to it.” So, that would be to claim it is exegetically accurate but unclear. I don’t buy it. I think that this phrase would convey the wrong meaning to Americans and therefore should be abandoned. Since the phrase in American English is unclear, it leads to misunderstanding, and is therefore inaccurate.
So, while I would not say that accuracy and clarity are the same thing, they are certainly related. And we as translators should seek to be as clear in our translations as the original was to its audience. When our translation is not clear, it can, and often does, impact accuracy.
We Translate So They Understand
When we first came to Cameroon as a field visit in 2010, we visited with 8 different people groups who were asking for a translation of the Bible. We spoke to various religious leaders associated with these groups, including one Catholic bishop. This bishop told me he would not resist our work of translation in Cameroon, but that he did not see the point. In his mind, the Scriptures themselves are not clear, and the people need the church to interpret the Bible for them.
In the years since this conversation, I have come to realize that many people in Cameroon do not understand what the Bible says. They go to churches where services are conducted in languages that they do not understand well. Rather than seeking to understand the Bible, they just wait to be instructed by their religious leaders. Rather than being good Bereans (Acts 17:10-15), the people accept what their leaders say. This has lead to heresy, rampant sexual immorality, and the overwhelming pervasiveness of the Prosperity Gospel.
When we translate the Bible, we translate it to be understood by the common people. William Tyndale wanted to have a Bible that that was so clear that a plow boy could know the Scripture better than a Catholic priest. Many of the Kwakum people are uneducated and intimidated by a Bible they assume they cannot understand. One of the greatest joys of my job is seeing people truly understanding the Word of God. That joy can only happen if we consider clarity to be an important part of our job as translators. And my hope is that as time goes on, as the Kwakum learn more and more, they will be able to identify these false teachings for themselves.
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