The Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus was originally written in Hebrew but survives only in a Greek translation containing a Prologue – not in the original Hebrew – which includes the following passage: “For what was originally expressed in Hebrew does not have exactly the same sense when translated into another language. Not only this book, but even the Law itself, the Prophets, and the rest of the books differ not a little when read in the original.” (NRSV)

The opening of the preface to The Living Bible (paraphrased by Kenneth N. Taylor) reads: “In this wonderful day of many new translations and revisions we can greet another new one with either dread or joy. Dread that ‘people will become confused’, or joy that some will understand more perfectly what the Bible is talking about.”

As no translation can perfectly convey the precise meaning of scripture, I find it profitable to compare different versions; in this way fresh light can be thrown on obscure, or even familiar, passages.

For example, most versions of the first verse of Genesis read “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (or similar). The extreme fundamentalist view of creation is that the earth was made at a specific time and denies the theory of evolution. The Jewish Study Bible renders the first verse as “When God began to create the heaven and earth…” This view allows for continuous creation in line with modern thinking. [Living Bible: “When God began creating …”]

When I first read the story of Joseph in the New English Bible many years ago, I was surprised to note that Potiphar was referred to as a eunuch. I have since discovered that the same description occurs in the Catholic Douay (alt. Douai-Rheims) Bible. The Revised English Bible, successor to the NEB, replaced the term with ‘court official’, more or less in line with other translations. Apparently the Hebrew word normally translated as ‘officer’ (or similar) can also mean ‘eunuch’, and is so rendered elsewhere in the Old Testament.

If the alternative translation were found to be an accurate description of Potiphar, it would give a new perspective to the tale of his wife’s attempted seduction of Joseph!

Norman Moore