SIL International Commentary on the Best Practices for Bible Translation of Divine Familial Terms—
Updated May 2012
In August 2011 SIL published a document titled “Best Practices for Bible Translation of Divine Familial Terms.” This was done in response to concerns raised about the standards used by translation consultants when checking and approving Scripture translation for passages that include familial terms, where God is referred to as Father, and/or Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. This document was generated especially in response to work carried out in contexts where a language community’s world view is predominately Islamic. In the months that have followed, certain ambiguities in the document have led to it being interpreted in ways we did not intend. We deeply regret the confusion and the crisis of confidence this has caused. The commentary on the Best Practices Document is our attempt to remove those various ambiguities and once again make explicit SIL’s unwavering commitment to accurately and meaningfully provide access to the Scriptures.
What follows on this page is a brief summary of the full commentary, with the option at the bottom of this page to link to the full commentary, as well as the original Best Practices statement.
Freddy Boswell
SIL Executive Director
Commentary on the Best Practices for Bible Translation—April 2012
Executive Summary
In SIL, we strongly affirm the eternal deity of Jesus Christ and require that both His deity and humanity be clearly communicated in all translations. Scripture translations of the term Son of God must promote an understanding of all its richness, including Jesus' relationship as Son with God the Father. Without reservation, SIL's Scripture translation practice is to use wording which promotes accurate understanding of the relationship of Father by which God chose to describe Himself in relationship to His Son, Jesus Christ, in the original languages of Scripture.
Along with this concern for accuracy, we are also committed to translation that communicates as clearly and naturally as possible in the receptor languages.
The goal of faithful and appropriate communication requires careful analysis of the specific linguistic, cultural, or religious factors that may cause potential misunderstandings or misinterpretations of the biblical text. While no translation can completely communicate the full meaning of the original text, best practices are established in order to produce translations that are as accurate as possible.
This is not a matter of adapting the meanings of the Scriptures to the culture and worldview of host communities, but rather a matter of expressing biblical meaning as accurately and clearly as possible in the host language.
Translation typically involves choices; there is seldom only one possible rendering for a given term. The full range of a term’s uses in different contexts of Scripture must be analyzed as part of this research.
When possible renderings and accompanying paratext* have been drafted, each option is tested extensively with a variety of speakers in the language community in order to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each text plus paratext combination. A critical guideline in this process is that the literal rendering of Son of God will always be either in the text or in the paratext that accompanies a non-literal rendering. This process is always carried out in consultation with other local partners and translation consultants who are trained to exercise special care to not impose their own preferences.
Even though the paratextual information may be considered essential, the paratext does not have the authoritative status of Scripture itself. This must be kept in focus when deciding what to put in the text versus the supportive information in the paratext.
The main goal of the guided process in the Istanbul Statement was to limit translation alternatives to terms which (1) properly convey familial meaning, but (2) are not limited to a procreative relationship.
SIL is committed to involvement in translation where decisions are made in partnership with others, thereby avoiding the imposition of any decision by any one party.
Click here to read the entire Commentary Document, as well as the full Best Practices for Bible Translation Document.
* Paratext refers to any supportive or explanatory material included along with the translated text in order to aid in understanding. For example: footnotes, side-notes, introductions, glossaries, section headings and illustrations.