Hollander, H.W.

Leiden University Scholary Publications

HARM W. HOLLANDERA CHILDREN'S BIBLE OR THE BIBLE FORCHILDREN?Dr Hollander is a NT biblical scholar and translator-researcher for the Netherlands BibleSocietyWhen the Dutch common language translation (Groot Nieuws Bijbel,GNB) was published in 1983, some people thought that this new Bibletranslation could be read and understood by almost everyone in theNetherlands. Critics (theologians as usual!) called its vocabulary and stylerather popular or even vulgar, being meant for the masses and certainlynot for (well-educated) church-members. And this was mainly becausethere was a clear break with the old-fashioned church language used inthe traditional Bible translations.A closer look at the vocabulary and style found in the GNB, togetherwith an analysis using readability formulae, led however to theconclusion that this translation is not suitable for people with a readingOCTOBER 1986) A CHILDREN'S BIBLE? 421age of below 13 years. That is, young people up to the age of 12 or 13years as well as (large) groups of adults who are handicapped (such aspeople born deaf, or people for whom Dutch is a second language andwho find diff iculty in reading books at such a level) are not able to reador understand this common language translation.Moreover, at least in the countries of Western Europe, there aremany people called "functional illiterates" or "habitual non-readers"who have almost lost the ability to read, except for what appears ontelevision or on sandwich-boards. Television and visual aids haveinfluenced our way of life substantially and authors of books and papersas well as Bible translators must realise that their products can be readand understood by an ever-narrowing circle of readers. Theseobservations are certainly not new, but they must be kept in mind whenwe produce or analyze new Bible translations.To make the Bible an open book for all those who find difficulty inreading texts for a reading age of 13 years and upwards, the NetherlandsBible Society started in 1976 with a new translation project: a translationof parts of the Bible from the original texts into easy-to-read Dutch(eenvoudig Nederlands). So far 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Luke and Actshave been translated and published. Lay-out and illustrations make theportions suitable for children of the age of 8-12 years, though thetranslation itself can be used also by certain groups of adults. And as amatter of fact, it is being used by grown-ups, according to informationwe have received from a prison-chaplain, for instance, who makes use ofit in his work among young prisoners.Two years ago the NBS decided to have some more parts of the Bibletranslated into easy-to-read Dutch, in order to provide a wider and morerepresentative collection of material to be used by children at home or atschool. This publication will come out in 1987.Children's BiblesUsually, children get to know the Bible either from translationswhich are too difficult for them to read and understand, and which veryoften discourage them from going deeply into the message of the Biblewhen they grow up, or from so-called children's Bibles. In theNetherlands, there are by now about a hundred different titles in thecategory of children's Bibles, and I guess that in many other moderncountries the situation is more or less the same.To translate parts of the Bible in such a way that it can be read andunderstood by children might not have been necessary if the quality ofthese children's Bibles was satisfactory. But particularly in recent yearsthe majority of them have been questioned by educationalists andtheologians, since they think that these children's Bibles present a pictureof the message of the Bible which in many ways is not true. Most ofthese Bibles do not give a representative selection of Bible texts; theymoralise in an inadmissible way, simplify opposites like "good" and"evil", "sinners" and "righteous men", and describe God as the one422 THE BIBLE TRANSLATOR (VOL. 37 NO. 4who is absolutely almighty and who always knows best. A quotationfrom Ann DeVries's Story Bible for Young Children gives a fineillustration of such an approach:The Lord always hears when people pray, and when He heard Abel,He knew that he really loved Him. God was happy to receive theoffering of Abel, and He loved him too. He gave Abel a wonderfulfeeling of happiness and contentment.^^B But Cain did not love the Lord! He also brought offerings toGod, which he placed on a specially prepared place, just like Abel's.First he made a pile of stones, on which he put dry branches. Thenhe piled some of his wheat on the sticks, and set fire to it. Cain alsoprayed, but he wasn't really thankful . He thought, "Why do 1 haveto thank the Lord? Didn't I plant the wheat myself, and didn't Iwork hard to make it grow?"God saw what was in Cain's heart, and He knew that Cain didn' treally love Him. Because of this, the Lord did not like Cain'soffering. He did not give Cain the feeling of happiness andcontentment.Cain, of course, noticed this, and he became angry with God andhis brother Abel... (compare Gen 4.3-5).This very common approach is one of the reasons why there is agrowing demand for a true and fai thful translation of the Bible textitself.Another reason is that from an educational point of view it seemsmore desirable for children of the age of 8-12 years to be introduced tothe strange world of the Bible through the reading of the textsthemselves.The Bible for childrenOf course, modern educationalists do not advise and encouragereading of the Bible by children without any supervision. On thecontrary, the Bible should be read by children with parents, teachers orclergymen. True, religious education should be "child-centred", startingfrom the children's own experiences. But that does not imply thatreading the Bible and discussing biblical matters must be rejected assomething fundamentally wrong. A child should learn to deal with theBible in the right way, and this will not happen by just listening toteachers, but by actually studying the texts themselves. And the religiousthemes should be assimilated in the context of discussions and creativeactivities like painting or singing songs, and all that within a genuineChristian atmosphere.Naturally, all this applies to children who have some experience ofreading texts, that is, children of about 8-12 years old. At a differentlevel, there are booklets such as the 25 titles in the series "What theBible Tells Us" and collections of some of them, which appeal to youngchildren up to an age of 7 years. Though these contain Bible text theyare first of all picture-books, appropriate for children who have justOCTOBER 1986) A CHILDREN'S BIBLE? 423started learning to read.If Bible Societies want children of 8-12 years to be introduced toChristianity and the world of the Bible, they must provide Bibletranslations that are appropriate for these young people. And thetranslation should be accompanied by booklets containing instructionsfor the educators and work-schemes for the children. For preference, thetranslation should serve as a kind of "source-book" to be used in thecontext of some religious educational method. This will be the case, forinstance, in the Netherlands, where a commercial publishing house hasplanned to provide the teaching tools accompanying the Bible translationin easy-to-read Dutch.The selection of materialThe whole Bible translated for a reading age of 8-12 years wouldcertainly be ideal; but in the context of religious education an agreedselection of material will do as well. Such a selection, however, should bequite extended, about 300-400 pages, in order to give both educators andchildren the opportunity of making their own choice of which Biblepassages they want to deal with. It seems preferable to maintain thebiblical order, and to highlight the continuous thread of God's concernwith the people of Israel and with mankind, as written down by thebiblical authors. That means that examples of all important genres ortypes of literature, like narratives, poems, aphorisms, psalms, gospels,letters and apocalypses should be included.But this also implies that "cruel" passages should not be left out.Though some educationalists may prefer to keep biblical stories aboutcruelties and sexual misbehaviour from children, I am of the opinion thatchildren ought to get acquainted with all the aspects of the Bible. Ofcourse, it is not recommended that children read such passages withoutany supervision and help. But only in this way are they introducedfaithfully to the real world of the Bible. Even for us grown-ups, there area lot of passages in the Bible that raise questions which are not so easilyanswered. But just passing over them is not the right way of dealing withthe Bible. Some six years ago I was writing a series of articles about theBible and the history of Israel for a Dutch newspaper. When I came tothe story of Ehud in Judges 3 I was not allowed to have it published:non-Christian people might have got an unfavourable impression of theWord of God!Translation methodIt is a matter of fact that the biblical writings, or at least themajority of them, were not written for children. But that does not meanthat they should not be read by children. There are lots of books writteneither for children or for adults but read by both. And in many othercases, books originally written for grown-ups are adapted a little to makethem appropriate for reading by children.Similarly, Bible passages should be made appropriate to be read by424 THE BIBLE TRANSLATOR (VOL. 37 NO. 4children of the age of 8-12 years—but not in the way the vast majority ofchildren's Bibles handle them. In a Bible for children the text ought to betranslated, but translated in such a way that it is equivalent to theoriginal text in the understanding and feeling which the young newreaders get from it. This means, for example, that an exciting biblicalstory like the Genesis story about Joseph, must not be rendered into atedious and boring narrative. On the contrary, such a text should betranslated with the help of all the elements of the language which anordinary writer has at his disposal to make an exciting story.Much information that was known to the original readers but wasnot stated in the text must be expressed in words for the translat ion to beunderstood by children. On the other hand, we should not hesitate tosimpl i fy the relationship between phrases or clauses when we know thatthey will not be grasped by children anyway.Such translation is still far from being what is sometimes called a"paraphrase". There should not be any hint of additions to the text thatbreathe a particular ideological or theological spiri t . And passages shouldnot be adapted in order to make them more exciting than they really are,or be left out because they do not fit in with the translator's ideas.Nevertheless, the translation ought to be clear.Much inventiveness is therefore demanded of the translator, the moreso • as footnotes should be avoided in a translation for children.Naturally, some "technical terms" such as Pharisees, Sadducees,circumcision, altar or offerings may be explained in a special list. And itmay be felt useful or even essential to add some geographical andhistorical information between the passages selected or to say somethingabout the relevant books of the Bible. But apart from that, thetranslat ion itself should be easy to understand.Translation levelA translation for a reading age of 8-12 years calls for some specifictranslation rules, which are, however, not to be applied too rigidly.Sentences should have a rather simple grammatical and syntacticalstructure and contain no more than 10-12 words. Negative phrases andpassive forms should be introduced only with the utmost caution; thenumber of modifiers should be limited to one; and idiomatic peculiaritiesshould be avoided completely. The same is true of words of lowfrequency—to be checked with the help of published word frequencylists. For preference, words of as few syllables as possible are to be used.Finally, the style should be direct and lively. That also implies that thenumber of impersonal pronouns must be reduced to a minimum and thatpersonal and possessive pronouns are used as much as possible. Thisadds considerably to the so-called "human interest score", anotherelement that affects the readability of a text.Readability tests (Cloze techniques or the well-known Flesch formula)will bring to light whether the translation meets the needs of children of8-12 years old. In the Netherlands, for instance, such tests have revealedOCTOBER 1986) TRANSLATING FOR EARLY YOUTH 425that the new translation in easy-to-read Dutch has indeed a reading agelevel of 8-12 years and is far easier to understand than the traditionalBible translations or the new common language translation.IllustrationsA Bible for children should be copiously illustrated. In all modernschool books i l lustrat ions play a dominant role and a Bible text-bookshould not be an exceptional case. For preference, the illustrations—infu l l colour—would be scattered through the text instead of f i l l ing wholepages. They should highlight the main theme of the relevant passagesand, if possible, give some extra information: pictures and texts shouldbe fully integrated. This should all be done in order to try to overcomethe idea many children as well as adults have—that the Bible is a boringbook. In vocabulary, style, layout and illustrations, a Bible text-book forchildren should be in line as much as possible with other modern school-books. Only in its actual content will it reveal the unique character of theWord of God.

A Children’s Bible or the Bible for Children?

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A Children’s Bible or the Bible for Children?

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