Hollander, H.W.

Marseille, G.J.

Leiden University Scholary Publications

HARM W. HOLLANDER and GEP J. M A R S E I L L EEASY-TO-READ DUTCH: A NEW TRANSLATIONFOR CHILDREN AND ADULTSDrs. Hollander is a NT biblical scholar and researcher in the Biblework Department of theNetherlands Bible Society, and Mr. Marseille is a staff member in the PublishingDepartraentIn 1965 the Netherlands Bible Society started publishing a new series of simplyworded Bible stories which was originally meant for mentally handicappedpeople. This series, called Wat de Bijbel ons vertelt, "What the Bible tells us",now includes 25 volumes. The Bible stories found here cannot be calledtranslations in the full sense of the word, because many elements of theoriginal text are omitted. But unlike many children's Bibles, they do not addnew (religious) elements not present in the text proper. The series soonbecame popular and it proved to appeal also to young children up to an ageof six or seven years.On another level, the Dutch New Testament common language translation,Groot Nieuws voor U, tries, like all the other common language translations,to appeal to modern people. It is designed for both church-goers and thosewho have drifted away from the churches and the traditional translations ofthe Bible which are now rather difficult to read and understand. Readabilitytests according to the Flesch method and its revised Dutch model (theFlesch-Douma formula), however, have proved that even this commonlanguage translation has not completely got away from the use of difficultwords, constructions, phrases and sentences, elements that greatly affect theease of reading.Although the readability of this translation is much better than that ofolder translations, it is still not suitable for people with a reading age level ofbelow 13 years. So, there seems to be a group of people for whom there areno Bible translations available: those who have a reading age level of 8-12years, including both children of that age and also certain groups of grown-ups.Firstly, with regard to children, this gap is usually (at least in DutchChristian families) filled by children's Bibles, of which there are more than25 different titles. But in recent years the value of many of these children'sBibles for the spiritual and religious growth of young people has beenquestioned. Many experts in this field think that at least some of these books,including the most popular ones, present a picture of the Bible which in manyways is not true to the real meaning of the Bible text. Objections of this kindhave been summed up in a report published jointly by the Netherlands BibleSociety and the Catholic Bible Foundation in 1972. We will not enter into thatdiscussion here, but it is a fact that this report and the discussions it causedhave contributed to the growing demand for a true and faithful translationof the Bible text itself that can be understood by children of the age of 8-12years.Secondly, we have found that in Western Europe, "reading age 8-12"includes not only children of that age but also many grown-ups. In the yearsjust after 1970, we in the Netherlands used to think that "new reader pro-grammes" were not appropriate to our situation, except for young children.231232 THE BIBLE TRANSLATOR (VOL. 30 NO. 2Starting from Great Britain, however, large groups of Western Europeanshave been "discovered", as it were, as "new readers". They are the peoplewho cannot or do not read books with a reading age level of 13 years andupwards, often called "functional illiterates" and "habitual non-readers".Among these, we may also mention those who are handicapped in acquiringfull reading ability, such as people born deaf. Another group of adults whofind difficulty in reading books with a reading age level of above 12 years arethose for whom Dutch is a second language. We think of migrant workers,South Moluccans, people born in Indonesia and Surinam, and so on.Wishing to reach these groups of people, all having a reading age level of8-12 years, with a translation of the Bible text, the NBS started in 1976 with anew translation project. Since then, four small books have been published:Samuel en Saul, giving a translation of chapters 1-15 of 1 Samuel; Saul enDavid (1 Samuel 16-31 ) ; Zo ging hei met Jezus ("This happened to Jesus"), atranslation of Matthew 25-27 ; and Jezus komt in de wereld ("Jesus comes intothe world"), a translation of Luke 1.1-2.40. The last two of these have beenproduced as strips.SOME FEATURES OF THE NEW TRANSLATIONFor this project, which is called "eenvoudig Nederlands" (easy-to-readDutch), some principles were adopted at the beginning.1. First of all, Bible passages should be translated as a whole. Hardly anydeparture from this rule has been accepted in the course of the project. In1 Samuel 1.1, for instance, just a few names have been omitted fromElkanah's list of ancestors. No concessions have been made to possibleprotests against translating "cruel" and "barbarous" passages for children,of which there are quite a few in 1 Samuel. For according to modern views,children usually find that kind of story less of a problem than grown-ups:the problem is that many parents and teachers "project" their own diffi-culties in accepting the Bible as it is into their views on teaching children.Since we do not give just short selected passages from the biblical storiesabout, for instance, David or Jesus, but translations of whole sections fromthe Bible, we do not need to include adjustments either at the beginning ofa passage or as "bridge material". (As is done for instance by HeberPeacock and Barclay Newman in their Good News in Paper : see the October1978 issue of The Bible Translator, pages 401-409).2. Secondly, we should give a faithful translation of the text. The Bible textshould be translated, not paraphrased. No elements which are not presentor carried by the words of the text are allowed in the translation. As atranslation principle, the method of translating meaning for meaning("dynamic equivalence") has been accepted. Since we believe that "trans-lating for children" should be "translating for children", we do not beginwith our Dutch common language translation (for the New Testament),but we translate directly from the original languages. (This seems to beanother important difference from the publication Good News in Paper, inwhich the Good News Bible is used as a starting point.)APRIL 1979) EASY-TO-READ DUTCH : A NEW TRANSLATION 2333. Thirdly, a translation with a reading age level of 8-12 years calls for somespecific translation rules: sentences of no more than 10 to 12 words; veryfew negative phrases; by preference no passive forms; no idiomaticpeculiarities; words of as few syllables as possible; no words oflow fre-quency. (These are all elements that contribute to a high degree to thereadability of a text.)Two translation teams have been formed, one for the Old Testament andanother for the New Testament. Each team is composed of a biblical scholarwith experience in teaching religion to young people, who is responsible forthe first draft, together with another biblical scholar as adviser, an edu-cationalist, and a trained NBS staff membei'. The whole team is responsiblefor the final draft of the translation.FUTURE PLANSTranslation work on the Old Testament started with the books of Samueland will continue with the books of Kings. As for the New Testament, twoselections have been published so far, one on Jesus' death and another onJesus' birth. A translation of Luke and Acts is being prepared.While the portions, that is the translations of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings,Luke, and Acts, are designed as books for children, the Easter and Christmasselections apply to grown-ups too, and have a more or less direct missionaryfunction.Over a few years we hope to evaluate the impact of this translation work.Then perhaps we shall be able to answer questions like whether it is the rightsort of translation for the target groups, and whether the whole Bible shouldbe translated in easy-to-read Dutch. We also hope to find out whether thesame translation can be used by children and certain groups of adults, so thatjust a change of lay-out will make portions like Samuel en Saul suitable forthese groups of grown-ups.All these questions are still open. But one thing is certain: none of theexisting translations of the Bible, not even the one in common language, canbe fully understood by people with a reading age level of below 13 years. Andthat is the reason why the Netherlands Bible Society is going ahead with theproject of a new translation in easy-to-read Dutch.BARCLAY M. NEWMAN JR."VERSES MARKED WITH BRACKETS . . ."Dr. Barclay Newman is a UBS Translations Research Associate resident in the USA"Verses marked with brackets [ ] are not in the oldest and best manuscriptsof the New Testament." This, or a similar statement, appears in the introduc-tions to a number of modern translations of the New Testament. But itsounds strange to many devout Christians, who believe that the Bible hassomehow remained intact, without change or alteration, throughout the

Easy-to-read Dutch: A New Translation for Children and Adults

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Easy-to-read Dutch: A New Translation for Children and Adults

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