Eddie at Kouya Chronicle has posted this definitive guide to the way people refer to Bible translations – and what they actually mean. Hilarious and poignant!
- Meaning Based: “a translation which prioritizes the meaning rather than the form of the original language.”
- Form Based: “a translation which prioritizes the form of the original language rather than the meaning.”
- Literal Translation “a form based translation”
- Word for Word: “a form-based translation and I don’t know much about languages.”
- Free Translation: “I don’t like this meaning based translation.”
- Paraphrase: “I really don’t like this meaning based translation.”
- Accurate: I like it.
- The Most Accurate: means either
- as an opinion (I believe this is the most accurate translation) “I really like it.”
- as a statement of fact (this is the most accurate translation) “I know nothing about translation theory or languages.”
- Dynamic Equivalence “I read a blog post about translation once.”