David’s “Lamp” (1 Kings 11:36) And “A Still Small Voice” (1 Kings 19:12) -- By: Douglas K. Stuart

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 171:681 (Jan 2014)
Article: David’s “Lamp” (1 Kings 11:36) And “A Still Small Voice” (1 Kings 19:12)
Author: Douglas K. Stuart


David’s “Lamp” (1 Kings 11:36) And “A Still Small Voice” (1 Kings 19:12)*

Douglas K. Stuart

* This is the first article in the four-part series “My Favorite Mistranslations,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 5-8, 2013.

Douglas K. Stuart is Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts.

There are, of course, many important translation problems1 other than the few I address in these articles. The examples I have selected are all from the Old Testament, ones I happen to have something to say about that I hope will prove helpful in identifying factors that can lead to translation mistakes. This involves a challenge, however. It is one thing to persuade someone that a translation mistake may have occurred—theoretically—somewhere in one version or another. It is a more complicated and more implicational task to persuade someone that the methods used in approaching the translating of a well-known original wording have been flawed.

I have been a pastor for forty-five years and a seminary professor for forty-two. I know from long experience that many church-going Christians find it hard to understand why English Bible translations can differ from each other as much as they do. Having participated in three Bible translation projects, having taught and published extensively on exegetical method, having preached thousands of sermons and taught thousands of lessons in churches,

having answered any number of personal questions and emails from complete strangers about wordings in passages, having written study notes and marginal notes for various study Bibles, and having spent thousands of hours thinking through how best to render the Hebrew original into English for professional translations and commentaries, I am aware how often I have been wrong or only partly right or have missed the better translation or failed to explain convincingly to a puzzled saint why my translation of something was supposed to be right and the translation right there in a Bible he was holding was supposed to be wrong.

In commenting on translation problems I’ve learned that you can’t just be right. You must also be clear, patient, fair, and charitable to those you disagree with, if your explanation of anything is going to be accepted—and, moreover, if it’s going to be remembered. So if you’re advanced in your understanding of translation theory, and some of my comments seem elementary, just remember that I want...

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