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It is concerning that it seems common for theology and seminary students to be taught Biblical languages without corresponding teaching in linguistics and translation theory.
This leads to damaging views that translation is about finding one-to-one equivalents, that Biblical words just sat around with English equivalents tied to them and that it's Biblical and that it's viable to view scholarship as the sole or main entry way to spiritual knowledge, as if those who didn't go to seminary are less than those who did.
Sadly, I have come across people who have attended seminary and end up with those views. I hope they are less common than they seem.
Would it be possible for seminaries to pull in a linguistics and/or translation module and summarise what the Bible demonstrates about translation?
@multilingualchurch I think we'd find that every seminary's own theological leanings would discover that the text doesn't always say what they think it says!
@jovial_cynic Possibly. I also think it might help bring out some new discoveries.
@jfslicer@deacon.social@multilingualchurch there’s a great book by Moisés Silva that talks about this issue. He gives practical examples in 5 modern languages to prove that translation isn’t 1-1.
Biblical Words and Their Meaning - great book. Really helped me understand translation better.
@jfslicer I should take a look at that. Exploring Translation Theories by Anthony Pym is super accessible. I've got a couple of old articles on translation theory and Bible translation that poke at the whole free vs literal shenanigans.
@jfslicer@deacon.socialI'll have to add that to my list to read.
Silva's most memorable example for me, probably because I know a little Spanish, is that the verbs for "to eat" and "to drink" doesn't translate right between English and Spanish.
In Spanish you "drink" soup and ice cream. Which indicates that the consuming verbs one language are about the mode of consumption and in the other the consistency of the food.
@jfslicer The French words à and de definitely don't match up perfectly with any English prepositions.
Prof Ian Mason, my translation theory lecturer for my masters was fond of reminding us that no two languages chop up the world the same way.
@multilingualchurch I have heard way too many talks based on not just proof-texting at the verse or phrase level, but picking out some convenient alternate translation of words in the Amplified Version by people who had a point to make and one way or another, they were going to make it.
@royal I have a few pet peeve views of how Bible translation is seen and used. Can we just agree that literal and accurate are two different things and that we will probably never agree on what either actually means? 
@multilingualchurch Oh my goodness, yes please. Quite a few highly credentialed people sharing their ignorance of fundamental concepts of language.
@WordyAnchorite I think a lot stems from the focus on STEM in the UK and US over solid, well-presented language learning at school.
@multilingualchurch I mean, some things would be entirely obvious to anyone who wasn't monolingual. I don't think I would blame STEM emphasis for the history of language teaching. It's a much older problem than that, it seems to me. On the US side, a healthy dose of xenophobia and white supremacy did its work, I'm sure.
@WordyAnchorite True. I'm not blaming STEM but I do think that the view that technology can solve anything isn't helping. I agree about xenophobia. Sadly, it can be found in the UK too.