Translating Romans: some persistent headaches
Gone are the days when it was axiomatic that expertise in biblical languages automatically qualified one as a Bible translator. In 1949, Ronald Knox, who for nine years conscientiously struggled with translating the Bible for his generation, published a booklet under the title The trials of a translator. At that stage Bible translation as the subject of scientific study was still in its infancy. Since then, research into the intricacies of communicating the biblical message in an authentic but understandable manner, has made significant progress (cf. Roberts, 2009). However, the frustrations of Bible translators, first of all to really understand what the biblical authors wanted to convey to their original addressees, and then to commu-nicate that message to their own targeted readers in a meaningful way, have not disappeared. In fact, the challenge to meet the vary-ing requirements of the multiple kinds of translation that are present-ly in vogue, has only increased.