(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

I had my New Jerusalem Bible out early today to compare how a passage was translated (normally I use the NRSV, though the NJB's not bad, apart from its irritating habit of writing 'Yahweh' for the Divine Name, rather than 'the LORD'*). However: I was glancing through Job, as you do, and noticed they'd translated the names of Job's daughters.

So instead of Keren-happuch, we got:

Mascara.

Keren-happuch is not, perhaps, what the ear of a native English speaker would consider particularly beautiful, but still, I'm not convinced Mascara is an improvement. It sounds more like a Discworld joke than anything else (a wannabe teenage witch, possibly?)


* I wouldn't mind so much if they'd write YHWH, though even then you'd have the problem of people reading it out as 'Yahweh', and that seems wrong in the context of worship. If you want to remind people of the Jewish provenance of what we call the OT, great, but don't do it in such a religiously insensitive way.

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We now return you to our regular scheduled essay crisis (last one of term, yays!)

Comments

[liadnan]

Intrigued I pulled my *old* Jerusalem off the shelves to compare, and indeed it is so there too.

Thing is, as you may or may not know, "they" in respect of Jerusalem Job is largely one JRR Tolkien. Though to be fair he was never happy with it and the editors hacked his work about. His own version was going to be published sometime soon, don't know what became of that.

Vaguely wondering what the immediate sources (ie Vulgate and French Jerusalem) have there.

[liadnan]

PS part (but not all) of why UK Romans are to have a new lectionary trans (prob Anglicised edn & tinkered with NRSV) "sometime soon" is the YHWH issue (why they couldn't sort it out at the same time as the new missal trans. Lord knows). There was a direction from the Vatican about Not Doing That. And the chaplain of the London Lay Dominicans (I recently started a period of inquiry with them) was quite irate when someone used a Jerusalem and said Yahweh, though I think it's a bit much to complain when it is still what is used in our official lectionary. Unless and until someone goes through every one with a big red pen.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, I knew about that. A good thing, too, although I agree that it seems unreasonable to get cross with someone for reading what's on the page in front of them.

Best wishes and prayers for your period of inquiry!