Controlling translation

It is not surprising that translation as a tag is frequent on this blog. I checked out the posts under that label in order to see how much of my control system I have documented. How to distract yourself when figuring out what you've done and where you might go from there.

From the first few posts (more or less in reverse historical order), I see that many of my principles are clearly stated. Also some astonishing words that I don't remember writing. It's the thing about being old. E.g. this one on Did I mention Science?

I hope to address the whole nine yards of the science of God at some point: Unity, relationship to humanity, reward and punishment, Anointing and the world to come, time and science, election and the scandal of particularity, predestination, providence, and miracles, and who knows what else. This is my death-wish I suppose. For I like anyone else, cannot see God's face and live (Exodus 33:20). Whatever... I have died already in the Anointed. I will start and end there.

Really!

In another post, I noted a comment by Tim Bulkeley. How I miss his voice! There are undoubtedly many who miss him more than I and who think of him every day.

In yet another post on translation without commentary, in which I mention my friend and Hebrew coach, Jonathan Orr-Stav, whose input has always encouraged me, I reveal my bias. It is not a Christological bias, but a theological bias that God is steadfast and reliable. I don't know of anywhere in the Hebrew Bible that would allow a translator to be fickle on this theological subject. Perhaps this reliability can also be seen in the children, whether the example be Jeremiah or Jesus, or even Paul. I wondered what I had done with Jeremiah 15 when I read this post. And it was all about translating that notorious word npw. נפשׁ.

Jeremiah 15
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֵלַ֔י אִם־יַעֲמֹ֨ד מֹשֶׁ֤ה וּשְׁמוּאֵל֙ לְפָנַ֔י אֵ֥ין נַפְשִׁ֖י אֶל־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֑ה שַׁלַּ֥ח מֵֽעַל־פָּנַ֖י וְיֵצֵֽאוּ	a viamr ihvh alii am-iymod mwh uwmual lpnii ain npwi al-hym hzh  wlk myl-pnii viixau	1 And Yahweh said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, it would be nothing for me, against this people. Send from before me, and let them go forth.
וְהָיָ֛ה כִּֽי־יֹאמְר֥וּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ אָ֣נָה נֵצֵ֑א וְאָמַרְתָּ֨ אֲלֵיהֶ֜ם כֹּֽה־אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר לַמָּ֤וֶת לַמָּ֙וֶת֙ וַאֲשֶׁ֤ר לַחֶ֙רֶב֙ לַחֶ֔רֶב וַאֲשֶׁ֤ר לָֽרָעָב֙ לָֽרָעָ֔ב וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר לַשְּׁבִ֖י לַשֶּֽׁבִי	b vhih ci-iamru aliç anh nxa  vamrt alihm ch-amr ihvh awr lmvvt lmvvt vawr lkrb lkrb vawr lryb lryb vawr lwbi lwbi	2 And it will be that when they say to you, How, please, will we go forth? And you say to them, Thus says Yahweh, Whoever is for death, to death, and whoever is for the sword, to the sword, and whoever is for famine, to famine, and whoever is for captivity, to captivity.
וּפָקַדְתִּ֨י עֲלֵיהֶ֜ם אַרְבַּ֤ע מִשְׁפָּחוֹת֙ נְאֻם־יְהוָ֔ה אֶת־הַחֶ֣רֶב לַֽהֲרֹ֔ג וְאֶת־הַכְּלָבִ֖ים לִסְחֹ֑ב וְאֶת־ע֧וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם וְאֶת־בֶּהֱמַ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לֶאֱכֹ֥ל וּלְהַשְׁחִֽית	g upqdti ylihm arby mwpkot naum-ihvh at-hkrb lhrog vat-hclbim lskob  vat-yof hwmiim vat-bhmt harx lacol ulhwkit	3 Then I will visit upon them four families, an oracle of Yahweh, the sword to slay, and the dogs to shred, and the fowl of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to eat and to destroy.

And there are in the list

• several posts on my search for concordance in my work and the difficulty of controlling it. 
• a post on what we consider self-evident and how that has changed even in our lifetimes.
• a post on masks - prior to COVID-19!!!!!

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Traditionally the text read is Exodus 34:29-35. The word in the chapter מסוה occurs only there. It is not the same as other uses of veil פרך in traditional translations (however spelled). I used mask in Exodus 34 so that the English reader knows it is not the same term. Do we not all wear masks?

And what does this say about 2 Corinthians - we are unmasked.

I say to you, do not be unmasked today - become all things to all people that by any means you make be kind, be calm, and by all means keep yourself and others safe. 

About half way through the posts, about 2017, I have a post on the process I used to control translation. It immediately reminds me of my chief programmer, David Driver, who died so young, leaving behind wife and 7 children. There is another man from Granby, Que whom I miss as I use the software framework that he was so effective at building as team leader. Here I find the note: So there is an outline for a set of posts. I may get to them...

That is what I was looking for. Perhaps it will be useful.

But Bob's Bible, as my work has been called, among other things, has this note just a bit further down.

No soul, no repentance, no punishment in Bob's Bible. It's not that I know anything, but when I read, I do not write what I know is undecidable by the translator. No soul because soul, lovely though the word is, it is not a bodiless substance that lives on after death. The problem with this Greek idea is the implied linearity of time. It also denies the body. It is heresy. No repentance, because the word, important though it is, has come to mean a psychological torture chamber. No punishment, because important though discipline and discipleship is, punishment is not part of it, rather it is governance. I do not deny pain or suffering or consequences but punishment is the imposition of a distorted human violent action that is not in the mind of God.