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What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 10:31 am
This question could pertain to any of the Abrahamic religions.
When my uncle was proselytizing me for Islam, he told me there are no versions of the Quran. Only the corrupted Bible has versions but the Quran is identical to the exact words spoken by the prophet Muhammad (may blessings be upon him). He encouraged me to read the Quran for myself. So I ordered a copy. Immediately, my uncle asked me which translation I'd bought. When I told him, he groaned. "You bought the wrong one. You should have asked me . I would have told you to get the other one." Upon my query, he launched into a convoluted explanation of the difference between a version and a translation. I found this to be as unconvincing as Christian apologetics.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 10:33 am
I dunno!
What I do know is that there are no originals of the bible or the Quran, so everything is a "version" now, at best.
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RE: What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 10:35 am
In regular books a version is edited while a translation is merely typing the exact same words in another language.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
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RE: What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 10:38 am
I guess his claim is that for the Quran there is a unique source text in Arabic on which everyone agrees that it is the original (I don't know whether that can be realistically true, but that's what I would think he means), and so every translation into a different language is from the exact same source.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 8:08 pm
(May 12, 2015 at 6:07 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: (May 12, 2015 at 10:43 am)Pyrrho Wrote: Each version and translation is unique. The Catholic Bibles may contain the same books as each other but their translations are different. Likewise the Protestant Bibles may contain the same books but their translations are completely different from each other. The main thing is the basic ideas are the same in all of them.
Even a small change can drastically change the "basic idea. Take the omission of a comma.
Paint the care red.
as opposed to
Paint the car, Red.
The differences in the various versions of the Bible do not all have the same idea. The protestant Bible doesn't have the Apocrypha, while the Catholic Bible does.
And that's just in the same language. Imagine the havoc one small change can make when translating between languages. And we're not just talking different languages, Hebrew and English are in entirely different linguistic families.
My uncle told me that the translation he wanted me to read was clearer. Isn't that what a version does? I don't think it's possible to have a pure verbatim translation without doing some editing, deciding which words to use. Words that may have the same denotation may have quite divergent connotations. Can a translator make such choices without reference to his personal beliefs or those of his denomination? I doubt it very seriously.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 8:11 pm
If God wants to communicate with people, surely he is capable of doing it directly into their brain so that each individual cannot possibly misinterpret the meaning?
If he can't do that, and these Yellow Pages of Chinese whispers is really the best he can do, he's more of a "I'm gonna die on this island soon so I'll send out a message in a bottle" kind of God.
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RE: What's the Difference Between a Translation and a Version
May 12, 2015 at 8:20 pm
The rug is touching the ceiling.
