C.S. Lewis on Bible translation, part 3: Silk stockings or blue jeans

Previous posts:  C.S. Lewis on Bible translation, part 1: The Moffatt Translation, C.S. Lewis on Bible translation, part 2: More useful than the Authorized Version

We ought therefore to welcome all new translations (when they are made by sound scholars) and most certainly those who are approaching the Bible for the first time will be wise not to begin with the Authorized Version–except perhaps for the historical books of the Old Testament where its archaisms suit the saga-like material well enough.

C.S. Lewis in God in the Dock, “Modern Translations of the Bible”

Lewis here has a brief essay that originally served as an introduction to J.B. Phillips’ Letters to Young Churches: A Translation of the New Testament Epistles. He defends the need for new translations based on several factors:

1. While the Authorized Version is beautiful language, the original Scriptures were written in ordinary language.
2. The language of the Authorized Version has “ceased to be a good (that is, a clear) translation.  It is no longer modern English.”
3. We can become dull to the message of the Scriptures when reading a version which we have become overly familiar with.

He states, “There is no such thing as translating a book into another language once and for all, for a language is a changing thing.  If your son is to have clothes it is no good buying him a suit once and for all: he will grow out of it and have to be re-clothed.” Making his point by analogy is one of Lewis’ favorite rhetorical techniques.  This particular analogy is particularly effective for all we have to do is imagine ourselves dressed in the clothing of the 17th century.  Imagine how ridiculous we would look dressed in doublets and corsets and the like. What do you call that big frilled collar James is wearing in portraits?  Why don’t we wear that thing anymore?  It was good enough for the translators of the Bible back then, why not now?  Applying that analogy back to modern Bible translations, how should our globalized English translations of the 21st century be dressed?  I’d like to suggest the universal dress of the global citizen of the 21st century: blue jeans.

Our Bible translation should be as timeless, comfortable and flexible as an old pair of jeans.  If the language used in our translations is such that anyone can open it up and start reading comfortably then we’re probably speaking the language of our modern world.  Our translations should sound like the way people talk today because the original documents sound the way people spoke back then.  Dress up your Bible in stockings and a codpiece if you want to, but I’m more comfortable in a faded out pair of jeans.