The importance of translation

This week I read two versions of the same psalm. Psalm two from the Book of Psalms by Robert Alter and the same Psalm from the Bay Psalm Book. The two translation are very similar, but there are some key differences that really manage to change the meaning of the Psalm. The Bay Psalm Book was also one of the first books printed in early America and the people from them may have taken some interesting meaning from the translation.

The early Americans may have taken this psalm to be more of a prophecy than anything else. In line 7 it states "God spoke to me, thou art my Son, this day I begot" Most early Americans probably interpreted that as God speaking to Jesus. Without knowing that this psalm was written some 500 years before the birth of Jesus, it would be easy to infer that Jesus is the son referred to. In actuality God is speaking to the kings of Jerusalem. The psalm says that those who oppose Jerusalem will be destroyed "break as potters sherds, and crush with iron rod." If looked at as though Jesus were talking the target of destruction suddenly changes from ancient enemies, to potentially any enemy of christianity at any point in time. This could be read as a prophecy that Jesus is going to come and destroy the conspiring princes and the kings of the earth. Only those who fear and revere the Lord will be spared.

Line 12 also has a key grammatical difference. The Bay version states "Kisse yee the Sonne, lest he be wroth, and yee fall in the way." and the Book of Psalms states "With Purity be armed, lest He rage and you be lost on the way." The Bay version hints that if you anger the Sonne bad things will happen if you get in the way. In the new translation there is more of left behind feel. The tone seems less angry and vengeful.

Overall I see the old version striking fear into Christians in order to keep them devote to Christianity, while the new translation is more of a warning to others that bad things will happen if they don't make friends with the Christians. The grammatical and slight wording changes make for a very different overall experience. I can't help but wonder how many other translations I have read and have taken an unintended meaning from. For that matter how many times has the bible been retranslated? I can't help but wonder how skewed the modern english bible is from its original meaning. Just think about how different modern christianity would be if the bible were even subtly different. It kind of makes me want a time machine just to see how many grammatical changes it would take to alter the future. My guess is three well placed ones.