Over the last 60 years, Bible translators have removed words, phrases, and verses from their translations of the Bible. These deleted portions are regarded as repetitive and an impediment to readability.
One case is the translation of Numbers 7:12-83.
This passage has been handled in different ways, from literally following the Hebrew to removing 55 verses for ease of reading. Many translations today have replaced this narrative portion with lists in keeping with the precedence established by the Good News Bible in 1976.
In the following blogpost, we will examine in some depth four strategies for handling the repetition in Numbers 7:12-83.
The past and ongoing treatment of this passage provides valuable insights into Bible translation. What is accuracy, after all? What are we translating? And does every approach to Bible translation eventually produce a valuable translation?
An Overview of Numbers 7
In Numbers 7, God instructs Moses to dedicate the altar at the newly completed tabernacle. After the altar was anointed, leaders from the people bring offerings for the dedication. Then God instructs Moses to receive one leader and his offering per day. Over the next twelve days, leaders from the respective tribes of Israel bring offerings of silver, gold, and livestock.
In Numbers 7:12-17, the first leader, Nahshon son of Amminadab from the tribe of Judah, brings his offering. The specific items that Nahshon brings are listed. Then, in Numbers 7:18-22, the second leader brings his gifts on the following day, and his offerings are listed. It is at this point that the reader may remark for the first time that these leaders brought the same items.
Ten other leaders follow, one each day, until the offerings have been brought for the dedication of the altar. Furthermore, each leader brings the same items as the first two. By the end of verse 83, the list of offerings brought for the altar has been repeated eleven times.
Then the gifts are summarized in verses 84-88. The chapter concludes with Moses entering the Tent of Meeting and hearing the LORD speak to him from above the ark of the covenant.
Translating Numbers 7:12-83 With Repetition
Many Bible translations render this passage literally, respecting the genre and form of the passage.
Given that this passage is a historical account of events that happened chronologically, the events that take place on each day are preserved in the translation.
Furthermore, a desire to translate accurately to the Hebrew source leads to faithfully rendering the 55 verses.
Translating Numbers 7:12-83 With Abbreviation
In 1966, the United Bible Society published Dios Habla Hoy ‘God Speaks Today.’ This translation in Spanish was the first complete Bible produced according to the new approach which would eventually be known as dynamic equivalency.
In this translation, Numbers 7:12-17 presents the first leader, Nahshon son of Amminadab, and his offerings, following the Hebrew text closely.
Then, in Numbers 7:18, the second leader is presented on the second day. However, the detailed list of his offerings is absent from Numbers 7:19-23. In their place is a brief summation of these verses, saying “who offered the same as Nahshon.”
A footnote then explains to the reader that the abbreviated verses numbered 19-23 have the same information in the Hebrew as Numbers 7:13-17; the reader is then told that the repeated words found in these verses were removed for ease of reading.
The events on the subsequent ten days recorded in Numbers 7:24-83 are handled in the same manner. For each day, the next leader is named, and the fact that he is bringing his offering is mentioned, and then the phrase “who offered the same as the previous ones” replaces the five verses in the source text.
This translation explicitly states that the repetition was removed for ease of reading. In the process of removing these words, the translators remove 55 verses. It’s true that the translators keep the verse numbers in the text, e.g. “25-29” proceeds the abridged verse “who offered the same as the previous ones.” Yet the discerning reader will realize that these numbers are not followed by the relevant content in the source and serve essentially as empty placeholders. They remind the reader that the repeated information is no longer in these respective verses but might be found earlier in vv. 13-17.
This strategy of abbreviating the repeated information continues to be used in translations. In 2014, the Dutch translation Bijbel in Gewone Taal ‘The Bible in Plain Language’ followed the same approach, but without footnotes.
Translating Numbers 7:12-83 With a Table and List
In 1976, the Good News Bible was published by the American Bible Society. It represented a further development of the approach known as dynamic equivalency.
In this work, Numbers 7:12-83 was translated with a table and then a list. The passage begins with an introductory sentence, “They presented their offerings in the following order…” Although this sentence is not in the source text, it is needed to guide the reader from the narrative prose to a table. The table has three columns. The first column has the days in order from first to twelfth. The second column has the names of the tribes. The third column has the names of the leaders who presented offerings.
After this table, there is another sentence which introduces the reader to a list, “The offerings each one brought were identical…” After this introduction, the offerings are listed as found in Numbers 7:13-17 in the source text.
This approach to the passage was even more free and innovative than the simple removing of repetitive words in Dios Habla Hoy ‘God Speaks Today.’ Whereas the earlier translation respected the narrative structure of the passage, the Good News Bible changed the genre completely. In fact, it introduced a new biblical genre: the table with three columns. It also took the information about the offerings and summarized it in a list.
Finally, there are no footnotes nor mention of repetition and ease of reading. If the previous version removed 55 verses, then this version went further and recreated all 72 verses as a table and list.
In the years following the publication of the Good News Bible, translations were produced in major world languages which followed this work as their model. The Indonesian version retained the table; it appears, though, that most decided to use a list in the place of the three-column table. The Portuguese and French versions illustrate the shift from the table to a list. Other translations that follow this approach include the Fulfulde Bible, Tok Pisin Bible, and Swahili Congo Bible.
Translating Numbers 7:12-83 With Two Lists
In 1995, the American Bible Society published the Contemporary English Version. This version took the previous approaches to Numbers 7:12-83 one step further. The translators rendered this historical narrative as two lists.
Following the Good News Bible, they begin verse 12 with a sentence that transitions the reader to the first list: “So each leader brought the following gifts…” Unlike the Good News Bible, their first list summarizes the offerings that were given over the twelve-day period.
Then they provide another sentence that transitions the reader to a list of the leaders who presented the offerings. The leaders appear according to the day, then the name of the person, and then their respective tribes. Unlike previous translations, the names of the men are presented without the names of their respective fathers.
Finally, there are no footnotes nor mention of repetition and ease of reading.
In the years following the publication of the Contemporary English Version, other Bible translations have followed this work as their model. The International Children’s Bible and the Easy-to-Read Version are examples in English. Other translations that follow this approach include the Guarani Bible and this Spanish Bible.
Returning to the Hebrew
In 2016, Lénart J de Regt and Ernst Wendland authored A Handbook on Numbers, a resource for Bible translations from the United Bible Society. In this handbook, de Regt and Wendland propose that translators follow the Hebrew source text closely in rendering Numbers 7:12-83. They specifically discourage translators from following the Good News Translation, a later version of the Good News Bible referred to above.
Interestingly, they propose following the source text closely because it is an instance of an ancient genre of administrative list known as a temple archive. Given its status as an ancient genre, it should be preserved in the translation.
They assume that translators should follow the translation decisions found in the Good News Translation, unless a compelling reason emerges for breaking with tradition. Furthermore, as translation consultants and authors of the handbook, they have the authority to announce that tradition should be broken in this case.
In addition, they suggest that translating the passage with the repetition produces a text that is easier to read aloud from a printed page. Apparently, the inclusion of a table presented a greater challenge to reading aloud than the repetition.
A growing number of translations produced by the United Bible Societies and partner organizations follows the Hebrew source more closely, including the Nigerian Pidgin English Bible, the Soso Bible, and the Chadian Arabic Bible.
The latter two translations are Muslim Idiom translations and, as such, exhibit more freedom in their translation choices. In the case of Numbers 7:12-83, though, they are more literal than the earlier generations of translations discussed above.
What About Accuracy?
When a passage such as Numbers 7:12-83 is abbreviated or even recreated as lists, is that accurate and faithful to the source?
Generations of translators have defended these translations as accurate. However, in this specific passage, the desire to increase readability is clearly prioritized over accuracy to the source. It’s hard to remove 55 verses from a passage and maintain a high commitment to accuracy.
Fellow Bible translators will often respond at this point by saying that it is not accuracy to the source that is important but accuracy of comprehension. If the readers don’t understand the text, what is the value of accuracy to the source?
As I have noted elsewhere, many translators today prioritize comprehension or clarity over accuracy. But I would remind my fellow Bible translators that the topic here is the relative importance of accuracy versus readability, not comprehension. Furthermore, the removal of repetitive information for readability shows that in this passage, at least, readability is more important than accuracy, naturalness, and even comprehensibility or clarity.
What About Meaning and Genre?
When I mention that a word or verse is missing from a translation, some translators inevitably remind me that we don’t translate words but the meaning of words. In fact, the 55 verses were removed, but the meaning of the verses was not! The meaning was simply made implicit.
In other words, the information in the 55 verses that were removed is still available to the reader. To find the information, in the case of Dios Habla Hoy, the interested reader can read the footnote and follow the reference to Nahshon and then refer to his list of items in Numbers 7:13-17. In the Good News Bible, there is no footnote. However, the reader who reflects on the reference to “identical” gifts should be able to infer that the same items were brought on each day.
Whether it is called removing or making implicit, the information in the verses is not present for the readers as it was in the source.
Furthermore, it is important to respect the genre of Scripture. A historical passage should be translated as history. The Good News Bible and related translations drastically changed the genre for the purported benefit of the reader.
Once translators decide that they are free to translate for the benefit of the reader, it is difficult to know where they will stop. When have they moved from translating the Bible to editing it? When have they become authors in their own rights and thereby assumed too much authority?
Are All Translations Valuable?
It is common to hear that there is value in all Bible translations. Furthermore, some claim that it is beneficial to read several versions and compare them as part of our personal study of Scripture.
This study of the translation of Numbers 7:12-83 over the past 60 years suggests otherwise.
The comparison of the Dios Habla Hoy, Good News Bible, and related translations reveals that the United Bible Societies and partner organizations have been gradually removing more and more repetitive information to improve ease of reading. As a result, we find the four approaches to translating this passage described above in our English Bibles today.
If readers compare this passage in several English Bibles, they might note the difference in length or the presence of a table or list. These differences might spark some curiosity, but they don’t offer any insights into the passage because information has been removed from the passage, not added or clarified.
In Conclusion
When the Good News Bible was published in 1976, I received a copy. I found it much easier to understand than the King James Version. I read it regularly for years. And I accepted that it was an accurate and faithful translation of the Word of God.
Even today, I refer to the Good News Bible and other translations that follow the general approach known as dynamic equivalent, functional equivalent, or meaning-based translation. However, I no longer accept every claim of accuracy and faithfulness as I did when I was a young boy.
A half-century after the publication of the Dios Habla Hoy, Bible translator consultants are suggesting that the verses in Numbers 7:12-83 be preserved in translation. Although a step in the right direction in this specific passage, it remains to be seen whether other forms of repetition will be restored.
When translators assume the posture of an editor for the sake of the readers, it can be difficult to relinquish the editor’s pen. The organizations that first moved in this direction in the 1960s are moving even further than removing repetition and adding lists to the text. They are promoting cultural adaptations of Scripture such as seen with Muslim Idiom Translations.
As a Bible translator, I realize how difficult it can be to accurately render God’s Word. Yet the challenges of translation and the desire to help struggling readers are no reason for removing verses, even repetitive verses, from Scripture. Nor are they reasons for adding information to Scripture.