Modernism leaking into modern bible translations?

[do_justly_love_mercy]

for example at places ‘the Holy Ghost’ changed into ‘Helper’. All of this made me a bit skeptical.

Describing the Holy Spirit as “the helper” is a perfectly sound translation. The English term I am most familiar with is “the comforter”, but I understand that the meaning of “to comfort” in this context is more like “to encourage”. The term “advocate” is also used and is the same word that appears in texts about legal proceedings in the Roman world.

I think if the Catholic Church in the Netherlands has approved this translation you should trust that the translators and the Church authorities probably know what they are talking about. Bible translations are commonly made by whole teams of scholars who may be experts on just one book of the Bible each. I read that two people contributed to the translation of the Psalms alone, one of whom took a degree in Hebrew specifically for this purpose after completing her doctorate in Latin. Unless you have a very high level of expertise in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, combined with very high level qualifications in theology or history, it is, to be honest, unlikely that you know more about translating the Bible than a scholar who has actually translated the Bible.

“Dissolved” has replaced “Destroyed” in such passages as in the Book of Job and in Revelation.

Subordinate came up in the readings this weekend. Replaced “submissive” as certain persons would storm out of church once it was uttered.

Have you done all of the following?

• Look up the original Hebrew and Greek texts in order to ascertain what the word is that appears in the original text.
• Check for variations between different manuscripts.
• Look up all of the possible translations for the Hebrew and Greek words.
• Look up all the ancient texts that use those words to ascertain their precise and nuanced meanings in the contexts given.
• Consider the nuances and precise meanings of possible translations within the theological, historical, and literary contexts of the Bible.
• Consider how words are used in English and how a different choice of words could have a subtly different meaning across different time periods and different cultures.

The word “dissolve”, for example, is arguably at least as strong as “destroy”. In the Requiem Mass, we find the phrase “Solvet saeclum in favilla”. “Solvet” can be translated as “dissolve”, although the meaning is clearly something akin to “destroy”. We also talk about “dissolving” a marriage and the “dissolution” of the monasteries. Neither of these are nice things. When a marriage is dissolved, it is over, finished, terminated. When the monasteries were dissolved, they were forcibly shut down, their assets were seized.

Like I said above, the person who came up with “dissolve” or “subordinate” most likely has a PhD in Hebrew or Greek, has published on biblical languages and literature, and probably teaches the Bible in its original languages at a university. So, really, unless you are studying this to professorial level, it is more likely than not that the translator knows what he or she is doing.

 

[Gorgias]

Subordinate came up in the readings this weekend. Replaced “submissive” as certain persons would storm out of church once it was uttered.

Umm… that’s the translation in the NAB. As @Bithynian points out, the RSV-CE renders it as “be subject to”.

No hidden-agenda, tinfoil-hat subversive “replacement” going on…

And, let’s not forget that, in Ephesians, Paul tells us to “be subordinate to each other,” and not just wives to husbands.