A Bible in the Language of Brazilians

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Twelve years after publishing the Today’s Language Translation (TLT) of the Bible, the Bible Society of Brazil (BSB) has produced a revision.

The main features of the New Today’s Language Translation (NTLT) are:

A complete revision of the New Testament, both from the standpoint of a profound reading of the original Greek text and of the use of the Portuguese language;

A revision of the Book of Psalms, paying special attention to the fact that it had been written in the form of poetry;

The simplification of grammatical constructions that were still complex in the first edition;

A change in the designation of the name of God in the Old Testament bringing the NTLT closer to the text of the Almeida Revised and Updated translation, and to the text of most Bible translations into Portuguese;

The incorporation of text which appeared in the TLT as footnotes into the body of the text, with an indication where the item was not to be found on some of the best and oldest manuscripts.

Success

The Today’s Language Translation has undoubtedly been a success. The churches have distributed more than two billion Bible Selections which use its text, and these have been the main material used in church-based evangelism over the past decade. It is also the version which churches have given to new converts, providing their first contact with Scripture. Furthermore, over the period in which it has been in use, the church in Brazil has been growing at its fastest rate ever.

The churches have distributed more than two billion Bible Selections which use its text, and these have been the main material used in church-based evangelism over the past decade. It is also the version which churches have given to new converts.

As is normal with any new translation, however, soon after the Today’s Language Translation appeared, the BSB began to receive comments, suggestions and criticisms of it from churches, scholars and ordinary readers.

It analysed and classified them all and its Translation Commission then used them as a basis on which to assess ways of making improvements. The constantly-changing nature of the Portuguese language added weight to the case for a revision.

“It is our hope that this New Today’s Language Translation will be used by churches and by individuals and families and that it will serve for general use,” declared Dr Zimmer, the Translation Commission’s co-ordinator.

Expression

The whole Translation Commission expressed the same wish in the preface to the NTLT: “As the expression of the Word of God in the plain language of the people, the BSB’s Translation Commission asks God and wishes that many will receive it with joy and will share the experience of the Psalmist in their lives: ‘Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path’ (Psalm 119:105). And may God grant too that many will use it in their worship, evangelisation, education and prayer, as ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God’ (Ephesians 6:17)”. (WR 356/20 - 12.00) [PHOTOS]

See following story for more background on Today’s Language Translation

Formal Versus Functional Equivalence

Work on the original Today’s Language Translation began after a survey conducted among Brazilian churches in the 1960s revealed that many people found it difficult to understand the language of the Bible translations then in use.

The translations the Society was using were revisions of the translation done in the seventeenth century by João Ferreira Almeida. These translations, known as the Almeida, Revised and Corrected and the Almeida, Revised and Updated, used the principle of formal equivalence.

Formal equivalence seeks to maintain the form of the original text in the new language, giving the translation a word order similar to that in the original. This can cause readers some difficulty, because reading it demands an above-average mastery of the Portuguese language.

The Today’s Language Translation, however, uses the principle of functional equivalence. This requires the translation to follow the normal structure of the language into which it is being translated. The idea is that functional equivalence produces a translation which is both faithful to the original and appropriate to the new language. The first part of the Today’s Language Translation, the New Testament, was published in 1973. The complete Bible followed in 1988.