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May 28, 2008 | 2:19 pm

Pitfalls of the Wiki Bible Project

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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The folks at Wikisource have a new project bound to stir up controversy. It’s called the Wiki Bible Project, and it aims to “create an original, open content translation” of the Bible, by the people for the people. Call it the Pauper John Goldfarb Ali Version.

Great idea. I mean, people have never disagreed over what the Bible says. Christians and Jews and Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, so they must read his word from the same pages. Buddhists and Taoists and Pagans? Individualistic variations, nothing more. A holy book is a holy book, regardless of what name it goes by.

Right ... Just try telling that to Jerusalem. Muslims and Christians and Jews all understand the Bible quite differently on this subject.

The Bible doesn’t talk directly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I wonder if CAMERA has any plans for influencing the editing.

Libby Purves at Faith Central explains a little more about the project and shares a satirical story from Britain’s version of The Onion:

They ask people who know Greek or Hebrew to “claim” a chapter (Exodus went first) and offer a translation. It fiercely says “Stay faithful to the original source text and do not borrow from copyrighted modern versions….Avoid sectarian disputes, possibly by footnoting variant translations.“

However,  the mischievous beasts on Newsbiscuit report straightfacedly that it is an attempt to make “one on-line holy book for all world faiths, written and edited by the world-wide community….‘If someone feels strongly that the central tenet of another religion is fundamentally wrong, then they can go on-line and change it. This morning the Wiki-Bible stated quite categorically that there was but one god and his name was Allah. This afternoon, another editor had corrected that to explain that there were in fact a number of different gods including Ganesh, Krishna, Vishnu and Cristiano Ronaldo.’

And so forth.  It also suggests adapting commandments—‘This morning the seventh commandment read ‘Though shalt not commit adultery. Unless it is with thy neighbours wife Janice”.

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I agree this project has the protential to turn into a mess, but I also see that long term, it has the potential to turn into a ‘godsend’. There are several common misconceptions about the Bible, such as ‘the Bible is so obscure it can be interpreted any way you want’. No, it can’t. Or, ‘the Bible was altered by those wascally wabbis to hide… [whatever non-Biblical stuff speaker supports]‘. With greater focus on the Bible, its authenticty, meaning and authority are bound to be recognized. It is however a severe impediment if the original Hebrew is not available. It is available online of course but not the depth of meaning accessable only in the original. However, those who have taken the trouble to study the Bible seriously in the original have discovered things they would never have known in English. One such story (but far from the only such story) is related in “A Minister’s Journey to Judaism - Inside the Missionary Mind”, available here http://www.gavrielsanders.com/

As in so many issues, premises and assumptions are the context for conclusions.
1) “people have never disagreed over what the Bible says… they must read his word from the same pages.“ Nope. Most don’t read them at all, or read them from variant or oppposing texts.
2) “The Bible doesn’t talk directly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”
It certainly does. Deuteronomy 32:21 states “21 They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god; they have provoked Me with their vanities; and I will rouse them to jealousy with a no-people; I will provoke them with a vile nation.“ That is a very peculiar formulation!

A no-people? If one was to speak of Eskimos or Zulus one could find them for centuries. This obscure passage literally comes to life when considering that until 1948 the word Palestinan ALWAYS referred to the Jews, and there has NEVER been an Arab Palestinian nation until the late 1960’s, when Ho Chi Minh taught Yasir Arafat to speak the language of racism and colonialism to gain world support for his movement.

As for a ‘vile nation’, it is worth considering that the ‘Palestinian’ Arabs have by now received more aid per capita and political support than any other 9n the history of the world, and have produced nothing with it except tales of hardship and suffering and starvation and so on, all due to Israel and the Jews of course. That, and the innovation of many clever ways to kill people.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 5/28/08 at 5:50 pm

Old news!

Another Wiki-based translation of the Bible has been going on for quite some time now. 

I believe they are translating into Felinis Humouratis.

wink

Comment by Dennis Wilen on 5/28/08 at 9:11 pm

That reminds me of when I found the Bible—aka “Da Jesus Book“—in Pidgin.

Comment by Brad A. Greenberg on 5/28/08 at 9:20 pm

Here’s this week’s Torah portion (parasha) from The Torah in Haiku blog

Parshat Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20)

It’s book number four
B’midbar - in the desert
Starts with a census

Compare with Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin’s discussion in The Journal

Comment by The Web Guy on 5/29/08 at 5:59 pm

She-ma Yis-ra-el Hear O Israel
A-do-nay El-o-hei-nu The Lord our God
A-do-nay E-chad The Lord is One

Haiku

Comment by Ben Plonie on 5/29/08 at 6:25 pm

As a contributor to the Project, I can see where concern would come from.  So far, however, the Project has only met with limited disagreements, and nothing worse has occured in the translation than the occasional typo or disagreement over what word is most precise as a translation. 

As to people deliberately changing the Bible, I haven’t seen any of that happen yet.  It’s turning out pretty decently.

Comment by Fontwords on 6/04/08 at 9:31 am

I do wish the project well, although as I think I said elsewhere you can see no farther than the surface with this approach. I won’t go into the standard difficulties with translations with the absence of one-to-one mapping of meanings and concepts. If you know another language, and watch a movie in that language with English subtitles, you can see what I mean. Choices have to be made to leave out ideas, jokes, to reword or paraphrase. The circuits are connected differently.

But reading the Bible in English (or anything but Hebrew) is like watching Titalnic on a tiny black-and-white TV. I am far from fluent but with my knowledge I can see this clearly in any side-by-side translation. Here is an article by Caroline Glick, a first class scholar and wordsmith who learned Hebrew as an adult. Although the focus of the article is something else, she describes what I am saying about the language itself.

http://www.jewishpress.com/print.do/31441/The_Luckiest_Jews_In_The_World.html

Comment by Ben Plonie on 6/05/08 at 11:13 am

Dear Friend in Christ,
Greaetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!
I have been going through the studies at your web site, and I am deeply inspired with all of the teachings and studies thereon like Bible studies and other teaching materials on our Web site. This is such a wonderful studies you have arranged for all the nations, in the long run of your service for the nations of the all the world.
I am from Islamic Republic of Pakistan where it is difficult to have Radio and TV channel for preaching purposes. They would not allow us to do that here; the Satan has real strong hold over everything. I often say that we are living in the land of the enemy.
Friend, I humbly request you to expand your outreach your program in Urdu and Punjabi language. Urdu is the language spoken and understood by more than one sixth of the total population of the world. Urdu is spoken in Pakistan , India, Nepal, Afghanistan and also in Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran and others.
I would ask you to pray and share it among the brethren. I would offer my services for being translator, recorder and distribution/sales. I pray that your consideration will have His mark over your decision.

May God bless you abundantly! May His perfect will be done!

Grace and Peace be with you, all brethrens.

Yours brother in Christ,
Asim
Pakistan

Comment by asim saddique on 8/04/08 at 1:11 pm

Greetings in Jesus name,

“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing from the Word of God”(Romans, 10:17)
It is really privileged for me to write to your ministry and I pray may Lord bless you abundantly. I am Aftab Nasir from Pakistan . Five years before I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and I trust in Him as my rock and try to walk in Him, as the Word of God says don’t be lazy in struggle.
As I was visiting your site I found that you are doing the work of translation into native languages. I am able to translate the good stuff of you into my native language Punjabi and national language Urdu. There are two purposes to request you the first one are to know the Word of God more deeply and second one to be supportive my family and to run. our Ministry. We will also teach your stuff in our working areas with our people .
My suggestion for you is to create your material in my language of Urdu and Punjabi also. It will bring lots of blessings of the Word of God for the Pakistani and Indian Urdu and Punjabi speaking people. For that purpose I as a translator will bring your material into Urdu languages and into Punjabi language as well. Although it will take your low expenses as well, as fund for the Word of God to reach out to the deserving people. As a translator I will take the expenses that will be spending just for the Word. I will be looking for your kind words on this my humble request as soon as possible.
“There is nothing more precious than to read and listen the Word of God into your own language.”
I hope you will consider me regarding this request.
In Jesus,

Comment by nasir on 9/20/08 at 4:05 am

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