Bible Journaling - The Translation Team of the NLT

We have been looking at the issues that the translators of the NLT were confronted with, as we worked our way through the opening pages of our Inspire Praise Journaling Bible. The only question that still begs answering, before we can start our study of the text of the Bible, is who these translators of the NLT were, that we kept referring to in previous blogs. The Inspire Praise Bible devotes two whole pages to identifying these translators by names and associations. This is an important inclusion, even though the list may not have much meaning to most of us. Any author or translator arrives at a text with a set of preconceived ideas and opinions. It is important to be able to spot these, which is only possible, if a translator/author can be identified and investigated. Furthermore, it is comforting to know that no single translator worked in isolation from the rest of the team. There were overseers and group discussions for every step of the way, making the final product less likely to be riddled with personal ideas and opinions, than would be the case otherwise. So, even though we may have very little interest in these two pages, it is clear that it should be included as an essential insert.
As I am typing this, I can not help but think of some of the authors of the Biblical texts. Think of Paul. Here was a man well versed in the law, a zealot and a rigid disciplinarian. When we read the letters written by him, we see his personality in the text. No doubt, that is partly why God chose to use him to write those particular letters. I also think of Luke, a medical doctor, whose meticulous attention to detail and record keeping, has left us the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, two essential books to understanding the time of Christ and the period that followed immediately afterwards. Once again, God knew to choose the right person for the task. Knowing who the author of a text is, can shed some light on the text. Just so, knowing who the translator of a text was, could shed some light on the text. And, just so, knowing that the translator was part of a much bigger team, can provide us with peace of mind that fewer personal issues made its way into the text, than would be the case otherwise.

Even thought the layout of the two pages we were to deal with today, was slightly more exciting than those of the past couple of days, they were still far from pretty.

I started by treating the two pages to a coating of Zellen Clear Gesso.

When the gesso was touch dry, I slipped a protective shield between the two pages and weighted it down overnight to straighten the pages.

I separated a serviette from its backing paper.

Then I cut the motifs from the serviette and laid them out on my pages.

I used Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium to decoupage the motifs to the Bible pages.

Once the pages were dry, I coated them in yet another layer of Zellen Clear Gesso, as I wanted to continue working on the two pages.

I allowed the paged to dry completely before continuing.

I painted the background in Lemon Yellow watercolours.

Once the watercolours were dry, I used my Staedtler fine liners to colour the heading and hte decorative detail surrounding it.

The final page layout.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/qCqiIJf8Vbw

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Bible Journaling - Names & Footnotes in the NLT

All we wish to do, is enjoy the Bible and do some arty decorating in its pages, yet we still have a few more pages to deal with that require careful scrutiny and reading, if we wish to truly understand the texts we will be dealing with. Today, we take a look at pages A16 and A17 of the Inspire Praise Bible. The first issue that we need to look at, is the rendition of God's names. As the Bible was produced by a number of authors, over the span of centuries, in a variety of languages, it goes without saying that there was no overseeing editor to ensure consistency. Different authors used different names to call God by. To further complicate matters, the dynamic nature of language also has to be contended with. Spelling and language rules changed with the passage of time and modern translators need to deal with these inconsistencies. The NLT provides a very short discussion on this topic, looking at names in general, and God's names specifically. The name YHVH and Christ is looked at specifically and you can read more about this yourself. Suffice it to say, that I was happy to find that the translators had opted to stick to the general rule of rendering YHVH as LORD, as has become somewhat of a general rule, making it easy for readers to spot it in the text, without complicating reading with foreign language words. This is of course a personal preference of mine, and you may differ from me on this.
We then finally learn about the use of footnotes in the NLT, which gives clarification of all of the issues discussed in the preceding pages on the translation of the Bible. Here is a list of issues covered in the footnotes, although you may to choose to read these pages for further clarification:

• Literal translations;
• Alternative renditions;
• Textual Variants, especially from the Textus Receptus,
• Quotations between testaments;
• Cultural and historical information to enlighten the text;
• Wordplay in proper names.

I believe that it may benefit to quote from the last chapter in the passage to clarify the intention of the translators:
"We pray that the New Living Translation will overcome some of the barriers of history, culture and language that have kept people from reading and understanding God's Word."

We were once again confronted with some very mundane looking pages in our Bible.

I once more treated both pages to a coating of Zellen Clear Gesso.

Once it was touch dry, I slipped a protective shield in between the pages and weighted it down to straighten the pages.

This is what my pages looked like when I opened the Bible back up the next day.

I once more decided to use a serviette that I had to decorate the pages with.

I removed two layers of backing paper from the serviette.

Then I cut the motifs from the serviette and arranged them on my page.

I used Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium to decoupage the motifs onto the pages. I waited for it to become touch dry, and then I sealed the pages with the same medium.

I then painted the backgrounds of the two pages in Yellow Ochre, using my watercolours.

When the pages were dry, I slipped a protective shield in between the pages and weighted it down.

My layout when I was done with it.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/VKPPrCCsnxI

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Bible Journaling - Translation Issues & the NLT

It is time to take a detailed look at some of the translation issues that the NLT Bible translators were confronted with. There are numerous terms and terminology that time has rendered beyond our grasp and understanding, which still occurs in the older translations of the Bible. Do we keep those, or do we render them in more modern equivalences? This is an issue that every modern translator of the Bible is confronted with. Here is a list of the issues that needed to be dealt with by the translators of the NLT:

• Weights and Measures;
• Currency;
• Dates;
• Time;
• Meanings of names;
• Idioms and phrases;
• Metaphors;
• Poetry that differs widely from the poetry used in our culture and language;
• Terminology;
• Gender;
• Pronouns;
• The gender of God.

Another factor which needed to be addressed was Lexical consistency in terminology in texts that were produced over centuries, but in later years, compiled into a single volume. Do translators stick to a common term, or do they translate original terms, scattering the intention of the original authors? Whichever choice is made, readers need to be informed in every instance. The NLT explains how it dealt with this issue.
At the bottom of page A15, a discussion is started on the spelling pf proper names, but we will look at that in more detail in the next blog.

The pages that confronted us today, were packed with interesting and relevant information, but they were not in any way visually appealing. Something drastic needed to be done to improve their appearance.

I started off by coating both pages with Zellen Clear Gesso.

I allowed it to become touch dry. Then I slipped a protective shield between the two pages and weighted the pages down to straighten them out.

This is what they looked like when I opened the Bible up again the next day.

I decided to use cutouts from a pretty serviette I had.

I removed the backing paper from the serviette.

Then I cut the motifs from the serviette.

I decoupaged the motifs onto the Bible with Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium. Once it was touch dry, I also sealed it with the same medium.

I then weighted the Bible down again to keep the pages straghtened out, after the medium had dried to the touch.

The final layout of the two pages. I decided not to add anything else to these pages, not even a background colour, as I liked the clean fresh look of the layout. It gave the eyes a place to rest of the busy pages that had preceded it.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/5MJZBOpySi4

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Bible Journaling - Translation of the NLT

We have reached a section of the Bible which I consider very important to take note of. On the two pages facing us today in the Inspire Praise Bible, we deal with the translation issues that the NLT translators had to deal with. Should they translate word for word, or should they do it thought for thought? Or perhaps, they should compromise between the two instead. But if they do that, how would they let readers know when and where they did so? These pages also explain the process that the NLT underwent to reach the form we read it in today, after its initial publication in 1996. We learn that the intention with the translation was to render it in a format that would be easy to understand if it were read aloud, and what motivated this intention. For those of us who are familiar with the original texts from which the Bible was translated, a small section is included to inform us of the texts used. Then, right at the bottom of the second page, a discussion is started on translation issues, but we will look at these in greater detail in the next blog.
I would once again like to invite you to read some previously published blogs on this topic, if you did not do so yet. These were written in Afrikaans, as it can sometimes be difficult to find this information in Afrikaans. Reading through these two blogs, could give you a much clearer perspective on the subject that these opening pages in the Bible addresses.
Bybel Legkaart: Sinopsis van Bybelkunde Deel 1
Bybel Legkaart: Sinopsis van Bybelkunde Deel 2

These are the two pages that we are working with today. They are not very exciting to look at.

I start by treating both pages with a coating of Clear Gesso.

Once the pages were touch dry, I put a protective shield between the two pages and closed the Bible to straighten the pages.

My pages looked like this when I opened the Bible back up.

I decided to try something completely new and cover both pages completely with a serviette.

I remove the backing paper from the serviette.

I coat both pages in Dala Matt Glaze Medium.

Then I lay the serviette on top of the pages and use my wet brush to smooth the serviette.

Once the pages are dry, I crop the overhanging serviettes from the edges of the pages. And then I seal the pages with the Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium.

I close the Bible upside down, so that the pages have an opportunity to straighten out, after the medium has become touch dry. Do not forget to slip a protective shield in between the treated pages.

The completed layout. Initially, I thought to add more to the pages, but decided that this was enough. As the serviette I used, was already busy, I did not wish to risk obscuring the text any further.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/QcIzi_Iad3M

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Bible Journaling - Notes & Introduction to the NLT

We have set off on a rather exciting journey of Bible journaling and in the process we have been given loads of really pretty pages to deal with. We now come to some less exciting pages, that I believe most people simply skip over when it comes to their personal Bible Study. I have always ardently advocated to people attending Bible Studies or home cell meetings with me, to devote proper attention to these pages. The pages in question, are the ones dedicated to explanations on what prompted a particular translation and how the translators dealt with certain translation issues and problems. If you read these pages, you will have a much clearer understanding of why different Bible translations vary from each other, and you will be better able to find the translation that appeals best to you. However, having said that, I am also an ardent advocate for not reading a single translation. I prefer to encourage people to read a variety of translations, in as many languages as they have mastered. From an artistic point of view, these are certainly some of the worst pages to encounter in the Bible, but I will show you how I tackled them in my journaling Bible in the hopes of inspiring you to spend more time on them yourself.
I have no intention of rewriting the particular pages in question, but I will lift out a number of things that stood out to me as I studied them. In the publishers note to the readers on page A10, as it is marked in the top left corner of the page, the final paragraph seemed like a good summary of the preceding text and I will quote it here for you.
"We believe that the New Living Translation- which combined the latest Biblical scholarship with a clear, dynamic writing style - will communicate God's word powerfully to all who read it. We publish it with the prayer that God will use it to speak his timeless truth to the church and the world in a fresh, new way."
There then follows a number of pages in which a rather detailed explanation is given of how they went about translating the Bible. I once again encourage you to read it for yourself. Page A11 is an introduction to what follows and I once again found the last paragraph to be a rather good summary of the preceding text on Translation Philosophy and Methodology.
It speaks of different translation philosophies which are at opposite ends of the translation spectrum, while asserting that the NLT necessarily drew upon both philosophies to produce and accurate and true, yet readable and understandable text for the modern reader. The pages that follow will expand on the compromises that had to be reached in this process, as well as to point out that the reader still has access to omitted texts or alternative readings, explaining how they made this possible.
For the Afrikaans readers of this blog, I will include links to two previously published blogs on the formation and translation of the modern Bible:
Bybel Legkaart: Sinopsis van Bybelkunde Deel 1
Bybel Legkaart: Sinopsis van Bybelkunde Deel 2

These are the two pages that today's blog deals with.

I started off by coating the two pages with a layer of gesso. I then allowed it to dry to the point where it was touch dry.

I then slipped the protection shield in between the two treated pages and closed the Bible to straighten out the warped and buckling pages.

This is what the pages looked like after it was treated.

I decide to decorate the page by decoupaging a serviette onto it.

I start by removing the backing paper from the serviette.

I then cut the whole serviette up and lay it on the paper in a way that I appeals to me. I decide to take a risk by decoupaging the focal point of the serviette across two pages. I know that I need to be very careful not to glue the two pages together with decoupage medium, where they meet in the spine.

I use Dala Acrylic Matt Glaze Medium to decoupage the serviette onto the Bible pages.

Once the page is dry, I seal the serviettes with the Zellen Clear Gesso to make sure that all other mediums will stick to my background.

I scribble over the page with a Faber-Castell Gelato stick. Then I use an aqua brush to wet and lift the colour from the gelato and to paint the whole page unevenly in the pale pink colour. I prefer uneven backgrounds as I find these more interesting than even ones. You may differ from me on this point.

I leave the pages to dry completely before I continue.

I then scribble over the text banner with green Gelato and then paint the banner with water.

I use two ProMarkers to colour the headings on the pages.

Then I use Staedtler Fineliners to colour the pictures surrounding the heading.

The completed pages.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/pUyX3HV_10c

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.