A Thousand Years of Biblical Translation – into Greek and into Syriac, 3rd Cent. BCE – 7th Cent. CE
A Thousand Years of Biblical Translation – into Greek and into Syriac, 3rd Cent. BCE – 7th Cent. CE

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I am proposing to do something that may well seem foolhardy: namely, to trace, over the course of an entire millennium, the changing attitudes to the way in which one should go about translating a text that is considered to be sacred, or otherwise authoritative. My time span runs from the third century BCE to the seventh century CE, and the main languages involved are Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac, although Latin and Armenian will also feature very briefly. I deliberately stop with the seventh century since the situation changes radically with the replacement of Greek by Arabic as the dominant cultural language of the Middle East. I hope, nevertheless, that the Late Antique background of translation practice will also be of some interest and relevance to those who are primarily interested in biblical translation of a later period.

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