A Case Study for Study Bibles: The Book of Haggai

Abstract

This article makes a case for properly defining “Bible translation” as nothing less than the preparation of a study Bible. Rendering the text of a biblical book into another language without providing the reader with adequate tools for understanding that text within its ancient culture is providing only half the material necessary for the work to be called a “translation.” The article seeks to illustrate the thesis by example from the book of Haggai and the several difficult issues it raises, issues that inevitably cause deep concern for serious readers of the Bible—the nature of God, the relationship between natural crises and human behaviour, the writer’s use of hyperbole while attributing everything written as coming from the godhead.