The Importance of Original Languages Part 1: Repetition Creates Thematic Resonance in Joshua
In the book of Joshua, we find a repeatedly told story of a complete conquest of the entire land. This comes through most clear in two summary texts, one at the middle of the book and one found at the end. Each uses the word kol (כֹּל, “all, every, whole”) repeatedly to highlight the theme that all was conquered according to all that God had promised. So, we find in the first passage:
Joshua conquered the whole (כל) of this region: the hill country of Judah, all (כל) the Negeb, the whole (כל) land of Goshen, the Shephelah, the Arabah, and the hill country and coastal plain of Israel—everything from Mount Halak, which ascends to Seir, all the way to Baal-gad in the Valley of the Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon; and he captured all (כל) the kings there and executed them.… Apart from the Hivites who dwelt in Gibeon, not a single city made terms with the Israelites; all (כל) were taken in battle.… Thus, Joshua conquered all the (כל) the country, according to all (כל) the LORD had promised Moses; and Joshua assigned it to Israel to share according to their tribal divisions. And the land had rest from war
(Josh. 11:16–17, 19, 23; translation custom).
At the end of the book, we find:
The LORD gave to Israel the whole (כל) country which He had sworn to their fathers that He would assign to them; they took possession of it and settled in it. The LORD gave them rest on all sides, according to all (כל) He had promised to their fathers on oath. Not one man of all (כל) their enemies withstood them; the LORD delivered all (כל) their enemies into their hands. Not one of all (כל) the good things which the LORD had promised to the House of Israel was lacking. Everything (כל) was fulfilled
(Josh. 21:41–43; in some editions, vv. 43–45; translation custom).
“Here the repetition of the word kol seems meaningful: it is like a bell rung over and over so as to sound a continuous thematic note. We call a repeated word that helps give structure and meaning to a literary unit a “leading word.” (Bible scholars often use the German equivalent, Leitwort.) Leading words provide guidance to the reader; they are keys to a unit’s meaning.
Many contemporary translations—including that of Jewish Publishing Society (JPS)—seek to render the Hebrew’s plain sense into normal English idiom. Their translation approach often does not precisely convey the repetition of leading words in the original language. Partly, this is because normal English discourse avoids such repetitions as awkward or monotonous. More to the point, a given Hebrew word usually has more than one sense, and a plain-sense translation by nature chooses whichever English word best expresses its meaning in each context. A disadvantage of the idiomatic translation approach is that a biblical unit’s theme may literally be lost in translation, as our two summary passages in Joshua illustrate.
In contrast, other translation approaches are more sensitive to the text’s use of a leading word. In particular, in their Bible translation, the two great twentieth-century German-Jewish thinkers, Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber, reflected such repetitions whenever possible by repeating the same German word. A contemporary translator of the Bible into English, Everett Fox, is continuing to follow Buber and Rosenzweig’s principles.”[1]
When translations (on account of methodology or good English style) remove or obscure these repetitions or are unable, due to no fault of their own, to replicate them into the reciprocate language, some of the meaning is lost and what the author was attempting to do in crafting the book and its movements is lost. We, the 21st-century reader, can and do fail to catch the significance and importance of such movements when we are seeking to read and study the text. For this text, through the strategic use of leading words, Joshua highlights the claim that “the LORD gave to Israel the whole (כל) country which He had sworn to their fathers that He would assign to them” (Josh. 21:41).
Footnotes
[1] Brettler, M. Z. (2005). How to Read the Bible (pp. 97–98). Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society
The Importance of Original Languages Part 1: Repetition Creates Thematic Resonance in Joshua
In the book of Joshua, we find a repeatedly told story of a complete conquest of the entire land. This comes through most clear in two summary texts, one at the middle of the book and one found at the end. Each uses the word kol (כֹּל, “all, every, whole”) repeatedly to highlight the theme that all was conquered according to all that God had promised. So, we find in the first passage:
Joshua conquered the whole (כל) of this region: the hill country of Judah, all (כל) the Negeb, the whole (כל) land of Goshen, the Shephelah, the Arabah, and the hill country and coastal plain of Israel—everything from Mount Halak, which ascends to Seir, all the way to Baal-gad in the Valley of the Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon; and he captured all (כל) the kings there and executed them.… Apart from the Hivites who dwelt in Gibeon, not a single city made terms with the Israelites; all (כל) were taken in battle.… Thus, Joshua conquered all the (כל) the country, according to all (כל) the LORD had promised Moses; and Joshua assigned it to Israel to share according to their tribal divisions. And the land had rest from war
(Josh. 11:16–17, 19, 23; translation custom).
At the end of the book, we find:
The LORD gave to Israel the whole (כל) country which He had sworn to their fathers that He would assign to them; they took possession of it and settled in it. The LORD gave them rest on all sides, according to all (כל) He had promised to their fathers on oath. Not one man of all (כל) their enemies withstood them; the LORD delivered all (כל) their enemies into their hands. Not one of all (כל) the good things which the LORD had promised to the House of Israel was lacking. Everything (כל) was fulfilled
(Josh. 21:41–43; in some editions, vv. 43–45; translation custom).
“Here the repetition of the word kol seems meaningful: it is like a bell rung over and over so as to sound a continuous thematic note. We call a repeated word that helps give structure and meaning to a literary unit a “leading word.” (Bible scholars often use the German equivalent, Leitwort.) Leading words provide guidance to the reader; they are keys to a unit’s meaning.
Many contemporary translations—including that of Jewish Publishing Society (JPS)—seek to render the Hebrew’s plain sense into normal English idiom. Their translation approach often does not precisely convey the repetition of leading words in the original language. Partly, this is because normal English discourse avoids such repetitions as awkward or monotonous. More to the point, a given Hebrew word usually has more than one sense, and a plain-sense translation by nature chooses whichever English word best expresses its meaning in each context. A disadvantage of the idiomatic translation approach is that a biblical unit’s theme may literally be lost in translation, as our two summary passages in Joshua illustrate.
In contrast, other translation approaches are more sensitive to the text’s use of a leading word. In particular, in their Bible translation, the two great twentieth-century German-Jewish thinkers, Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber, reflected such repetitions whenever possible by repeating the same German word. A contemporary translator of the Bible into English, Everett Fox, is continuing to follow Buber and Rosenzweig’s principles.”[1]
When translations (on account of methodology or good English style) remove or obscure these repetitions or are unable, due to no fault of their own, to replicate them into the reciprocate language, some of the meaning is lost and what the author was attempting to do in crafting the book and its movements is lost. We, the 21st-century reader, can and do fail to catch the significance and importance of such movements when we are seeking to read and study the text. For this text, through the strategic use of leading words, Joshua highlights the claim that “the LORD gave to Israel the whole (כל) country which He had sworn to their fathers that He would assign to them” (Josh. 21:41).
Footnotes
[1] Brettler, M. Z. (2005). How to Read the Bible (pp. 97–98). Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society