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Description

Sometimes it is better not to state assumed knowledge or implicit information explicitly. This page gives some direction about when not to do this.

Translation principles

  • If a speaker or author intentionally left something unclear, do not try to make it more clear.
  • If the original audience did not understand what the speaker meant, do not make it so clear that your readers would find it strange that the original audience did not understand.
  • If you need to explicitly state some assumed knowledge or implicit information, try to do it in a way that it does not make your readers think that the original audience needed to be told those things.
  • Do not make it explicit if it throws the message out of focus and leads the readers to forget what the main point is.
  • Do not make assumed knowledge or implicit information explicit if your readers already understand it.

Examples from the Bible

Out of the eater was something to eat; out of the strong was something sweet. (Judges 14:14 ULB)

  • This was a riddle. Samson purposely said this in a way that it would be hard for his enemies to know what it meant. Do not make it clear that the eater and the strong thing was a lion and that the sweet thing to eat was honey.

Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." The disciples reasoned among themselves and said, "It is because we took no bread." (Matthew 16:6,7 ULB)

  • Possible implicit information here is that the disciples should beware of the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. But Jesus's disciples did not understand this. They thought that Jesus was talking about real yeast and bread. So it would not be appropriate to state explicitly in verse 6 that the word "yeast" refers to false teaching. The disciples did not understand what Jesus meant until they heard what he said in Matthew 16:11. This is shown below.

    "How is it that you do not understand that I was not speaking to you about bread? Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that he was not telling them to beware of yeast in bread, but to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:11,12 ULB)

Translation Strategies

There are no translation strategies for this topic.