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00-About_the UDB/UDB-2-Decisions.md
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@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Preferred English renderings appear in bold type.
* *adam*: "**human beings,**" "**humanity**," "**humankind**" when it refers to humanity in general
* *YHWH*: "**Yahweh**"
## Limited Translation Glossary for the New Testament UDB
### Limited Translation Glossary for the New Testament UDB
* *anthropos*: "**human beings,**" "**humanity**," "**humankind**" when it refers to humanity in general
* *Messias*: "**Messiah**"
* *Xristos*: "**Christ**" or "**the Christ**"
@ -48,3 +48,132 @@ Preferred English renderings appear in bold type.
* *hagioi*: When it refers to people, it is translated according to the context, with the ideas of belonging to God, being believers (or believing), honoring God or **???**.
* When it refers to heavenly beings, **holy angels** or **???**.
## Avoiding Translation Difficulties
The primary goal of the UDB is to express the meaning of the Bible as clearly as possible. In order to do this, it follows these guidelines.
The UDB avoids as much as reasonably possible:
1. Idioms
2. Figures of speech
3. Events out of order
4. Difficult or specialized grammar
a. Complex sentences
b. Passive voice
c. Abstract or verbal nouns
d. People speaking of themselves in third person
The UDB explicitly includes:
1. Participants where these are unclear
2. Implied information that is necessary for understanding
### Examples
The following are examples of ways that the text of the Bible can be unclear for some languages and what the UDB does to overcome those problems.
####Passive Voice
Passive voice is a grammatical construction that is common in Greek and English but it is not used in many other languages, so it can be very confusing. For that reason, it is not used in the UDB. In passive voice, the receiver of the action changes places with the actor. In English, the actor normally comes first in the sentence. But in passive voice, the receiver of the action comes first. Often, the actor is left unstated. In that case, the UDB will fill in the actor. See "Missing Participants" below.
For example, the ULB of Romans 2:24 says:
"the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
The action is "blaspheme," the actors are "the Gentiles" (non-Jews), and the receiver of the action is "the name of God." The reason for the action is "because of you." The UDB rearranges the verse to put the actor and the receiver of the action in a more normal order.
The UDB of Romans 2:24 says:
"Because of the evil things that you Jews do, the non-Jews say insulting things about God."
This is more clear for many languages. When you edit the UDB, try to avoid passive voice constructions.
#### Abstract Nouns
The ULB of Romans 2:10 says:
"But praise, honor, and peace will come to everyone who practices good..."
In this verse, the words "praise," "honor," "peace," and "good" are abstract nouns. That is, they are words that refer to things that we cannot see or touch. They are ideas. The ideas that these nouns express are closer to actions or descriptions than they are to things. In many languages, therefore, these ideas must be expressed by verbs or description words, not by nouns. For this reason, the UDB expresses these nouns as actions or descriptions.
The UDB of Romans 2:10 says:
"But God will praise, honor, and give a peaceful spirit to every person who habitually does good deeds."
When editing or translating the UDB, change abstract nouns to verbs or adjectives when doing so would not overly complicate the sentence.
#### Long, Complex Sentences
The UDB avoids using long or complex sentences. In many languages, long or complex sentences are unnatural and unclear.
The ULB translates the first three verses of Romans as one complex sentence. It says:
"1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh."
The UDB breaks that into five sentences that are more simple in form. It says:
"1 I, Paul, who serve Christ Jesus, am writing this letter to all of you believers in the city of Rome. God chose me to be an apostle, and he appointed me in order that I should proclaim the good news that comes from him. 2 Long before Jesus came to earth, God promised that he would reveal this good news by means of what his prophets wrote in the sacred scriptures. 3 This good news is about his Son. As to his Son's physical nature, he was born a descendant of King David."
When editing or translating the UDB, keep the sentences short and simple.
#### Missing Participants
The UDB often fills in the participants when these are lacking in the original Bible and the ULB. In the original biblical languages, these participants could be left out and still understood by the reader. But in many languages these must be included for the translation to be clear and natural.
In the ULB, Romans 1:1 says:
"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God..."
In this verse, there is a participant that is left unstated, but still understood. This participant is God. It is God who called Paul to be an apostle and who set him apart for the Gospel. In some languages, this participant must be stated.
Therefore the UDB of Romans 1:1 says:
"God chose me to be an apostle, and he appointed me in order that I should proclaim the good news that comes from him."
When editing or translating the UDB, be sure to include all of the participants that are there in the UDB.
#### Events out of Order
The ULB of Luke 2:6-7 says:
"6 Now it came about that while they were there, the time came for her to deliver her baby. 7 She gave birth to a son, her firstborn child, and she wrapped him in long strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."
In some languages, events need to be told in the order in which they happened, or else the story will be confusing and hard to understand. People might understand from these verses that Mary delivered her baby outside in the street, and then looked for somewhere to stay and, after a long search, ended up putting him in an animal feeding trough. The UDB tells these events in the order in which they happened, so that it is clear that Mary was already in the shelter for animals when she gave birth.
The UDB says:
"6-7 When they arrived in Bethlehem, there was no place for them to stay in a place where visitors usually stayed. So they had to stay in a place where animals slept overnight. While they were there the time came for Mary to give birth and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in wide strips of cloth and laid him down where the food was kept for the animals inside the barn."
When editing or translating the UDB, keep the order of events as they are in the UDB.
#### Figures of Speech
The ULB of Romans 2:21 says:
"You who preach against stealing, do you steal?"
This is a figure of speech called a rhetorical question. It is not a real question that is used to seek an answer. It is used to make a point. In this case, Paul is using it to scold his audience and to condemn their hypocrisy. Many languages do not use rhetorical questions, or they do not use them in this way.
To show how to translate this meaning without a rhetorical question, the UDB says:
"You who preach that people should not steal things, it is disgusting that you yourself steal things!"
When you edit the UDB, be sure to not use rhetorical questions or other figures of speech.
#### Idioms
The ULB of Deuteronomy 32:10 says:
"he guarded him as the apple of his eye."
The word "apple" here does not refer to a kind of fruit, but instead refers to the pupil, the dark center of a person's eye. The phrase "the apple of his eye" is an idiom that refers to anything that is extremely precious to a person, or the one thing that is the most precious to a person. In many languages this idiom makes no sense.
To show the meaning of this verse, the UDB expresses this in plain language, without an idiom.
The UDB says:
"He protected them and took care of them, as every person takes good care of his own eyes."
The translationNotes add another way to translate this that makes the meaning clear. It says, "He protected the people of Israel as something most valuable and precious."
When you edit the UDB, be sure that you do not use any idioms. Only use plain language that makes the meaning clear.
#### People Speaking of Themselves in Third Person
The ULB of Genesis 18:3 says:
He said, "My Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass by your servant."
Here Abraham refers to himself in the third person as "your servant." To make it clear that Abraham is referring to himself, the UDB adds the first person pronoun "me."
The UDB of Genesis 18:3 says:
He said to one of them, "Lord, if you are pleased with me, stay here for a little while."
When editing the UDB, be sure to include the indications of the first person that are there in these passages of the UDB so that it can be as clear as possible.
#### Implied Information
The ULB of Mark 1:44 says:
He said to him, "Be sure to say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
This was all that Jesus needed to say to the man whom he had just healed of leprosy, because the man was Jewish and knew all about the laws concerning being clean and unclean. But most modern readers of our Bible translations do not know that information. For that reason, the UDB makes this information explicit that was left implied in the text. This information is indicated in italics below.
The UDB of Mark 1:44 says:
UDB: He said, "Do not tell anyone *what just happened*. Instead, go to a priest and show yourself to him *in order that he may examine you and see that you no longer have leprosy*. Then make the offering that Moses commanded *for people whom God has healed from leprosy*. This will be the testimony to *the community that you are healed*."
When editing the UDB, be sure to include all of the implied information that is there in the UDB so that it can be as clear as possible.