The Word as word

“Almost everyone is interested in the different translations of Scripture. Michael Straus’ The Word as word provides a stimulating and penetrating investigation into the art of translation through a canonical-hermeneutical approach. This book is important not only for exegesis, but for any translator of the New Testament. The translation of Colossians demonstrates the importance of translation on interpretation through history and tradition. Readers will be delighted by the history of English translations going back to Wycliffe.”


—Arthur Just, professor of exegetical theology, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne





“The Word as word is a gift: from an experienced translator of the New Testament comes a rich consideration of the art of translating Holy Scripture. The labor of and reflection upon the translation of ancient texts is often separated by specialization. In The Word as word, Michael Straus offers a rare and needed combination of philological and contextual precision, historical and theological awareness, and humane and pastoral sensitivity. Translation, as The Word as word explores it, lives with and moves from ancient words that have and continue to announce the Word.”


—Jonathan A. Linebaugh, Anglican chair of divinity, Beeson Divinity School





“Written with verve and élan, The Word as word challenges us to rethink the assumptions about language, culture, and revelation implicit in different approaches to biblical translation. Michael Straus sets forth a bold vision for Scripture translation that takes seriously the effective history of the text in tradition and the life of the church. The result is a provocative and important contribution to New Testament studies.”


—Susan Eastman, associate research professor emerita of New Testament, Duke Divinity School





“I heartily endorse Michael Straus’ book as a rare reflection in translation studies. As a translation theorist, Straus takes full account of the apostles’ and church fathers’ concept of the inspired word (including the Trinity). In a clearly structured sequence, he offers different perspectives on the range of other translation approaches, in a spirit of humility and immersive understanding. The result is a greater appreciation of how form, register, and even the use in later church tradition of theological language may be employed in translation, all without falling into the pit of ‘translationese.’”


—Stefan Felber, author of Zwischen Babel und Jerusalem: Aspekte von Sprache und Übersetzung





“What is the relationship between the Word of God living, Jesus Christ the Incarnate Son

of God, and the Word of God written, the message which authoritatively proclaims him

to a lost world? In what combination do the Holy Scriptures have both divine and

human attributes as the living Word of God to which they uniquely witness, including

the supernatural power to inspire its readers? Should the living Word’s use of the

written word in shaping the ongoing life of the Church effect the Church’s subsequent

understanding of it? In short, as a book of the Church, both as its product and as its

source, should the Bible be read with the eyes of faith, as that faith has developed

through the centuries? Or should the Bible be read “like other books . . . without

reference to the adaptations of the Fathers or Divines; and without regard to a priori

notions about its nature and origin,” as Benjamin Jowett urged in Essays and Reviews

(1860)? Such questions have dominated biblical hermeneutics ever since Jowett’s time.

Rarely, however, have such penetrating queries be made of the related task of biblical

translation. Should the translator simply seek to recapture the initial exchange between

the text in its original language and its first readers, like any other ancient text? Or

should the translator recognize the impact of a sacred text on the unfolding linguistic

contexts in which the text has been read and which the text has also shaped over th

centuries? Moreover, should a translator weigh the importance of how prior translation

have shaped the experiences of readers and, therefore, also their expectations for new

versions? In The Word as word, Michael Straus grasps the nettle of these thorny issues

firmly in favor of the latter. Himself a gifted translator of the New Testament, Straus

assesses with much academic learning and a practitioner’s insight both the strengths

and weaknesses of the three main current approaches before offering his own canonical

hermeneutical theory of translation. Future editions of the Bible and their readers will

no doubt owe a great debt to Straus’ contribution to this important field.”


—Ashley Null, chair, Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies, Wittenberg, Germany