Ethical Compromise: A Historical Apology

People come to Bible translation with passion... and a variety of strongly held convictions (theological, denominational, philosophical, practical, etc.). Using case studies from the history of Bible translation in Thailand (from the 1830s to the present), this presentation will consider the costs and benefits of compromising our convictions. Topics will include:

• The question of compromising denominational distinctives, looking at early nineteenth-century Protestant translators (from the ABCFM, American Baptist, and American Presbyterian missions) whose conflict over translation questions led to competition in the early Thai church.

• The challenges and benefits of ecumenical work, investigating Roman Catholic and Protestant cooperation on the Prachaniyom version (1970s and 1980s) and the Thai Standard Version (2011), and then the decision to publish the Thai Catholic Bible (2014).

• Working with people who do not share our core theological convictions, through discussions about language helpers in the 1830s, as well as a crisis of faith of one of the working committee on the 1971 revision of the Thai Bible.

• The effects of making compromises about our philosophy of translation (and the skopos articulated in our translation brief) through an examination of the competing convictions demonstrated in the common language, dynamic equivalent Prachinyom version of the 1970s and 1980s.

Participants will come away with a better appreciation of the complexities of compromise in Bible translation, and factors to consider when deciding whether (and how) to ethically compromise.