How Translators Rewrote Biblical 'Originals' for Modern Sweden
A study of 1970s Swedish Bible translations reveals that translators didn't simply copy ancient texts—they actively reshaped 'the original' to fit contemporary needs and future public expectations. The finding challenges how organizations think about authenticity, legacy, and adaptation in any field handling inherited source material.
Originaltitel: Past, present, future Source text temporalities and 'the original' as a multitemporal concept
<p>This chapter investigates how translators, beyond the tangible source texts on which they base their translations, understand and construct the concept of 'the original.' The chapter analyzes the discourse of two different translator teams producing biblical translations into Swedish in the 1970s onwards. Drawing on the field of conceptual history, it is argued that both translator teams constructed 'the original' as a multitemporal concept, infused with different temporal layers: past (the religious and textual history of the Bible), present (the context of the translators), and future (the potential place for each translation in the public space of future Sweden). Stressing the multitemporality of the concept, the chapter questions the common idea of 'the original' as something which belongs exclusively to a source culture of the past.</p>