The Bible and Language Learning (Books, Literature & Reading) Language Learning Forum

The Bible and Language Learning
Tags: Hebrew (biblical) \| Greek \| Multilingual \| Translation
Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading

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Yukamina
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6255 days ago
281 posts - 332 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean, French

Message 33 of 84

24 April 2009 at 7:40pm | IP Logged

shapd wrote:

To get back to the subject of this thread, there are several other Bible websites around. www.audioscriptures.org have audio for both Old and New Testaments in a variety of languages.

They have so many languages I've never heard of, but no Japanese or Korean. *sigh*
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Maximus
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6740 days ago
417 posts - 427 votes

Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Thai

Message 34 of 84

24 April 2009 at 7:52pm | IP Logged

Yukamina wrote:

shapd wrote:

To get back to the subject of this thread, there are several other Bible websites around. www.audioscriptures.org have audio for both Old and New Testaments in a variety of languages.

They have so many languages I've never heard of, but no Japanese or Korean. *sigh*

If you want to read the Bible in Japanese, there is this site.

http://www.watchtower.org/j/bible/re/chapter_001.htm

This is where I started to read Revelation for the first time in Japanese. I beleive the whole Bible is there in this site.

When I went back to the homepage of the site, I realized that it is a Jehovah's witness site. But the Bible on the site is just like any you would find in just about any form of Christianity.
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Marc Frisch
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6656 days ago
1001 posts - 1169 votes

Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Persian, Tamil

Message 36 of 84

24 April 2009 at 9:27pm | IP Logged

I don't really see the point of reusing the same text over and over again to learn languages. Learning languages is also about learning about other cultures, so why not use texts originally written in the language.

So I can see why one would want to read the bible in Greek or Hebrew, but why in Japanese or Arabic, when there are so many other interesting things to read?
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sprachefin
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5737 days ago
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Speaks: German*, English, Spanish
Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch

Message 39 of 84

24 April 2009 at 9:53pm | IP Logged

Dark_Sunshine wrote:

sprachefin wrote:

I stumbled across this thread, and thought that it was very
interesting that people are using the book translated
into so many languages to learn languages. Being Jewish, I would refrain from doing so myself, but it wouldn't
hurt
to read the part of the bible that is also in the Tanakh, as Jewish texts are not as widely available and translated
into
as many languages. The best I can get is a Torah in Arabic (It is a Yemenite Jewish text so it is not in my interest
of
Arabic, as it is written in either MSA or Classical, I cannot tell). Regardless whether you are Jewish, Christian,
Muslim, atheist, Hindu, Buddhist, or any other religion, the bible is a great resource because it is translated into
so
many languages, and it is probably the most carefully translated texts due to the value of its word to its people. I
would not feel guilty with using it to study my languages if I used the section that is part of the Hebrew bible (I
am
sorry, I do not know how to refer it as).

I think the section you're referring to is the first 5 books of the Old Testament, which is the same as the Torah if
I remember rightly -although I'm sure someone more well versed in these matters will correct me if I'm wrong.
Out of interest, is it against your religion to merely have a read of the new testament? (I'm not evangelising at all,
or being antagonistic -as I stated earlier I'm an atheist- but I am genuinely interested in religious beliefs and
customs)

madalieninvader wrote:

I'm agnostic leaning towards atheism but have extensive knowledge of Christianity
being raised that way. I've even read a lot if not all of the Bible and can't figure
out what the hell that last post was about.
Someone inform me?

Me neither, but I'm pretty sure that person was having a laugh! Could it be Aya?

On the subject of translations, is it possible to get an edition in a target language that has been directly
translated (i.e. translated only once) from an English version? That would be the most useful resource for making
parallel texts for an English speaker.

They say that the whole Old Testament (I'm sorry I did not know how to refer to it before) is the Hebrew bible.
While yes that the Old Testament is the composition of the Tanakh (and I cannot say that I know that there are
more books in the Tanakh than the Old Testament because I have never viewed the books of the old testament)
and then maybe some but again I do not know the old testament. There are three sections of the Tanakh: The
torah, The Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim. The Tanakh would usually be published as one, but only the Torah is
usually published alone as one volume. There are many more Jewish religious texts such as prayer books and the
Talmud (which is essentially like a rabbi's detailed book of Jewish law, there is a bunch of stuff in it). There are a
few others, but they are pretty much rabbinic literature and variations of the torah.

Edit: It is not against the Jewish religion to read texts of other religions for academic purposes, and I guess it is
not all that bad to do so.

Edited by sprachefin on 24 April 2009 at 9:58pm
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jbbar
Senior Member
Belgium
Joined 5791 days ago
192 posts - 210 votes

Speaks: English

Message 40 of 84

24 April 2009 at 10:03pm | IP Logged

Maximus wrote:

Yukamina wrote:

shapd wrote:

To get back to the subject of this thread, there are several other Bible websites around. www.audioscriptures.org have audio for both Old and New Testaments in a variety of languages.

They have so many languages I've never heard of, but no Japanese or Korean. *sigh*

If you want to read the Bible in Japanese, there is this site.

http://www.watchtower.org/j/bible/re/chapter_001.htm

This is where I started to read Revelation for the first time in Japanese. I beleive the whole Bible is there in this site.

When I went back to the homepage of the site, I realized that it is a Jehovah's witness site. But the Bible on the site is just like any you would find in just about any form of Christianity.

Maximus, I'm afraid that's not quite correct. The official JW translation of the Bible is really quite phony. They have altered passages in favor of their heretical doctrine that denies the Trinity, among other things.

Just in case you're interested, here's a few links with some astute information about the translation from a Christian point of view:

http://www.gotquestions.org/New-World-Translation.html
http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/jehovahs-witnesses
http://www.evangelicalbible.com/jw.htm

If you're merely interested in using their Bible translation for language learning purposes, then of course there isn't really a problem.

jbbar

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