Instead, the editors published drafts of their work in the fall of 2022 and waited for people to react. One way to deal with the compressed timeline, according to Økland, was to forgo a formal consultation process. As they started to lay the groundwork for revisions, the editors calculated they would need six or seven years. In 2021, the Norwegian Bible Society tasked a committee to start working on an updated edition. In the past 10 years, editors have collected more than 800 critical comments to consider in a revision. “People may not go to church, but they still consider the Bible their own.”ĭespite its popularity, the translation also received criticism, especially from church leaders and scholars. “Its stroke of genius was how it underscored that in a time of increasing secularization, the Bible isn’t out of touch with society,” Økland said. The translation became a bestseller the year after publication. For that edition, biblical scholars and language experts teamed up with renowned authors, who are considered the finest “stylists of modern Norwegian,” including Karl Ove Knausgård, Hanne Ørstavik, and Jon Fosse. Many Norwegians also really like the translation the Bible Society published in 2011. The Bible remains an important “cultural touchstone,” Coughlin said. Roughly three out of four people are on the membership rolls, even though the majority are atheist or agnostic. An amendment separated church and state in 2012, but the governing document stipulates that Christianity, along with humanism, is the foundation upon which the country is built.Īnd membership in the Church of Norway remains high. Christianity, after all, is enshrined in the constitution. “When new translations are published, the changes can feel disorienting … even if the theological dimensions aren’t so important.”Īccording to Coughlin, the Bible is, in some ways, “a public book” in Norway. “It still provides many of the symbols and metaphors that create meaning,” said Jenna Coughlin, a professor of Norwegian at St. Even those who identify as secular can feel protective of the words of the Bible. And yet, just as with English and German Bibles, the words of Scripture became part of the poetry of the language, a storehouse of images, widely seen as a cultural inheritance. The first full translation was not released until 1858. The Bible was first translated into Norwegian in the 13th century, when it was published in parallel editions with the then-more-dominant Danish. “Whatever you do, it’s going to be controversial.” “It’s always a controversial thing to translate the Bible,” said Jorunn Økland, a biblical and gender studies scholar on the editorial team. Receiving criticism is part of the process. “It adds stones to the burden for relatives.”īut the editors of the forthcoming Bible-commissioned by the Norwegian Bible Society and scheduled for publication in 2024-say they are not surprised. “Such judgment day and sulphur speeches do not belong in a modern, inclusive church-at least not during funerals,” said an Oslo woman on Facebook. “Why change something that is completely understandable?” said one woman in Alta, a town on a fjord on the northern coast. And yet, across Norway, news that a forthcoming Bible translation will replace gå fortapt (get lost) with gå til grunne (perish) has roused strong feelings. In a country where only 2 percent of the population regularly attend church, one doesn’t expect to find a national debate about the correct translation of John 3:16.
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