Role of the Author

Use this forum to discuss the August 2019 Book of the month, "I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation: Old Testament Stories" by Val D. Greenwood.
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DD129
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Re: Role of the Author

Post by DD129 »

It wasn't all interpretations, but there were definitely some opinions in there. The book would just be a reproduction of the Old Testament otherwise. I don't think any author would exclude their original ideas/thoughts completely from their book. An author's voice is part of what makes a book unique and worth it for them to write.
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Post by skindrukas »

It's certainly not a "translation". If I needed to know what is exactly written in a certain story, I'd definitely go for the original text. Anything else, in my opinion, should fall into "interpretation" category.
The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. --- Matsuo Basho
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Post by Anthony__ »

Interpretation is a subjective term. So I believe the author was actually sharing his own interpretation. The bible wordings are spirits and not mere letters. It all depends on what the reader sees.
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Erin Dydek
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Post by Erin Dydek »

His writing made me think of the commentary you can listen to while watching your favorite movies and tv shows. I love watching those because you get to hear the directors/actors thoughts on different scenes. To me, this was an interesting way to read stories from the Bible.
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Post by Inkroverts »

I think it's interesting to see how the author interprets the Bible. I'm more worried when writers fear to offend others or interpret the Bible wrongly and decide to hold off their creativity and writing skills.
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Post by taylorferraro »

Since "I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation" is based off of Biblical references and stories, I almost expect the book to be an interpretation from the author of the teaching of the Bible. The holy book itself is interpreted in many different ways from pastors, priests, nuns, and individuals all over the world so I expect nothing different from this author. We all analyze and read books in different ways and we draw emphasis from different parts of the characters and stories. I will never get tired of reading someone else's view of a book, it always interests me.
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Post by Chigozie Anuli Mbadugha »

I think it was not a translation but narration and explanation of the text from the perspective of the author. It is now the duty of readers to draw a line between the statement as it is in the Bible, and the author's interpretation of it.
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Post by Stephanie Elizabeth »

:(
Sweet Psamy wrote: 08 Aug 2019, 14:59 For me it's an 'opiniated translation'. It's more of the author's personal opinion.
I totally agree; it appears that many of us are on the same page. I think it would be very difficult, as the author, to not have some influence on how the book is interpreted.
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Post by BrittaniDJ »

LyorBoone wrote: 16 Aug 2019, 18:11 I don’t think the author ever said he was translating the stories at all. He just wanted a coherent story sculpted out of the sometimes repetitive material in the Bible. And he took the liberty to fill in some gaps that he felt were needed to make the story flow easier.
In Revelation it says that anyone who changes what is written in the Bible will find their names removed from the Book of Life. I feel like The Message was a valid interpretation in plain, modern story-telling lingo. There could probably be better ones in the future, but this book seems to change way to much of the truth written in the Bible. Too much is left to the author's beliefs and interpretations, rather than transliteration based on historical, biblical research.
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Post by LyorBoone »

BrittaniDJ wrote: 23 Aug 2019, 21:55
LyorBoone wrote: 16 Aug 2019, 18:11 I don’t think the author ever said he was translating the stories at all. He just wanted a coherent story sculpted out of the sometimes repetitive material in the Bible. And he took the liberty to fill in some gaps that he felt were needed to make the story flow easier.
In Revelation it says that anyone who changes what is written in the Bible will find their names removed from the Book of Life. I feel like The Message was a valid interpretation in plain, modern story-telling lingo. There could probably be better ones in the future, but this book seems to change way to much of the truth written in the Bible. Too much is left to the author's beliefs and interpretations, rather than transliteration based on historical, biblical research.
This is not presented as a new bible. I feel that passage is to warn against groups that change the Bible and say this is the legit version. Sometimes whole books have been excluded like the book of wisdom, and then, other times, I have found verses have been taken out, like missing chapters of a book. I believe the book of Ruth is one of these. I have also heard of books added later in some groups, but I am not familiar with those as much. I think these works, called Bible, would be more deserving of Revelation’s judgement. Father of Nations is a work to foster discussion, not push one’s beliefs onto others.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme” - Mark Twain. Dare we say the same thing about every story that gets told in the world?
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Post by Lindsey Klaus »

It seems more of a reinterpretation to me than a translation. Translations tend to be a lot more literal to the text, which the book fails to do. He includes scenes not seen in the Bible itself, so that says to me that it's a reinterpretation with his own opinions mixed in. There's nothing wrong with that (actually I really enjoy modern reinterpretations of ancient texts), I just don't think it'd be correct to call it a translation.
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Post by Rachel Bowland »

amjohnson13mommy wrote: 06 Aug 2019, 12:15 No matter how much research is done, the author's interpretation will always be a main factor. At least that's what I believe.
I completely agree. There really is no way to completely separate your own beliefs from something you’re writing, whether you’re trying to translate or not.
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Post by amjohnson13mommy »

Thank you! Someone viciously argued with me a while ago that the writes life in no way is shown in the writing. I have witnessed that it usually does.
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Post by Laura Ungureanu »

I feel like you can't leave out your opinion when writing a religious book. That's just how religion works, it's a person's faith that is put into words.
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Post by Ashley Louise »

While it definitely did have quite a few modern easy-to-follow explanations of the Old Testament, I feel a lot of it was based on the authors interpretations and own personal feelings. It was maybe a 70/30 mix of what the Old Testament says- literal or otherwise- and how the author decided to take and explain in their own words what it was saying. I enjoyed it though, because some of how they interpreted things seemed to resonate with me.
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut
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