De Bijbel als vrijzinnig strijdwapen en sieraad: De ontstaans- en receptiegeschiedenis van de Leidsche Vertaling (1884-1912)
Due to the unfavourable reception of a new translation of the New Testament that had been published under its auspices in 1868, the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church decided in 1872 to disband a committee of theologians who should have prepared a new translation of the Old Testament. In 188...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Dutch |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2018]
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| In: |
Trajecta
Year: 2018, Volume: 27, Issue: 2, Pages: 325-352 |
| IxTheo Classification: | HA Bible KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBD Benelux countries KDD Protestant Church |
| Further subjects: | B
Bible. New Testament
B Kuenen, Abraham B Bible. Old Testament B Protestantism B Reformation |
| Summary: | Due to the unfavourable reception of a new translation of the New Testament that had been published under its auspices in 1868, the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church decided in 1872 to disband a committee of theologians who should have prepared a new translation of the Old Testament. In 1885, one of these theologians, Abraham Kuenen (1828-1891), joined forces with his colleagues Isaac Hooykaas (1837-1894), Willem Hendrik Kosters (1843-1897), and Henricus Oort (1836-1927) to provide for such a translation of the Old Testament in contemporary Dutch after all. The four of them belonged to odernist' (moderne) or 'liberal' (vrijzinnige) current that had emerged in international Protestantism in the mid-nineteenth century, pursuing a harmonisation of Christianity and modern culture. Modernist theology was characterised by a historical-critical approach to the Bible, making use of current scientific and scholarly methods and theories, and resulting in a firm rejection of supernaturalism. This was reflected in the rationale behind the endeavour of Kuenen and his team: a modernist-inspired translation of the Old Testament was intended to uncover the true meaning of the Bible from underneath the shroud of literalism and dogmatism in which it was wrapped. As such, it was supposed to be the pride of Dutch liberal Protestantism and a weapon with which orthodoxy could be counterattacked. Only Oort would live to see the final result in 1901. Several years later, Oort began to translate the New Testament all by himself, which he completed in 1912. Although it was showered with praise in De Hervorming (the then leading Dutch liberal Protestant opinion magazine), the so-called 'Leiden Translation' (Leidsche Vertaling) of the Bible was lukewarmly received among modernists. In modernist circles, criti was cism was uttered that resembled orthodox complaints. The theological choices behind the translation, most notably the transcription of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton as 'Yahweh' [Jahwe] instead of 'Lord' [Heer] in the Old Testament and the absence of the word 'Gospel' (Evangelie) in the New Testament, revealed that the Leiden Translation was a product of so-called 'old-school modernism' [oud-modernisme], which quickly went out of favour in the early twentieth century. Being thus already outmoded when it was published, the Leiden Translation failed to find general acceptance among those for whom it was intended. |
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| ISSN: | 2665-9484 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Trajecta
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