Book Review: Translating the Bible in Plain Language: The Story of the Dutch Bijbel in Gewone Taal by de Jong Matthijs J.

Abstract

This book, originally published in Dutch, describes the making of the 2014 Dutch translation Bijbel in Gewone Taal (“The Bible in plain language”; Netherlands Bible Society). The translation was done in seven years by a group of twelve translators. The book sets out by claiming somewhat boldly that the Bijbel in Gewone Taal (BGT) is “the clearest translation of the Bible ever made in Dutch” (vii). As the title of the book already suggests, a defining feature of BGT is its use of plain language, that is, language that uses “well-known words” (27), and which may thus be understood by an average reader. Presumably, the effect of this is that BGT can be more easily understood by the average reader compared to older Dutch translations, since these either are less idiomatic or tend to have a higher rate of theological or typically “biblical” language. This book therefore claims that BGT presents something fundamentally new to the Dutch public. Chapter 1 is a presentation of the general ideas behind BGT. The chapter outlines the main principle of the translation, which is described as “the norm of clarity and comprehensibility” (16; emphasis removed). Chapter 2 consists of a number of arguments for the use of plain language. This includes a thorough discussion and definition of what plain language is, and of how to use it. Departing from contemporary linguistic research, the author states that plain language is not something subjective, but that it can be objectively and statistically defined. In its essence, plain language