Translating the Sacred

This article discusses the translation of the Bible, the Qur'an, and Buddhist texts. The Septuagint is a Jewish Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The Vulgate is a Christian Latin translation of the whole Bible, i.e. Old and New Testaments. Large numbers of new English versions have appeared in the twentieth century, following different theories of translation. Since 1800, the Bible has been translated into versions of widely spoken languages. Muslims have been reluctant to admit that there are any non-Arabic loanwords in the Qur'an, although Western scholars have argued otherwise. In English, the closest to a 'classic' translation of the Qur'an is that of George Sale. Translations of Indian Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into Chinese began about ad 150, and continued until about 1050. Translations into Tibetan began in about the seventh century. Finally, this article gives examples of translation from the Bible and the Qur'an.