As image-bearers of God, we are almost constantly communicating. Each day, we send and receive thousands of signals (verbal or non-verbal) to those around us. Encoded in each message sent are references to contextual information shared by both the sender and receiver of the message. Since God communicated his written Word through humans, we should expect contextual information in the Bible that was shared between the ancient author and reader. For Bible translation to be done well, the translator must be familiar with the ancient context of Scripture.
For effective communication to occur, both the sender and the receiver of the message must agree on the meaning of the message. Where there is lack of agreement or understanding, communication fails.
To agree on the meaning of a message, both sender and receiver must share certain background information. Much of what enables communication to occur lies beneath the surface in the shared context and worldview of the communicators. Though each culture has its own set of beliefs, values, and history that shape how communication occurs in each setting, one thing remains the same: all human communication contains and presupposes background information – and lots of it.
As Hill states in Translating the Bible into Action, “The amount of background information that people need to understand a text is far greater than the amount of information contained in the text itself.”[1] What applies to written communication extends equally to verbal communication. Living cross-culturally, I have often overheard a conversation in which I could understand the words being used but because of my lack of cultural and historical knowledge (i.e. background knowledge) of my adopted culture, I failed to understand the meaning of what was being said.
To use a biblical example, Psalm 91 presupposes much about the demonic realm that may not be shared with modern Western culture. Four dangers are mentioned in Psalm 91:5-6, at least some of which may refer to demons feared by the ancient reader.[2] For most Westerners, such an understanding does not come naturally due to various cultural factors at play in the West. But whether it's a person living in the West or a mother-tongue Bible translator whose worldview overlaps to a large degree with the ancient biblical worldview, such information is vital to correctly understanding and conveying the intended meaning of the passage.
For effective communication to occur, both the sender and receiver of the message must share certain contextual or background information. Since our context as 21st-century readers of Scripture does not always overlap with the biblical culture, when we read Scripture, we must seek to understand that context to whatever extent possible. The challenge for Bible translators is to accurately understand the message of Scripture in order to translate that message accurately into other languages.
— MN
[1] Margaret Hill and Harriet Hill, Translating the Bible into Action: How the Bible Can Be Relevant in All Languages and Cultures, p.26.
[2] Douglas R. Frayne and Johanna H. Stuckey in A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East: Three Thousand Deities of Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam, p.471, lists “Terror of the Night,” as a demon of the ancient world.