ABSTRACT
The Bible is literature, that kind of writing which attends to beauty, power and memorability as well as to exposition. It is like a rich chord compared to a single note. …The Bible requires profound attention to style when it is translated ... [W]hen the original is beautiful, its beauty must shine through the translation; when it is stylistically ordinary, this must be apparent. (Hargreaves 1993: 137-138)
Over the past few decades, a wide array of studies have supported the claim in the above quote: the Bible is literature.2 Far less attention has
been given to translating the Bible as literature.3 This chapter is offered as an encouragement to translators to work at having the literary nature of biblical texts ‘shine through the translation’.
