A few days ago I released chapter 5 and 6. Unfortunately the “from” – address they were sent from was accidentally set on my private yahoo-mail and not the specific gmail set up for this project. Because of this anyone who tried to reply to it to give feedback got an error message. Yahoo doesn’t work well with mailchimp.
Most of you contacted me in other ways, or found the gmail address from previous mails, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I am slowly learning mailchimp as I go, and I will make sure in the future to make sure the correct “from” – address is configured.
When it comes to names of people and places, it is often tricky on whether to “translate” it or keep the original. Most people are used to “Jesus, Peter, John and James”. In my book I try to use the Greek versions as they appear in the original New Testament “Jesus, Petrus, Johannes and Jacob”, or translating back to the Hebrew/Aramaic originals “Yeshua, Kefa, Yochanan and Ya’akov”. I use the Greek or Hebrew depending on who is talking. These last two chapters were the first ones from a Roman soldiers point of view, so the Greek or Latin names were used.
However. I can’t do this “all the way”. In some cases I will translate to the known English version, for the case of simplicity. I will for example say Jerusalem rather than Hierosolyma or Yerushalayim. I will say Jeremiah and Ezekiel rather than Yirmiyahu and Yechezkel. And of course – the first chapter will use the English names exclusively, as its purpose is specifically to draw in the reader and connect my book directly to the New Testament.
In chapter 5 and 6 the Romans mention different regions. At one point they mention Britain, which I translated to English rather than keep the Roman “Britannia”. But when they speak of the barbarian tribes they say “Germania,” not Germany. One of the people who gave feedback reacted on that.
It’s always a judgement call whether to translate or not. I think however that translating Britain is defendable as the region is pretty much the same as the one we mean today with the same word, plus English really is the original here. “Germania” on the other hand is basically referring to almost all areas east of the Rhine river, and is not equivalent to “Germany” of today. It felt more appropriate to keep the Latin name of that.
Some may also have noted that people like Vespasian and Titus have also kept their Anglisized names rather than using their real names Titus Vespasianus Flavius and his son Titus Vespasianus Flavius. They had the exact same name. History books have decided to call one of them Vespasian and the other Titus just to keep them apart, and I retained it in my book, even though it’s not historically accurate. Both would be addressed as Vespasianus by others and as Titus by close friends only.
What do you think? Have I kept a good balance, or should I translate more names? Keep more names original? Let me know what you think.
Edit: I did eventually decide to switch from Britain to Britannia. Thanks to everyone who pitched in with their opinions.
Next friday chapter 7 and 8 are coming up.
Tuvia Pollack - writer 