Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch – Die Gute Nachricht des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2018.
Translation approach: communicative translation into modern language; many poetic passages translated poetically
Translation by committee or single individual: committees consisting of translators, theologians, and journalists
Dates of publication and revision(s): 1968, 1971, 1997, 2003, 2018
Confession: Interconfessional (Protestant / Catholic) (from 1971)
Publisher: Württembergische Bibelanstalt / Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
Publisher statement: die-bibel.de/gute-nachricht-bibel (German)
Online edition: die-bibel.de/bibel/GNB
The Hebrew of Isaiah 5:7 employs a word play with “justice” and “bloodshed” (mišpāṭ — miśpāḥ) and “righteousness” and “cry” (liṣḏāqāh — ṣə‘āqāh) that the German common language version (Die Gute Nachricht, 1982) is able to replicate:
Er hoffte auf Rechtsspruch
— und erntete Rechtsbruch,
statt Liebe und Treue
nur Hilfeschreie.
Source: John Ellington in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 301ff.
See also poetry in Isaiah 5:1-6.
Amos 5.5 provides another case [of a word play]. The word from God to his people is:
“For Gilgal will surely go into exile (haggilgal galon yigleh)
and Bethel will become nothing (bet-‘el yihyeh le’aven).”
The poet plays on the sound of both place names. With “Gilgal” Amos uses the infinitive form galoh plus the imperfect form of the same root
yigleh. With “Bethel” he reverses the order of the consonants ‘aleph and lamed so that bet-‘el becomes le’aven, the “House of God” becomes “nothing.” (Source: P.R. Raabe in The Bible Translator 2000, p. 201ff. ).
The German Gute Nachricht (Good News) translation (2018 revision) uses a different, but also very effective word play by alliterating “Bet-El” with “Bettelstab” (“beggar’s staff) and “Gilgal” with “Galgen” (“gallows”):
Geht nicht nach Bet-El; denn Bet-El muss an den Bettelstab! Geht auch nicht nach Gilgal; denn Gilgal muss an den Galgen! (“Don’t go to Bet-El, for Bet-El must take up a beggar’s staff! Nor go to Gilgal, for Gilgal must go to the gallows!”)
The Greek that is often translated as “deacon” in English is translated as kavumbi in Chokwe, someone “who serves another, not from compulsion or for a wage, but because of vumbi or grace.” (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )
A number of English translations (Revised Standard Version 1952, Phillips 1958, Jerusalem Bible 1966 and its later revisions, Lattimore 1982, La Bible de Communautés Chrétiennes 1994, Christian Community Bible 1997, The Orthodox New Testament 2004, and New Catholic Bible 2019) use the feminine form deaconess in Romans 16:1. This can also be found in some French translations (La Bible Du Semeur 1992, Louis Segond 1910, and Nouvelle Edition de Genève) as well as the majority of Spanish, Italian, and German versions (French:diaconesse, Spanish: diaconisa, Italian: diaconessa, German: Diakonisse).
One French translation (La Bible Du Semeur) and a couple of German translations (BasisBibel 2021 and Gute Nachricht Bibel 1968 / 2018) also use the feminine form of deacon in 1 Timothy 3:11 (for a discussion on this, see Translation commentary on 1 Timothy 3:11).
The Hebrew poetry in Eccl. 6:4-5 is translated by the German Gute Nachricht Bibel (last rev. 2018) in poetic form:
»Als ein Nichts kommt sie,
in die Nacht geht sie,
namenlos und vergessen.
Das Sonnenlicht sieht sie nicht,
was Leben ist, weiß sie nicht;
doch Ruhe hat sie gefunden.«
(Literal translation:
“She comes as a nothing,
she goes into the night,
nameless and forgotten.
She doesn’t see the sunlight,
She doesn’t know what life is;
but she has found peace.”)
The syllable count of the lines is 5-5-7-7-7-7 and lines 1 and 2 as well as lines 4 and 5 rhyme. Lines 2 and 6 don’t rhyme but provide an interesting counter-balance with the words vergessen (“forgotten”) and gefunden (“found”).
Source: Jan P. Sterk in OPTAT 1989/1, p. 36ff.
The word play in the Hebrew original between “shaqed” (translated in most English versions as “almond tree”) of Jeremiah 1:11 and “shoqed” (translated in most English versions as “watching”) in Jeremiah 1:12 is reproduced in the German Good News translation (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) of 1982 with Wacholderzweig (“juniper branch”) and wache (“watch”). Accompanying the translation is a note, indicating that the literal translation would be Mandelbaum (“almond tree”), which they point out is the first to bloom in the spring, giving the appearance not to have slept. Then they explain that just as Hebrew has a play on words between “shaqed” and “shoqed,” so also they have made a play on words between Wacholder and wachen in their translation.
See also almond.
Das Wortspiel im hebräischen Oiginal zwischen "shaqed" (zu deutsch "Mandelbaum") in Jer. 1.11 und "shoqed" (zu deutsch "sehen", "schauen") in Jer 1.12 wird von der Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch von 1982 mit "Wacholderzweig" and "wache" nachgebildet. Die Übersetzung wird von folgender Fußnote begleitet: "Der Mandelbaum blüht im Frühjahr als erster und scheint im Winter sozusagen gar nicht 'geschlafen' zu haben." Dann wird erklärt, dass das hebräische Wortspiel dem deutschen Wortspiel zwischen "Wacholder" und "wachen" Vorbild war.
Translator: Jost Zetzsche
The Hebrew in 1 Samuel 20:30 that is translated often very carefully in English as “You son of a rebellious woman” or the like is translated is some common language translations from around the world much more directly. Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia Masa Kini: Anak haram jadah! or “You bastard!”, German Gute Nachricht Bibel: Du Bastard! or “You bastard!”, or Mandarin Chinese Today’s Chinese Version: Nǐ zhè chùshēng (你這畜生!) or “You beast!” (this is also used in Yue Chinese (Cantonese)). (See also Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 20:30)
The Greek in 1 Corinthians 4:20 that is translated “not on talk but on power” or similar in English is translated with a alliteration in the Spanish Biblia Dios Habla Hoy (“no es cuestión de palabras, sino de poder“) and the French Parole de Vie (“pas une affaire de paroles mais de puissance“). An early version of the German Gute Nachricht also had an alliteration with “Wort” and “Wirkung” (source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1978, p. 225ff. )
The Hebrew weight measure in Judges 6:19 that is translated as “ephah of flour” is translated in the German Gute Nachricht translation (last rev. 2018) as ein Backtrog voll Mehl or “a kneading trough full of flour.” (Source: The Bible Translator 1998, p. 215ff. )
The same term (Backtrog) is also used in Deuteronomy 28:5, Deuteronomy 28:17, Exodus 12:34, and Exodus 8:3, translating the Hebrew mishereth (מִשְׁאֶרֶת).