A Practical Consideration and Typology of Cases of a Single Greek Word Being Translated by Multiple Russian Words in the Synodal Translation of the New Testament

The author of the present article considers several cases of one Greek work being translated by a cluster of two or more Russian words. Over 1000 examples of such cases can be found. These cases are considered within the context of the general theory of biblical translation and general questions regarding the language of the Synodal translation of the New Testament. The examples are classified in four different groups. The term “translation equivalent” is used, the properties of which are defined by its phonetic, morphological, and semantic characteristics. The use of “translation equivalents” allows the author to not only identify characteristic traits of the language of the Synodal translation of the New Testament, but also to identify changes in semantics of the original lexical units that occur during translation. The analysis of cases where such changes occur demonstrates that such discrepancies should not be seen as errors of the Synodal translation, but rather are the result of different linguistic properties of the original language and the language of translation. The understandability and semantic equivalence of this translation can be explained, in most cases, by the sufficiency of its translation equivalents.